Letter: Forest Glen, Wheaton, and Glenmont Community Connections

Advancing safety and accessibility improvements on the corridor is strongly supported by the community and local elected officials.

You can view this document in PDF form here.

The Honorable Pete Buttigieg, Secretary

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.

Washington, D.C. 20590

September 12, 2023

RE: Letter of support for the Maryland Dept. of Transportation‘s Forest Glen, Wheaton, and Glenmont Community Connection Plan project

Dear Secretary Buttigieg,

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) supports the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT’s) request for Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) program funding for MDOT’s Forest Glen, Wheaton, and Glenmont Community Connection Plan project.

WABA’s mission is to empower people to ride bikes, build connections, and transform places. WABA supports projects like this one that transform our transportation system and make it safer, easier to use, accessible to everyone, more affordable, and climate-resilient.

The Forest Glen, Wheaton, and Glenmont Community Connection Plan will determine the pedestrian, bicycle, transit and safety needs of community residents from Forest Glen Road to Layhill Road (MD 182) on Georgia Avenue (MD 97) and identify approaches to redesign the MD 97 corridor to meet those needs. The project will also identify public infrastructure improvements to include in future joint development efforts at the Wheaton Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Red Line rail station. The Wheaton WMATA station joint development efforts, working alongside the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, will develop strategies to enable the redevelopment of the Park & Ride and bus loop facilities, thereby encouraging economic development, and facilitating station improvements to increase walkability and access.

The study will build on the vision of MDOT’s MD 97 Montgomery Hills project, which aims to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety while balancing traffic operations from 16 th Street (MD 390) to Forest Glen Road. This study will allow MDOT to determine solutions that expand community connectivity, encourage economic development, support affordable housing developments, and provide better access to three WMATA Red Line rail stations and a major regional hospital. Advancing safety and accessibility improvements on the corridor is strongly supported by the community and local elected officials.

I encourage your careful consideration of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s funding request. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Seth Grimes, WABA’s Maryland organizer, at seth.grimes@waba.org. He will be happy to assist you.

We appreciate USDOT's commitment to funding high-quality projects with visible and sustainable community benefits, and we urge you to support funding this worthy project.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Kiker, Executive Director

Cc: Sean Winkler, Maryland Dept. of Transportation

More about Complete Streets

Complete Streets are streets designed to accommodate all users, and that prioritize historically underinvested modes of transportation like transit, walking, and biking. An incomplete street might lack adequate sidewalks, low-stress bike infrastructure, or safe and comfortable access to transit.

Effective Complete Streets policies change the way a jurisdiction plans and builds transportation infrastructure—sidewalks, low stress bike infrastructure, and transit should be included in any new or rebuilt street by default, rather than as an add-on when there's space or demand.

While most regional jurisdictions have a Complete Streets policy of some sort, they lack teeth and permit transportation departments to continue to build streets that put cars first and squeeze other modes into the margins.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.