On December 2, 2008, the Montgomery County Council approved $2 million in development and evaluation (D&E) funding for the new Forest Glen Metro entrance. The council also approved $3 million in D&E money for a redesign of Georgia Avenue between Forest Glen Road and 16th Street. These two projects are part of a funding package to jumpstart state transportation projects around the county totaling $51.2 million.
County Council Member George Leventhal, a member of the council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment (T&E) Committee, pushed hard to fund our project inside his committee. His work was indispensable to our cause. District 5 County Council Member Valerie Ervin appeared before the committee to make sure our project was included. Council Members Nancy Floreen (who is the T&E Chair), Marc Elrich and Duchy Trachtenberg are long-time supporters of the new Metro entrance and voted in favor of the funding along with the rest of the council.
All residents of our neighborhood owe a debt of gratitude to our friends on the County Council. The D&E funding is a necessary step to eventual construction of the project!
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On Thursday night, seven Forest Estates residents and the President of a nearby civic association testified in a block at the joint Senate- House state priorities hearing on the Georgia-Forest Glen intersection. We told 20 state legislators about the dangerous conditions we face crossing the intersection and asked for their help in building a new east-side Metro entrance. We have support for the project from the County Executive, a majority of the County Council and every state legislator from our district and are on the verge of getting county money for design. Thank you to Adam Pagnucco, Oscar Sodani, Doug Goldenberg-Hart, Jon Tucker, Alison Gillespie, Holly Olson, John Howley and North Hills of Sligo Creek President Mike Welsh for putting the issue front and center with the state legislators!  |
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For years, we have been telling anyone who would listen that Forest Glen Road and Georgia Avenue, while seemingly innocuous compared to some of the big name intersections in our county, is actually the most dangerous near a Metro stop. Now that Montgomery County is making its police information available online, via CrimeReports.com, we finally have the evidence to back up our claims. Our research on traffic accidents on CrimeReports.com has uncovered some truly remarkable data: Traffic Incidents within a 1-block radius of a Metro stop: (11/07-1/08)
| Rank | Metro Stop
| # of traffic incidents
| | 1 | Forest Glen
| 45
| | 2 | Wheaton | 27 | | 3 | Glenmont | 26 | | 4 | White Flint
| 23 | | 5 | Silver Spring
| 16 | | 6 | Medical Center
| 15 | | 7 | Bethesda | 11 | | 7 | Shady Grove
| 11 | | 7 | Twinbrook | 11 | | 10 | Grosvenor | 9 | | 11 | Rockville | 7 |
On average, we are talking about an accident every other day at this intersection. The other dangerous intersections near Metro have pedestrian overpasses or tunnels. Forest Glen does not. So WMATA asks its Forest Glen/Holy Cross hospital customers to walk through the most dangerous intersection near a Metro stop, without the pedestrian safety measures that other Metro stops are afforded. Seems backwards to us... |
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Want to see what this intersection is like, day in, day out? View the Crossing Georgia video by clicking one of the links below. You'll see how illegal left turns and gridlocked traffic are an everyday occurrence at Georgia Avenue. And you will see how it takes a normal healthy person the full amount of time to cross the intersection, leaving the elderly, mothers with strollers, and pregnant women to have to scramble for their lives. Considering this intersection is the closest major artery to Holy Cross Hospital, this point cannot be overstated. What is most amazing is that it took us only two 10-minute sessions to record all of the footage used in this video (except for the bus scene). It's all we needed to chronicle the constant problems at this intersection.
View the video (Small) : Windows Media or Quicktime View the video (Large) : Windows Media or Quicktime |
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