Dozens of residents on Saturday urged local and county officials to move more quickly to improve traffic safety on the county’s plan to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030.
The topic was examined on Saturday during a town hall session in Rockville with state and local officials.
With the county’s total of pedestrian fatalities for 2019 hitting 14 over the past week, resident after resident stood up to speak passionately on the need to address safety issues with roads, sidewalks and intersections that pose a threat to pedestrian and cyclists throughout the county.
Organized by County Council Member Evan Glass, the session on the county’s Vision Zero plan was held at the end of a week with two traffic deaths and one serious injury.
An 81-year-old woman was killed when she was hit by a vehicle while crossing her street outside her apartment in Silver Spring. A 9-year-old student was fatally injured when she was struck by a school bus in Bethesda. A Walter Johnson High School student was critically injured when he was hit by a car as he crossed a street to catch a school bus.
Glass, who scheduled the session before the week’s incidents occurred, somberly greeted the crowd filling the council’s meeting room to talk about an “epidemic” that seems to be getting worse. Behind him on the dais sat a state transportation official and others representing Montgomery County Public Schools and the county’s health, transportation and police departments.
Posters that each bore a photo of a pedestrian who died over the past year leaned against the front of the dais.
“When we send our kids to school every day, the goal is for them to learn and we shouldn’t have to worry about their life or health while they’re going to the school bus or getting off of the school bus at the end of the day, but that is the reality that we’re facing right now,” Glass said. “That is why we’re here today to talk about how we fix these problems to make our community safer for everybody whether they are elementary school students, whether they are seniors — and for the 1.1 million residents of Montgomery County, how we make our roadways safer for pedestrians, for bicyclists, for drivers, for everybody.”
Glass noted that county officials set an ambitious agenda by developing a 41-point Vision Zero plan two years ago. While agreeing that some progress has been made, Glass and some council members who attended the hearing joined residents in urging county leaders and state transportation officials to move more quickly to implement engineering solutions that will make roads safer for all users.
“We are behind on our Vision Zero plan. There’s no question about it,” Council Member Hans Riemer said, noting the “county is not on track” with the plan. “So your advocacy today will hopefully push the executive branch and the council to make it a priority. Safety has to be the first priority and the second priority.”
Though determined to make changes, county and state transportation officials acknowledged that making roads safer in a car-centric environment through improved infrastructure and engineering changes will take time and money.
Peter Sotherland of the State Highway Administration said the agency is proposing to change its longstanding approach to designing roads and intersections to one that considers land use and the context of a given area. “We’re not going to be using the same tools we know that are not working,” he said.
Chris Conklin, director of the county’s transportation department, noted that the county has made progress on its Vision Zero goals, as evidenced by the collaboration between the officials attending the session.
“To turn the tide on this is difficult and it’s frustrating and there are roadblocks and obstacles and we are working really hard to turn the tide on this,” he said. “That was not the case two or three years ago; we were all working this issue in our own ways, not collaborating, not coordinating.”
Still, “transportation is inherently risky. We have physics here coupled with a large dose of human behavior. Those two things don’t go that well together,” Conklin said.
Efforts focused on education — such as reminding pedestrians not to wear dark colors at night — and enforcement are more likely to produce results in the short term, officials said.
Many residents spoke of their personal experiences navigating the county on foot, on a bicycle or driving a car. Some pushed for better enforcement of traffic laws and more community education, so that drivers understand laws prohibiting passing a stopped school bus and requiring a motorist to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
Referencing the posters leaning against the dais, one man noted that his wife nearly avoided ending up on such a poster after a recent encounter with a car while she was cycling.
“We, too, need to educate our community and fix our community,” he said. “It’s a culture. People don’t care when they drive and it’s ridiculous. I don’t know how we’re gonna fix it. I’m willing to help. We’re all willing to help.”
