Can signals lights solve backups at Burnt Mills Shopping Center?

State says new signal pattern should relieve congestion outside Route 29 plaza

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette A long line of cars tries to exit the Burnt Mills Shopping Center for Route 29 during Friday afternoon rush hour.

For several months since the shopping center opened in late May, residents and community activists had expressed concerns about the traffic lights, located at the 10700 block of Colesville Road. Bad coordination between traffic lights has led to backups along Route 29, and made it more difficult for traffic to enter from side roads.

‘‘Since that light has been put in, traffic going north has backed up all the way to the University Boulevard intersection,” said Dan Wallace, vice president of the Burnt Mills Citizens Association. ‘‘... We’re not going to know [the heaviest traffic situation] until summer is over and people come back for work and school.”

The State Highway Administration installed the lights as part of the design plan by Bethesda-based developers Finmarc Management, which built the plaza. Marc Solomon, director of Finmarc, said now that construction is complete, the congestion along the right-hand northbound lane should dissipate. The shopping center hosts a California Tortilla, Ritz Camera and cell phone provider, as well as a Trader Joe’s grocery store, which residents had made a high priority in their preferences.

Bill Corder, traffic supervisor at the Montgomery County Transportation Management Center, said a mixture of greater monitoring and better coordination between traffic lights have solved the problem for now.

‘‘In the first few weeks, we didn’t have all our detection hooked up,” he said. ‘‘Now we have metal detectors [for car lanes] and video cameras ... and we’ve worked at establishing new signal [patterns] at Burnt Mills Avenue, Lockwood Drive and Prelude Drive.”

According to Corder, the four consecutive signals have now been coordinated, so drivers will no longer speed away from one light only to be stopped farther down the road. The timing will need further tweaking, especially when the summer ends and people come back to work and school, Corder said.

Another issue is the access drive into the shopping center, which requires a hard 90-degree turn. When cars slow to make the turn, the whole right lane slows with them. Corder said a possible remedy could be a more gradual turn, which would require more space but would not slow the entire lane down.

‘‘We’ve argued for years that it doesn’t matter if it’s a small street, or a shopping center, you need to make the radius on corners larger, to let cars move a little more freely,” Corder said. ‘‘But there’s a negative to that, too: For the pedestrians crossing, cars might not slow down as much.”

The SHA, which installed the entrance and traffic lights to the developer’s specifications, is researching the feasibility of a more gradual turn, according to spokesman Chuck Gischlar.

‘‘[The traffic lights] became warranted because of the influx of traffic,” he said. ‘‘We’re researching some type of improvement to see whether it could be done ... it may be a bit tight.”

The SHA wants to eliminate all traffic signals along Route 29 between White Oak and Baltimore County, and the interchange projects farther north at Randolph Road, Briggs Chaney Road and Route 198 all feature overpasses. The traffic light at Burnt Mills Shopping Center is south of White Oak, so it does not fall into the scope of the interchange projects, according to SHA spokesman David Buck.

Other projects in the works

Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation also has plans for four projects in the eastern county, according to spokesman Tom Pogue.

The two longer-term projects include a $10.5 million project to widen Fairland Road to three lanes, and to install hiker-biker trails and pedestrian curbs from Route 29 to the Prince George’s County line. Building will begin in late 2006.

A $6.8 million project later this year will improve Briggs Chaney Road east of Route 29, making it a divided four-lane highway from Automobile Boulevard to Aston Manor Drive.

‘‘This project is very close to starting — we’re working with the contractor for reviews and traffic control plans,” Pogue said. ‘‘Drivers will likely see lane shifts, not lane closures, so although they may have to drive more slowly, there shouldn’t be any jams.”

Also later this year, a $2.8 million reconstruction project along Greencastle Road will widen the road, add a curb and provide lighting from the entrance of Fairland Park to Greencastle Ridge Terrace.

At the intersection of Old Columbia Pike and Perrywood Drive, a traffic circle is nearly complete. The $3.5 million project will allow traffic to continue moving at a low speed, instead of stopping and starting at a sudden acceleration. It is modeled on the roundabouts common in Europe, according to Pogue. Traffic may be re-routed but there would be no lane closures, Pogue said, and the project is expected to be complete within three months.

‘‘This is going to be one of our early roundabout projects,” Pogue said. ‘‘There’s less chance of a broadside accident, and pedestrians find them more manageable.”

However, not everyone is pleased. Donald Norton, president of the Perrywood Civic Association, faulted the county for failing to keep residents informed, and also doubted whether a roundabout would be safer than a four-way stop sign.

‘‘There have only been two accidents at that intersection, with no injuries and no fatalities,” he said. ‘‘How are large trucks and tractor-trailers or buses going to make the turn?”

The design does not include traffic islands, Norton said, which would place students crossing the roadway at risk. Currently, a crossing guard patrols mornings and afternoons, and the cars stop at the intersection for them.

‘‘You could put a four-way stop sign, or maybe run a [traffic] light there for 20 minutes a day, and everybody’s fine,” Norton said.

Pogue said he regretted that residents had not received adequate notification and said the DPWT tries to keep affected parties informed through newsletters and its Web site. However, he said the safety record for roundabouts is encouraging.

‘‘This, in our judgment, is an appropriate location to install a roundabout,” he said. ‘‘Nationally and internationally they have good records for safety and traffic flow.”