The Upton Drive Neighborhood Greenway project aims to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety on Upton Drive near the Wheaton Mall. The project limit is from East Avenue to the Crossway Montessori School.
Neighborhood Greenways are streets with low motorized traffic volumes and speeds, designed and designated to give walking and bicycling priority. Upton Drive was designated a Neighborhood Greenway by the 2018 Montgomery County Bicycle Master Plan . Neighborhood Greenways use signs, pavement markings, and speed and volume management measures to calm traffic and discourage through trips by motor vehicles to create safe, convenient use of streets by pedestrians and cyclists. Design elements can include traffic diverters at key intersections, traffic circles or mini-roundabouts, traffic calming, shared lane markings, crossing improvements, and wayfinding signage to guide bicyclists along the route and to key destinations among other things. More information about the difference types of improvements can be found here .
The Upton Drive Neighborhood Greenway Project is anticipated to begin construction in the spring of 2024, weather permitting. Improvements will include the following:
For more details, please visit this interactive newsletter - http://tinyurl.com/UptonNGW-Newsletter. Once construction work begins, work hours will be Monday through Friday between 7 am and 5 pm.
A Virtual Public Meeting will be held on November 3, 2022, at 6:30 PM to talk about the project. The project team will present the concept proposed improvements for Upton Drive, collect your feedback, as well as answer any questions you might have about this project. This meeting will be virtual only, and meeting materials will be posted prior to the scheduled meeting. Registration is required .
Public input is key to the success of a capital improvement project as it helps us to better understand the needs and concerns of the community. Your input is important to us! Though we welcome the public to provide comments and feedback at any point throughout this project, we would greatly appreciate to receive your comments by December 4, 2022.
What is a neighborhood greenway?
A Neighborhood Greenway is a street where the safe movement of bicyclists and pedestrians is prioritized, and the fast, through movement of vehicles is minimized. This is achieved by using different treatments to slow down drivers or discourage them from using the street. Tools can include speed treatments such as speed humps and diversionary treatments.
What is a pilot project?
This project is a pilot project, meaning that treatments will use temporary materials that can be modified or removed based on how they’re working and community feedback. While neighborhood greenways are common in other parts of the United States and Canada, they are new to the Washington, D.C. region. This pilot project will allow MCDOT to test out treatments without any permanent changes to the roadway should the treatments not work as expected. We are also collecting data on how effective the treatments are. “Before” data was collected in February 2020, and data will be collected again after Stage 1 (speed treatments) and again after Stage 2 (speed treatments + diversionary treatments).
What are “speed treatments”?
Speed treatments are traffic calming tools added to the street that encourage motorists to drive more slowly. They can include things like “chokers” that make the road narrower, “chicanes” that introduce a weave to the roadway, and “mini-roundabouts” that require drivers to move through intersections more slowly. These are just a few examples:
What is “access management?”
Access management refers to treatments installed to reduce drivers’ ability to move through the network. Treatments can include making a street one-way at the end of a block, installing a median so that drivers can only turn right at an intersection, or full closures for portions of the street. Other tools are available. This is only a sample of treatments. For more information on potential treatments, please review the Neighborhood Greenway Treatments Primer document.
Angel Cheng, Project Engineer MCDOT Division of Transportation Engineering 100 Edison Park Drive, 4th Floor SE Gaithersburg, MD 20878 Phone: 240-777-7274 Email: angel.cheng@montgomerycountymd.gov