Thursday, August 28, 2014

QUICK! MOCO WANTS YOUR OPINION ON GOLDSBORO RD. BIKE PROJECT - IN 24 HOURS!

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation's Division of Transportation Engineering (DTE) has selected a "preferred alternative" for the Goldsboro Road Pedestrian and Bicycle Project in Bethesda. It is now soliciting public comment on the proposal - but made the announcement in a press release only 48 hours before the deadline for public comment. The deadline is Friday, August 29, 2014 (unclear if that is close-of-business, or midnight).

While the selected option took into account previous public input on the possible alternatives, 48 hours seems hardly enough time for the public to engage on this matter. The press release does not even say exactly how one is to provide feedback, but gives a telephone number (240.777.7279) and email for the project's manager, Greg Hwang. I've communicated with Mr. Hwang before on other projects in the county, and found him to be very helpful, so I'm sure he can point you in the right direction.

43 people attended a December meeting on the proposed facilities, and 61 out of 65 submitted comments endorsed one of the possible designs, according to the MCDOT. It is unclear how many of the 61 endorsed Alternate 2, which is the one chosen by DTE.

Alternate 2 (as illustrated above - click the image to enlarge) will provide two 11-foot automobile lanes, one 5' to 5.5' bike lane in each direction, one 5' sidewalk along the northern side of Goldsboro with a green buffer in-between it and the road, some similar sidewalk segments along the southern side, and street lighting. The design will only apply to the portion of Goldsboro Road between River Road and MacArthur Boulevard. A separate bike facility upgrade has been underway along MacArthur for some time, which included a recent striping of lanes, crosswalks and bike lanes near Glen Echo.

Overall, it sounds like a good plan. My only question would be, can we measure what the stormwater runoff impact of the added sidewalk pavement will be on the Minnehaha Branch stream, which flows alongside Goldsboro Road?

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