After at least five years of lobbying, a community in Chevy Chase will get a new crosswalk on the busy “Green Mile” stretch of Wisconsin Avenue.
At its annual meeting on Nov. 18, the Chevy Chase West Neighborhood Association announced the State Highway Administration will install a crosswalk on Wisconsin Avenue at Chevy Chase Boulevard, about halfway between the existing crosswalks at Bradley Lane and Dorset Avenue.
Residents in Chevy Chase West and other neighborhoods along the Green Mile have been asking for more crosswalks since at least 2008, when they made it a recommendation in their Traffic Plan. A golf course on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue means there is no development or housing there, but there are four bus stops that many said were basically inaccessible.
The SHA plans to build the crosswalk next year as part of its controversial sidewalk project, according to the neighborhood group. It will include pedestrian-activated flashing lights over the six-lane road to alert drivers to crossing pedestrians. There will also be a pedestrian refuge on the median. The flashing lights on each side of the road will need to be activated individually.
In a separate project, the SHA will install two similar crosswalks on Bradley Boulevard between Wisconsin Avenue and Hillandale Road. This will allow Chevy Chase residents living south of Bradley to more easily access downtown Bethesda.
The crosswalks there (see a PDF of the design below) will have pedestrian-activated “high intensity beacons” to signal to drivers. The project manager says construction is likely to start by summer of next year.
