You are free to take the position that 28 at Quince Orchard is safer than 28 at Medical Center Way and Omega Drive, a whole three and a half miles away. And I, as someone who has actually frequently crossed 28 at both intersections on foot, am free to say: no, not in my experience. |
In other words you don't even know that 28 extends past Leisure World? Let me guess - a Silver Spring or Hungerford CO troll? Here's a news flash. Nothing near Crown is as dangerous to the car doughnuts that Silver Spring has. QO: QO is at the corner of Darnestown and Quince Orchard Road and kids walk it all time to head to McDonalds. You would also know it's heavily patroled since the Montgomery County police HQ is up the street. Crown: I've been visiting Rio since long before it had a safety rail around the lake. To the north, it's not possible to cross 270 on foot and even car traffic can be dangerous when traffic stacks (goes from high speed to low speeds quickly. With one exception. There's a new apartment complex just off of 370/270 and they built a nice overpass there that folks frequently walk and safe since it's not at the off-ramp level. That provides access for walkers near Muddy Branch. To the west there is also the Downtown Crown area which has ample walker housing. To the Southwest (Key West area) there is housing by the hospital. To the South at the Shady Grove 270 on/off ramp - that is the dangerous part near Crown. You've got cars coming on and off 270 with low visibility turns. If you try to bus or have kids walk over the Shady Grove 270 overpass, I believe there's a high chance of an accident if there is ice or snow and it would be very dangerous for kids to walk. I've seen pedestrian adults heading to stores nearly get hit that way by cars trying to get on and off 270. IMHO, Crown can safely accomodate anything in the 2 mi radius as long as it doesn't involve crossing 270 at Exit 9, or the Shady Grove overpass at Exit 8. |
That Omega Drive off ramp from 270 to Fields Road is bad, and it's going to be right by the Crown high school.
There better also be a new sidewalk on the west side of Omega Drive, where currently there is no sidewalk. Anyone coming from the west side of Sam Eig will cross at Diamondback or Fields (or in between). People are not going to go out of their way to cross Sam Eig at the overpass at Washingtonian Boulevard. The Shady Grove overpass over 270 is terrible for pedestrians. |
No one from King Farm is walking to RM either... |
Of course, King farm is more than 2 miles away from RM. Anyway, expecting kids to walk 2 miles each way is unreasonable too. It really should be reduced to 1 mile. |
High school kids can't walk 40 minutes twice a day (or ride a bike 15 minutes twice a day)? |
Larla might sweat! |
Who spends 1.5 hour walking to school? Do you walk that long to work?? Like a third world country? What a shame that US can’t offer bus to these poor kids. |
HW 28 is definitely not for biking. |
Well on average many people will live between the two and 1 mile seems pretty reasonable. |
But hardly an insurmountable obstacle if sending kids across makes the most sense. |
It takes you 90 minutes to walk 2 miles? ![]() But you're right, a lot of kids in the walk zone, who don't want to walk the whole way there or the whole way back, take the bus instead. Fortunately Montgomery County has the "kids ride free" program for RideOn and Metrobus. |
People bike on 28. Including kids. The sidewalk on one side of 28 is a bike path, all the way from QO HS to 270. Keep an eye out, you'll see. |
90 min a day. That’s a lot of time to waste for high schoolers |
I think they mean 45 minutes each way. Don’t forget that buses take longer than just the ride. My son gets on the school bus at one of the later stops. He has to leave the house at 7:45 am to catch the bus that comes at around 7:52, since it takes a couple minutes to walk to the stop and the bus could always come early. He gets to school at 8:10. That means, he leaves the house at 7:45 to get to school at 8:10, which is 25 minutes door to door. Again, he has a late stop. The first stop arrives at 7:35, so he would have to get out of the house at 7:27 to get to school at 8:10, which is 33 minutes, approaching the 45 minutes quoted above. |