City to Examine Truck Traffic

Citing safety concerns and the impact on residential streets, city council members on Monday said they want a closer examination of how truck traffic is impacting neighborhoods around Rockville.

Councilwoman Bridget Donnell Newton said truck traffic is taking a toll on homes along West Montgomery Avenue in the city's historic West End neighborhood, where she is a resident.

"You've got these trucks just pounding day after day on these homes and I don't think it's sustainable," she said.

It also is not safe for children walking along the street, she said.

City Manager Scott Ullery said the city would take four actions based on Monday's discussion including:

1)   Asking the city's Traffic and Transportation Commission to review the city's truck traffic policies.

2)   Asking Chief Terry Treschuk to use city police to conduct targeted enforcement of traffic restrictions in problem areas.

3)   Conducting traffic counts on streets to see if they would be eligible for restrictions.

4)   Researching an agreement that Newton said was brokered between the West End Citizen's Association and the state over truck traffic along Great Falls Road.

The city has to be careful when it diverts traffic from one street, because of the effect it could have on another street, said Emad Elshafei, the city's chief of traffic and transportation.

Councilman Mark Pierzchala asked about truck traffic along Redland Road in King Farm.

Truck traffic on Redland has been "beyond the norm [over] the last two or three months" because of construction of the Intercounty Connector, Elshafei said.

The city has considered several remedies to shift traffic off the road, which connects Interstate 270 and Route 355.

One suggestion was shifting traffic off Redland Road to county-maintained Shady Grove Road.

The county "did not like this idea very much, but they said 'It's your street. You do what you want to,'" Elshafei said.

The State Highway Administration did not like the idea because they thought truck drivers would not have enough time to downshift as they saw signs on the ramp from I-270 directing them to use Shady Grove instead of Redland, Elshafei said.

Taking trucks down Gaither Road would only put them on another road that also has residential units, mostly on the east side.

"So we'd be shifting the problem," Elshafei said.

Shifting truck traffic to Piccard Drive is problematic because the street is only one lane in each direction and has bike lanes.

A truck is defined as any vehicle with more than two axles or that weighs in excess of three-quarters of a ton, Elshafei said. Trucks may travel on restricted streets only if their destination is in the specific neighborhood the street serves.

Newton said that her neighborhood had engaged SHA years ago in discussions about truck traffic on Great Falls Road. The West End Citizen's Association worked out a deal with SHA under which Great Falls Road would be eligible for restrictions from truck traffic if the city took over the road, she said. But nothing ever came of it.

City administrators said they would research the alleged agreement.

Maryland Avenue, which is restricted to truck traffic in both directions as it leads west out of downtown, "has far fewer homes facing it than any of the other streets we're discussing," Newton said, adding that she is not suggesting the city ease restrictions there.

West Montgomery Avenue and Great Falls Road are similar to Redland and Gaither roads, Newton said.

"I don't think Redland should have trucks," she said. "I don't think Great Falls should and I don't think West Montgomery should."

West Montgomery Avenue is a state road "so that's not something we could decide," Elshafei said.

"We might not be able to decide, but I think we can have the conversation with the state about it as far as protecting the community, protecting the homes," Newton said.

If the city restricts truck access to many of the roads that connect to I-270, "We are restricting trucks from the whole city of Rockville," Elshafei said.

Newton was not convinced.

"If safety is a prime objective, and it is for me, I think it's imperative that we look into that," she said.

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said that Frederick Avenue, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, was listed in a truck restriction plan presented to the council as being restricted to truck traffic in both directions.

But Frederick Avenue has truck and bus traffic, Marcuccio said.

"There are several places where the restriction is out of congruity with what goes on on the streets," she said, adding that she would like to restrict trucks on residential streets through Lincoln Park.

"There are pockets in this city that are very heavily impacted by traffic that well, we don't do anything about," she said. "Stonestreet [Avenue] is really the major route. The big tractor trailers go up it all the time."

Newton said she would like the Traffic and Transpotation Commission to review traffic guidelines, which were last considered in 2005, "to see if we could update them, because traffic has increased in the last five years."

Marcuccio suggested a holistic approach to the review, saying that Stonestreet Avenue, Park Road and North Horners Lane all should be considered for restrictions.

"If you're going to look at it in one neighborhood, you've got to look at it in another one," she said.

Newton agreed.

"It's the older neighborhoods that are bearing the brunt right now and if we're going to look at one we have to look at all of them," she said.

Pierzchala said that while his colleagues made "excellent points" Gude Drive "presents its own problems" as the road, which crosses Route 355 and Gaither Road near Shady Grove, would "absorb tremendous amounts of traffic" from the Great Seneca Science Corridor master plan.

The plan for  the Shady Grove Life Sciences center, approved earlier this year, includes Shady Grove Hospital, Johns Hopkins University's Montgomery County campus, the Universities at Shady Grove and various public and private bioscience laboratories and calls for the mixed-use development of retail and residences as part of a so-called Science City.