Old Marriott HQ demolition update

 

 A little over a month ago, I posted that the demolition of the old Marriott Headquarters in the Rock Spring area of Bethesda had started. I checked on it and they are continuing to make slow progress.

 There is lots of activity going on with multiple pieces of heavy equipment working, but right now it looks like they are moving demolished metal around and cutting beams down to more manageable sizes.

 Here's a view of the area, this is right behind the entrance to Democracy Plaza.

 

 I also took a short timelapse so you can get a better idea of what is happening there.

Fixed! Lane markings on Fernwood Rd

 

Last Friday I posted about "Confusing lane markings on Fernwood Road" (at the intersection with Democracy Blvd). After I did, I posted about it on Mastodon (A Twitter/X alternative)  and tagged Montgomery County Department of Transportation. They responded and said they'd look into it.

 Last night I drove by and noticed someone had spray-painted a left-turn only lane in the middle lane and put black paint over a right-turn only one.  I have no idea if it was MCDOT or a local resident.

 Today, however, I got some really good news.  the MCDOT mastadon account replied to me and told me that the traffic operations team had corrected it!  The arrows on the traffic lights match the pavement markings

This is great in so many ways, let me just list a few of them

• when alerted to a safety issue they quickly corrected it
• They make it easy for residents to contact them
• They are listening to feedback from residents
• They are using Mastodon, an open-source, federated twitter/X like services that isn't controlled by any single corporation.  I've been using it in preference to Twitter for a while now and when I put up a new post here I announce it on Mastodon before announcing it on Twitter (and sometimes I only announce it on Mastodon).

Go MC-DOT! Go Montgomery County! Go Mastodon!

 

 You can see the hand-painted left turn only arrow as well as the new, more professional left turn only arrow.  If you zoom in you can kind of see where they removed the old one.

The new right turn only arrow in the right lane and the new left turn arrow in the middle lane. In the left lane you can see the long-existing left turn only arrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you want speed bumps on Greentree Rd in Bethesda?

 

Do you live near or drive on Greentree Road in Bethesda, MD?  If so, you might be interested to know that the county is considering putting speed bumps in on the portion between Old Georgetown Road and Fernwood Road.

         On Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 6:30 pm (that's really soon) there is going to be a zoom meeting about it. I don't know anything else about it and I couldn't find a web page with more information, so you'll have to call or email Lindsay to find out more.

 

 Here's another picture of the same sign, but from a more artsy angle. I have to say that is a really nice sign, all metal and reflective. I really hope they can change the words and re-use the sign instead of it being single use.

 

 

 

 

Confusing lane markings on Fernwood Road

  

Northbound on Fernwood Rd at the intersection of Democracy Blvd there are some very confusing lane markings.  This area is in the process of being upgraded so hopefully this will get cleared up soon.  Can you see the cause of the confusion? Let's examine it a bit more closely.

Here are the lane markings. You can see, the left lane is left turn only and the middle lane is marked as right turn only. (Not shown is the right lane, which doesn't have any markings about it being an right turn only lane at all).

 

Here are the traffic lights at the intersection, The left lane and the middle lane are left turn only and the right lane is right turn only.  This contradicts the markings on the road which says the middle lane is right turn only.

As a result, no one knows what to do and generally isn't using the middle lane. That's too bad because one of the goals of this intersection reconstruction is to make traffic flow faster by having two left turn lanes where there had only been one.

I have posted about this intersection before. I also posted before the intersection improvements started which you can look at if you want to see what it used to look like.