Chevy Chase West resident Michael Replogle is tired of seeing cars go too fast and pedestrians go too slowly near his neighborhood.
To solve these and other traffic concerns, Replogle and his neighbors have compiled safety recommendations for Wisconsin Avenue south of Bradley Boulevard that include speed cameras and pedestrian crosswalks.
"It's just a matter of time before someone gets killed crossing that street," said Replogle, who is co-chair of the Traffic Committee for the Chevy Chase West Neighborhood Association.
Some of the other recommendations in the study, which was submitted to Montgomery County and state officials earlier this month, include lowering the speed limit along Wisconsin Avenue from 35 miles an hour to 30 miles an hour, creating signals for pedestrian crossings, constructing a sidewalk on the east side of the road (officially designated as Maryland Route 355), and building median refuges in the middle of the road.
Replogle, who used to work in the transportation section of the county's Planning Department, said the proposed changes were drawn up after surveying 100 households in Chevy Chase West, which is located west of Wisconsin Avenue and east of Hillandale Road between Nottingham Street to the north and Hunt Avenue to the south.
He described pedestrians seeking to catch buses east of Wisconsin Avenue sprinting across the street, and cars attempting to turn out of the neighborhood onto Wisconsin Avenue that are forced to stop for minutes at a time.
Replogle and others said drivers often greatly exceed the speed limit along the approximately .7 miles of Wisconsin Avenue between Friendship Heights and Bradley Boulevard because it is a relatively open stretch of road between the urban areas of Friendship Heights and downtown Bethesda.
"It's quite common for traffic to move upwards of 50 mph," Replogle said, who said past efforts at traffic safety in the area have only taken a "piecemeal" approach.
Town of Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin said he supports the recommendations from Chevy Chase West, which is located north of Somerset. But he said Somerset itself is not considering speed cameras along Wisconsin Avenue because it lacks the funds to manage them.
Dealing with its own traffic concerns, the town's council recently voted to budget $10,000 for fiscal 2010 to monitor traffic coming into and out of Somerset.
"I personally would support speed cameras on Wisconsin like they have in Chevy Chase," Slavin said, referring to speed cameras along Connecticut Avenue that are overseen by Chevy Chase Village.
Under state legislation passed last month, new speed camera systems are restricted to highway work zones and in school zones. According to state law, school zones can be designated within a half-mile radius of a school. Somerset Elementary School is within a half-mile of the boundaries of Chevy Chase West.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center Director Ken Hartman said there should be a meeting between Chevy Chase West residents and county and state officials within the next few weeks to discuss the study. Hartman recently helped to organize a similar safety study of Wisconsin Avenue between Leland Street and Montgomery Lane.
"We're very impressed by the study and we want to treat it seriously," Hartman said of Chevy Chase West's report.
State Del. Bill Bronrott said in addition to speed cameras, education efforts and traffic engineering solutions such as sidewalks that are built right up to the edge of the road can also help solve the problems described by Chevy Chase West.
"There are a variety of ways to get at it," said Bronrott (D-Dist. 16) of Bethesda.