Which is the most heavily traveled commuter road: River Road, Wisconsin Avenue, Connecticut Avenue or Georgia Avenue?
– A reader in Chevy Chase
The answer varies depending on which section of which roads you’re looking at.
Also, it’s important to note a higher traffic count doesn’t automatically make a particular section of road among the most congested—though data from the state of Maryland and Montgomery County Planning Department show some of the county’s most congested intersections are unsurprisingly near some of the spots with highest traffic volumes.
To answer the question of which is the most heavily traveled road, we looked at the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) 2015 Traffic Volume Maps by County, the most recently available data for major commuter routes such as River Road and Wisconsin, Connecticut and Georgia avenues.
The SHA’s Data Services Engineering Division’s Traffic Monitoring System collects and processes traffic counts with counters placed for 48 hours beginning on a Monday or Tuesday and ending on a Thursday or Friday, according to the 2015 report. The resulting count is a number the state says represents the road section’s annual average daily traffic.
Of the four roads you asked about, the one with the highest average daily traffic inside the Capital Beltway was Connecticut Avenue just south of the Beltway exit, with an average daily traffic total of 65,822 vehicles.
At Connecticut Avenue and East West Highway, the average daily traffic total was 47,352 vehicles. At the Washington, D.C., line, the number was 42,552 vehicles.
Rockville Pike (which becomes Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda) also sees big vehicle counts just south of the Beltway and I-270 exits near its intersection with Pooks Hill Road.
That section saw a daily average of 62,890 vehicles, according to the SHA data, followed by a section of Rockville Pike less than a mile south that saw 55,700 vehicles.
According to a 2014 report by the county Planning Department, the nearby intersection of Cedar Lane and Rockville Pike is the most congested in the county. That makes sense when you consider the amount of traffic coming off the Beltway and I-270 in that spot and headed toward downtown Bethesda, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or Naval Support Activity Bethesda (NSAB), and Washington, D.C.
Once Rockville Pike becomes Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda, the average daily traffic totals drop to between 32,500 and 38,260 vehicles.
Traffic volume map via State Highway Administration. Click to enlarge.
River Road saw the most vehicles daily just east of its Beltway exit, with 45,312. The average daily traffic total stays relatively flat near River Road’s intersection with Goldsboro Road, measuring 44,622 vehicles. The total drops off farther east, with 31,701 vehicles recorded near River Road and Little Falls Parkway and 20,582 vehicles recorded near River Road and Willard Avenue.
Georgia Avenue had the lowest daily average for vehicle traffic out of the four roads inside the Beltway, with 37,790 vehicles counted just south of its intersection with 16th Street, 38,432 vehicles near the center of downtown Silver Spring and 31,182 at the D.C. line.
Things aren’t so great on Georgia Avenue outside the Beltway, however. Average daily vehicle counts showed 61,610 vehicles at Georgia Avenue and Forest Glen Road, just north of the Beltway and near the Forest Glen Metro station.
Average daily counts totaled 62,040 vehicles on Georgia Avenue closer to Wheaton and 58,560 just south of the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road near the center of Wheaton.
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