Is the ‘Intersection of Death’ showing improvement?

Once considered the most congested in county, Forest Glen Road at Georgia Avenue has gotten better, according to M-NCPPC ‘Highway Mobility Report’

In 2006, Forest Glen Road and Georgia Avenue was deemed the most congested in the county, but this year the intersection had a decrease of 26 percent in its Critical Lane Volume, which measures how difficult it is to get vehicles through the intersection.

The 2006 report took a measurement from August 2003 while the 2008 report took a measurement from June 6, 2007, which determined the intersection was below the standard CLV for Wheaton and Silver Spring intersections.

Adam Pagnucco of the Forest Estates Community Association said he was ‘‘in disbelief” when he saw the data about the ‘‘Intersection of Death,” a term he proudly admits to coining.

‘‘This notion that somehow it’s become magically fixed in just four years, from being worst to being perfectly acceptable, is something no one believes,” he said.

‘‘Operation improvements” to the intersection in 2004 helped improve the numbers for the latest report, said Ronald Vaughn, a transportation planner for M-NCPPC and the project manager for the study.

He said the timing and phasing of the traffic lights on the Georgia Avenue corridor were changed, modifications were made to the Interstate 495 ramps just south of the intersection and the three lanes eastbound off Forest Glen onto Georgia were changed to two left turns and a right or straight option.

‘‘There have been reduced mobility conditions along the stretch of Georgia Avenue,” Vaughn said. ‘‘This year, the conditions weren’t as excessive as they were in previous years.”

Vaughn said CLV measures ‘‘throughput” at the intersection and is calculated based on cars passing through the intersection at peak hours, traffic signal phasing and lane configuration.

He said it does not account for delays to get to the intersection. In the 2006 report Forest Glen and Georgia had a CLV of 2,106, while in 2008 it was measured at 1,553.

Pagnucco said there have been small improvements at the intersection but safety concerns for pedestrians and traffic accidents are still prevalent.

Forest Estates has started a Web site, CrossingGeorgia.com, which contains crime and traffic data regarding the intersection and even a video showing the difficulty for pedestrians to cross and cars making illegal left turns off Georgia onto Forest Glen.

‘‘I will not cross the street with my 3-year-old as a pedestrian. It’s way too dangerous,” said Heidi McAllister, who lives five blocks from the intersection on Forest Glen near Holy Cross Hospital.

McAllister said during morning rush hour, the traffic is often backed up outside her house.

Crossing Georgia is lobbying for a new entrance for the Forest Glen Metro station on the east side of Georgia Avenue.

The intersection was also added to a traffic study that would in part determine whether a pedestrian tunnel running under Georgia at Forest Glen to the Metro station should be added to the state’s Consolidated Transportation Program, a plan that Crossing Georgia also supports.

Councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, chairwoman of the council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee, said the study has flaws but accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is to locate intersections that need resources, starting with the top 10 identified in the report.

‘‘What’s not in this report is we continue to be worried about pedestrian safety,” she said. ‘‘But the study isn’t about pedestrian safety, it’s about the fundamental issues with the intersection.”