Yesterday the consultants for Rockville’s Pike: Envision a Great Place made their first report to the community and it concerned land use and transportation.
First we had an overview of the results from the last Stakeholder Workshop where participants decided what was good and bad about Rockville Pike. All of the red and green stick
ers for each topic of discussion (living, walking, appearance, commercial areas, and driving & parking) were combined onto one map “Good Places, Bad Places”. Most places were not completely good or bad. The exceptions were that every intersection was rated badly, as well as almost all of the east side of the Pike from Richard Montgomery Drive to Halpine Avenue. People pointed out that when you ride on the metro, you see the backs of the east side buildings, and they wondered if this is the image of Rockville we want everyone to have.
Troy Russ of Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin provided an upbeat and light-hearted explanation about transportation. When he goes into a community, the people almost always complain about traffic and he’ll find that there might be some merit. However, our complaints here in Rockville are completely justified. Even before he stepped foot in our community, he knew we had congestion on the Pike because it is too limiting to have only six access intersections for 2.2 miles. On Saturdays there are spectacular traffic failures in every direction. The weekday profile indicates that the Pike is operating at its maximum efficiency. Mornings have 2,000 southbound commuter vehicles between the 7-8 AM rush hour, which the County moves through with light timing. However, in the evening between 5–6 PM, there are more vehicles (2,500) going northbound because the stores are open. The higher volume combined with the pressure to get people in and out of the retail establishments creates traffic difficulties. Since the Pike is a suburban corridor, the traffic does not let up at midday as people continue to shop, eat, and work throughout the day.
The most important message from the traffic consultants is that the Pike is not safe. The Pike is above average for crash ratings. Most accidents occur when vehicles are rear-ended while turning. The Pike is designed to be a high speed (45 mph) road, but it also has shopping, which makes it a confused, arterial road. There were 20 pedestrian accidents involving right turns. Mr. Russ is a runner and he could see the fear in driver’s eyes as they would decide to either run him over or be rear-ended.
Gianni Longo of ACP vision + planning described the current land use for the study area. The diversity of the size of 
the developments results in a lack of coherence in the appearance. It’s suburban in that most parcels have a single use. Where it is zoned for mixed-use, offices are next to stores not vertical. Healthy neighborhoods surround the Pike without access because of the railways and Woodmont Country Club. People will walk about a ¼ mile but most of the Pike is not close enough to the metro stops. The sidewalks are too small (3 ft. instead of 6 ft.) and the efforts to protect the sidewalks from traffic have been sporadic.
The percentages of land use for the 410 acre study area are:
- 58% stores and offices
- 20% roads
- 12% residential (at the edges)
- 9% recreational (Woodmont Country Club)
- .01% open space
What are the consultants suggesting we can do about all this?
For land use, they viewed the Pike as three different sections: north, middle, and south. The northern most area is by the Rockville Metro and the new Town Center, so it is special and might benefit as an extension of downtown Rockville. The southern section might also be successful as a mixed-use area because of its proximity to the Twinbrook metro and the County’s plan to build residential/office developments in the bordering area.
As for transportation, there are a couple of possibilities. We could continue to throw community dollars at the road and make it five lanes etc. much the same as we have been doing with the same lack of success, or we could change the work hours of people by encouraging land uses that attract people at different times of the day. The real possibility suggested is to match the corridor to existing development and create a “community-based high speed street” or “urban boulevard”. Due to the 1989 zoning in which 80 ft. set backs were implemented for buildings, there is space in the south section to create a beautiful, stunning, high capacity, efficient boulevard which would be prominent, visible, and safe for pedestrians. This boulevard would have a cut through center road without the ability to make left turns and there would be access streets on the sides. The consultants showed pictures of successful versions of this type of boulevard in Berkeley, CA and Paris, France.
As we know, the City is currently working on ROZOR. Mr. Longo explained that the results of this process must be consistent with the new zoning. He explained that with the current zoning, we don’t know what we will get.
During the comment period, Mayor Hoffmann wanted to clarify what the consultants were suggesting instead of left turns. It would be jug handles but not like in New Jersey. “No offense to anyone from NJ.” I’m taking some offense because I know that much larger volumes of traffic are moved more efficiently in my home state than here in Montgomery County. Also, it was brought up that plans for the East Jefferson and Fleet Street extensions were stopped by the neighborhoods who did not want cut-through traffic. Although we know that we have a chronic lack of a street network for the Pike, this problem will be difficult to overcome because of the residents and Country Club on one side and our inability to build bridges over the train tracks on the other. The consultants thought we may be able to connect pedestrians and bikes at Twinbrook and in the north section but bridges would have to go where we could physically land them along the tracks.
At the end there was a concern expressed that all the written comments requested during this process are anonymous and that they shouldn’t be considered unless people sign them. Mayor Hoffmann responded that she didn’t agree because “A good idea is a good idea.” Even if you don’t attend these meetings, you can send along your comments through the City’s website and you should! What is most important to you -- the roadway, architecture, walking, biking, open space, landscaping, retail, access, public transportation or signage?
The next report from the consultants will be held on May 6, 2008.
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