The “think of the children” chorus is off key.
Opponents of the Purple Line are speaking out about an extreme hazard (they say) that the light rail will pose to their children. Save the Trail has the dangers of all forms of rail to pedestrians as a strong thread on the website. The safety issue was raised by Purple Line opponents at the October 21 B-CC MTA Focus Group Meeting. They argued that children would be forced to cross the Purple Line tracks on one of the most popular routes to school from the Town of Chevy Chase, and that this could never be acceptable.
the Town of Chevy Chase.
See Gmaps Pedometer for a larger interactive view.
The neighborhood route at issue is from Lynn Drive in the Town of Chevy Chase to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. A local pathway crosses the Interim CCT on that route now, and the MTA Purple Line conceptual design keeps that pathway but with an at-grade crossing of the light rail tracks. It is the only at-grade pedestrian crossing proposed on the Purple Line between Bethesda and Lyttonsville that is not at a light rail station.
Safety at light rail crossings deserves to be taken seriously. But we need to look this crossing in the context of what is there now to understand how safety will be changed overall.
Children using the neighborhood route from Lynn Drive to B-CC High School must cross the (future) light rail tracks. But they also must then cross six lanes of motor vehicle traffic on East-West Highway using a series of three crosswalks. The first crosswalk, shown in front of the Riviera House above, has no pedestrian crossing light and crosses the two lanes of heavy traffic that is going around the curve.
Children do not have to leave the trail to be put at risk by busy highways. Children using the Interim CCT/Georgetown Branch Trail to go east from Chevy Chase toward Rock Creek Park must cross another busy state highway at grade.
The crossing of Connecticut Avenue shown above is only one of the six-lane state highways the Georgetown Branch Trail crosses at-grade between Bethesda and downtown Silver Spring. Purple Line NOW! shows another at-grade trail highway crossing at The Purple Line will make the CCT safer. And these are not the only trail crossings of busy roads. The on-road section of the Georgetown Branch Trail in Silver Spring crosses another four major streets at lights, and crosses numerous smaller neighborhood streets at stop signs.
Compare what is there now with what is proposed with the Purple Line.
Source: Purple Line AA/DEIS at www.purplelinemd.com
The Trail will be rebuilt alongside light rail between Bethesda and Silver Spring as a full width paved shared use trail with grade separated crossings of all of the major roadways. The dangerous on-road section of the Georgetown Branch Trail in Silver Spring will be replaced with a much safer off-road trail. The trail will be separated from the transit tracks by a combination of vertical and horizontal separation, plantings, fences and/or retaining walls. Fences and and/or retaining walls will discourage children from attempting to cross the tracks between the formal crossing points.
MTA engineers at the B-CC focus group meeting stated that they will work closely with the neighborhoods to design safe crossings. For this crossing at the Town of Chevy Chase they suggested a combination of a physical barrier to prevent pedestrians from entering the crossing without slowing and turning, and pedestrian signal lights and signs that warn of approaching transit vehicles. The neighborhoods will be consulted as the crossing design is improved during preliminary design.
Rails-to-Trails has studied trail at-grade rail crossings and has found these crossings have an excellent safety record. Their 2005 study is available online, A Preliminary Assessment of Safety and Grade Crossings (pdf). They point out that pedestrians and cyclists on trails are much safer at rail crossings than other modes.
and Grade Crossings”
The Rails-to-Trails report examines the many tools available to designers to make these crossings safe, including warning systems with either automatic or manually operated gates.
Source: “Rails-to-Trails “A Preliminary Assessment of Safety
and Grade Crossings”
Design for safety must be taken seriously. But as Purple Line NOW! notes at their webpage:
“Every year nearly 700 cyclists and 5,000 pedestrians are struck and killed by motor vehicles. Contrast those numbers with the approximately 20 pedestrians or passengers fatalities caused by light-rail each year.”
The “think of the children” chorus is far off key. The CCT will be safer overall when rebuilt alongside the Purple Line than it is today. Children walking to school will continue to face more danger crossing the busy streets in Bethesda than they will face crossing the Purple Line tracks. Child safety advocates looking for a safe route to school should pay more attention to how their children cross East-West Highway now.