[RP TownTalk] Traffic Concerns

[Andrew Farrington]

Dead-ending Lafayette and closing East Beale Circle, while they might help 
with our 'cut through' traffic issues, would also make getting around much 
harder for us townies.

I take East Beale Circle to get onto 410 east every morning and in fact 
90% of the time I leave my house in a car.  I turn right from Lafayette 
onto Queensbury across the tracks a little less often now -- only on the 
afternoons that I do not pick up my daughter from school -- but it used to 
be every afternoon.

The "hassle factor" in my own life, for one, would be significantly 
greater if these particular ideas were enacted, than it would be if 
nothing were done at all.

  -Andrew Farrington
4605 Queensbury Road


On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Rob Oppenheim wrote:

> I appreciated hearing your thoughts about traffic/pedestrian concerns at 
> the Railroad crossing/Queensbury/Lafayette intersection, and I look 
> forward to hearing more. If we are to connect our town center commercial 
> areas we need this to be very pedestrian friendly - and currently, it is 
> not (at least not when crossing Lafayette or Queensbury).   This rail 
> road crossing is identified as one of the 10 most dangerous crossings in 
> the state of Maryland (It has a high fatal accident prediction factor, 
> ref: http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/Content/803 ). We have been pretty lucky 
> so far.   We are working to improve the safety of this intersection. 
> With improved gates, lighting and possibly curbs.
>
> One fairly common accident there is a car will get stuck on the tracks 
> because they turn onto the tracks thinking they are turning onto 
> Lafayette Street. 
>
> Here is a wild idea, that is not thought thru, but still might work. If 
> we make Lafayette one-way north from Riverdale Rd to Queensbury, then we 
> could simplify the intersection and break people of the habit of turning 
> south (and thus reduce the incidence of turning onto the tracks).
>
> As Sarah suggested we dead-end the north side of Lafayette at Queensbury 
> and route that traffic onto Natoli. This might dramatically improve the 
> safety of the RR crossing and make it easier to install nice pedestrian 
> crossing lanes. Perhaps that would allow us to add some on-street 
> parking to Lafayette too. Ideally we would dead-end Lafayette on both 
> sides of Queensbury, but then we would have a problem with the Fire 
> Station's "Do No Enter" at Queensbury and 48th Ave (this traffic 
> currently must go down Riverdale Rd and up Lafayette to get across the 
> tracks).   The fire station has a serious problem with traffic backing 
> up and blocking their trucks. That is why the "Do Not Enter" sign is at 
> Queensbury and 48th Ave during morning rush hours. This needs to be 
> extended to weekends, and I am beginning to think it maybe should be 
> 24x7. That is, make Queensbury from Natoli Pl to 48th Ave one-way 
> (except for emergency vehicles). This would really take our streets back 
> from a lot of the cut-through traffic and make the area more pedestrian 
> friendly.   In any case, all these ideas need more flushing out.   
> Unfortunately I will miss the Feb 15th safety meeting as I will be out 
> of town. Sounds like it could be a good meeting with lots of ideas.
>
> As many of you know, I have been urging that we open West Beale circle 
> (to encourage cut thru traffic to run by shops) and to consider closing 
> East Beale circle (to make it safer for pedestrians and residents).
>
> There are safety concerns for cars turning onto E-W highway from West 
> Beale circle, but that should not be any more dangerous then what they 
> do now - turn onto E-W highway from East Beale circle.  
>
> Rob Oppenheim
>  
> Ward One Councilman, Riverdale Park
> 5902 Cleveland Ave
> Riverdale Park, Md 20737-1930
>  
> Home Office: 301 779 1745
>  
>