Long Branch Community Revitalization Plan

Montgomery County planners presented preliminary recommendations for the Long Branch Community Revitalization Plan. The plan lays out quite a few ways for the neighborhood to capitalize on the coming Purple Line and how that can help make the neighborhood more walkable and bikeable. This includes the reconnection of the street grid, improving and extending current trails and adding bike lanes and other facilities. A list of what they have planned for cycling is below:

• Shared on-street bikeways:
  • Flower Avenue
  • Franklin Avenue
  • Sligo Creek Parkway
  • Domer Avenue
  • Piney Branch Road
• Exclusive on-street bike lanes:
  • Piney Branch Road
  • Flower Avenue
  • Carroll Avenue
  • University Boulevard (interim)
• Shared Use Paths
  • Piney Branch Road (University Boulevard to Carroll Avenue)
  • Wabash Avenue (Sligo Creek Parkway to Garland Avenue)
  • Domer Avenue (Flower Avenue to Barron Street/Seek Lane Local Park) with a
  • connection to the Long Branch Trail.
  • Garland Avenue (Wabash Avenue to Clayborn Avenue)
  • Clayborn Avenue (Garland Avenue to Long Branch Trail) connecting Sligo Creek Trail
  • to Long Branch Trail.
  • Gilbert Street (Barron Street to University Boulevard) with a connection to Long
  • Branch Trail.
  • University Boulevard—(interim as part of the Purple Line Construction)
• Trails
  • Extend and improve the Long Branch Trail
  • Improve the Long Branch Trail Crossing of Piney Branch Road.

Comments can be directed to MCP-Long Branch@mncppc-mc.org. More information, though not necessarily bike-oriented, is here.

Comments

[T]

University Blvd is on my lists of places I would not bike along. That road has a notorious record for pedestrian fatalities (albeit mostly folks not crossing at crosswalks). And the one blinking crosswalk sign at University and New Hampshire is never heeded by drivers.

The rest sounds great. I really hope they pursue. I'm not quite sure where they will find this extra space though without running into neighbors complaining about losing their on-street parking, but it would be wonderful to go through that area by bike without diverting to side streets.

[Greenbelt]

I've always wondered when the entitlement to socialized on-street free parking in residential neighborhoods was enacted. Was it a federal law? Was there a vote? Did CBO do a cost estimate and state mandate analysis?

[sbg]

Nice plan, it seems a number of these improvements can be made at relatively low cost. Others will require large public investment. If you have ever been in this neighborhood the dynamic is certainly not very pedestrian/bicycle friendly.