A bill aimed to make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists has been signed into law.
County Executive Marc Elrich signed the Safe Streets Act of 2023 on Wednesday in downtown Bethesda. Council President Evan Glass led the act and councilmembers voted unanimously for the bill last week.
Mindy Badin lost her son Brett, 32, as he was crossing Rockville Pike to meet friends for dinner in 2020.
“It’s been a really rough three years, eight months and 11 days for me,” she said. Badin said the bill’s passage is bittersweet for her. She is “overjoyed” it passed, but it is also “a reminder of why I’m here and what I’ve lost.”
Melissa Regan, co-chair of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) Safe Routes to School, said students have recently been hit near Newport Mill Middle School, Waters Landing Elementary School, Springbrook High School, Montgomery Village Middle School and Rocky Hill Middle School.
“This happens fairly frequently,” Regan told MCM. “I would say every couple of weeks we get another report of a student being hit by a driver.”
Melissa Regan, with MCCPTA Safe Routes to School, talks about students struck by drivers recently. Safe Streets Act of 2023 was signed today. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/PyPiYJEd1M
— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) September 27, 2023
“This legislation is the biggest step we’ve taken to enacting our Vision Zero goals since the county adopted our Vision Zero strategy back in 2016,” Glass said Wednesday. The county has a Vision Zero plan to eliminate serious and fatal collisions for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and passengers by 2030.
Elrich said there is “a problem with drivers, and I think everybody feels that this has gotten worse since the pandemic.”
“I see more people doing more wrong and illegal things than I ever saw before,” he said.
Elrich announced the county is sending a $1.6 million supplemental appropriation to the council Wednesday morning, “because this paper won’t build anything unless we put the money into the budget to build the things.”
This year as of Wednesday, more than 400 people have been hit on roadways and 12 people have been killed, Glass said. Last year, 19 pedestrians and bicyclists were killed and 541 people were seriously injured on the road, per a release.
The Safe Streets Act of 2023 extends walk times at crosswalks and prohibits right turns on red lights at busy, downtown intersections.
It will require infrastructure reviews after collisions in school zones, walksheds and bus stops that happen during certain hours on school days.
The bill also requires the county executive to provide an automated traffic enforcement plan that would be updated and resubmitted every year to the council.
