Mayor & City Council

PUBLIC COMMENT JUNE 13, 2023 23-G-95 To whom it may concern, The City should consider reducing the speed limit on Rhode Island Avenue between University Boulevard to Paducah Road from 35 to 25 MPH. Additionally, the City should consider adding along that route several Radar Speed Limit Signs WITH Cameras. Why? Because I have witnessed these worrisome situations (while the pedestrian crosswalks are activated): · Cars ignore pedestrians trying to cross the street. · Elderly residents are hesitant to cross the street even when the crosswalk light has been activated. I have seen a few even fall backwards in fear because the car(s) do not slow down nor stop. · Children trying to “beat” the cars while crossing the street and the crosswalk light has been activated. · Cars go around the cars in front of them while waiting for pedestrians to cross the street. · Cars racing on both lanes of Rhode Island Avenue like it was their personal racing track. As a resident who lives on the 9700 block of Rhode Island Avenue, I strongly encourage the City to keep its residents SAFE. It is upsetting and worrisome to see from my front window the different hazards my neighbors are experiencing while trying to cross the street. Irazema Fuentes. 23-G-95 Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2023 8:02 AM To: cpmc <cpmc@collegeparkmd.gov> Subject: Comment on June 13 agenda item 23-G-95 Dear College Park City Council, Thank you for considering reducing the Rhode Island Avenue speed limit. I support this proposed action. While Rhode Island Avenue carries considerable traffic through north College Park, it also is key to getting around our neighborhood via many modes. I drive, bike, job, and walk on, in, and around Rhode Island Avenue, and I think we need to ensure that, like all our streets, Rhode Island Avenue may be used—and crossed—safely. Vehicle speed is a particular problem at intersections and at crosswalks. Higher speed traffic can make it difficult and dangerous for neighborhood traffic to enter the roadway, thus diminishing the usefulness of Rhode Island Avenue to the neighborhood. Crosswalks are a particular problem: The consultant report notes the low percentages of vehicles that stop when the flashing warning lights are activated. I use these crosswalks often, as a pedestrian and as a jogger, and I frequently fear for my safety because so little traffic yields at them. Residents should be able to walk, jog, bike, and drive around their neighborhood safely, including on and across Rhode Island Avenue. So I support reducing the Rhode Island Avenue speed limit. Thank you. Todd Reitzel 9743 Narragansett Parkway College Park 23-G-95 Dear City Council, I am the owner of Proteus Bicycles & Brews, a business in the Hollywood Shopping Center. I bike, walk, and drive on Rhode Island Avenue (RIA). My primary form of transportation is bicycle. I strongly urge the City Council to support lowering the speed limit to 25 mph. It is clear from the October 2022 traffic study that motorists are going too fast and failing to yield at crosswalks. Since the pandemic has subsided, I believe that traffic is even heavier now. I ride in the RIA bike lanes several times a week. Here are some of my experiences and takeaways cycling on RIA: • Just last week as I was riding in the bike lane northbound from the light at 193, I was cut off by a motorist who eased into the bike lane and took a right turn directly in front of me. This would be less likely to happen with a protected bike lane. Please expedite the installation of bike lane protection. • I frequently use the crosswalk at Muskogee Street to travel Southbound on the RIA bike lanes. This is an even more dangerous crossing because the beg button is not next to the ramp. I have to walk to the pole to hit the button taking me away from the ramp/crosswalk, decreasing my visibility to motorists and making it more challenging to cross. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to cross for a less skilled, less confident cyclist, wheelchair user, or other less mobile vulnerable road user. Please install raised crosswalks. Move the Muskogee crosswalk to an orientation that lines up with the beg button (assuming the pole can't be moved). • Trolley Trail day was this past Saturday, June 10. We led about 25 riders southward from the Hollywood Shopping Center to Hyattsville. We had a mix of adults of different skill levels including a family with 2 children under age 10 who rode on their own bikes. The scariest part of the ride was crossing Muskogee and riding with a child on RIA. It was frightening for the child and the adults to be so close to the speeding vehicles. We quickly abandoned the road for the service road with the younger child. We still had to cross 193, improved but still dangerous since the State Highway Administration (SHA) made changes a few years ago. I have never felt more vulnerable on RIA than I did riding with that small child. Many folks living South of 193 have told me they will not ride bikes with their families on RIA. RIA and the 193 crossing are barriers to bike and pedestrian travel from Berwyn to North College Park. Lower speed limits and protected bike lanes will make RIA safer for less confident and less experienced bicyclists. I was a member of the stakeholders group that advised the consultants on bike lane design for Rhode Island Avenue. At that time I urged lowering the speed limit, adding raised crosswalks, narrowing lanes for motorists, and installing protected bike lanes. Rhode Island Avenue was a "county connector road" then, so the county declined to lower the speed limit and raise crosswalks. Now that the city owns the road, we have a perfect opportunity to make RIA safer for all road users - motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, locals, and visitors. If SHA can lower the speed limit on Baltimore Ave in Downtown College Park, certainly council can lower the speed limit and install traffic calming measures such as raised crosswalks and narrower traffic lanes on RIA. Once again, I strongly urge the City Council to support lowering the speed limit to 25 mph. Thank you, Laurie Lemieux President, J. D. Veloworks, Inc. Proteus Bicycles / Proteus Brews / Patuxent Adventure Center 9827 Rhode Island Ave College Park, MD 20740 301-441-2928 (office) 23-G-95 Mayor and Council Members, I wanted to try to help research some of the great points brought up last night at the Council Meeting. I recently read Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America and Walkable City. While I am not an expert in this field, I’m drawing heavily on ideas from these two books/experts to understand the best course of action for Rhode Island Ave’s speed limit. The status quo has always been too dangerous. I’d like to request that the risk of pedestrian injury or death at different speeds should be weighed more heavily during council's deliberations. At the current 35 mph the risk of serious injury when a pedestrian is struck is about 50% and risk of death is most of the other 50%. A person hit by a car traveling at 35 miles per hour is five times more likely to die than a person hit by a car traveling at 20 miles per hour. As a result of driver prioritized policy, the most likely pedestrian victims in America are people of color, disabled individuals, and the elderly. As of 2021, 15% of College Park residence walk to work, 10% take public transportation, and 3% bike. That is over 25% of the city who rely on safe roads at some point during their commute to get to work. These numbers were even higher (37%) before the pandemic. A bias towards the status quo is inappropriate when we consider whom it directly benefits: non- resident and speeders. We can give fair warning by posting the LED sign (just as we did with the 24-hour speed cameras). Anyone who speeds in a residential area containing two elementary schools deserves a ticket, not laws that enable the abuse of our roads and endanger the citizens who depend on safe streets for their commute to work. A commitment to “normal" is a commitment to deprioritizing College Park’s communities members' lives and safety. The statistics are not ambiguous on this issue; speed needlessly kills and a sizable portion of our city’s residence are unnecessarily endangered in our streets. We have it within our power to decrease pedestrians' risk of death or serious injury substantially — not just a few percentage points. 35 mph has always been too fast for Rhode Island Ave. The risks of pedestrian death are staggering at this speed. Please consider an expedited path to 25 mph; incremental measures on this long-standing issue are unwarranted. Thank you for your time. Respectfully, - Donald Hays