The Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program awarded Montgomery Parks with $7.5 million towards facilitating safe access to parks, trails and recreation facilities through 2026.
Director of Montgomery Parks Mike Riley hopes the funding will help the county reach their Vision Zero goals, which seeks to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on the roads.
“Our parkways and trails are intended to serve as safe corridors for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists,” Riley said in a press release. “And with this grant, we will have the opportunity to make significant improvements.”
Montgomery Parks manages 230 miles of shared-use pathways and hard surface trails in the county, including more than 200 trail crossings of public roadways. The department manages nearly nine linear miles of public roadways.
The Safe Streets and Roads grant money will be used in three major parks and trails in the county, Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park and trail, Matthew Henson State Park and trail and Wheaton Regional Park.
According to Montgomery Parks, the three sites chosen are near locations where 14 pedestrian and bicyclist deaths occurred between 2015 and 2019. Additionally, the locations are in historically disadvantaged communities.
The Parks Department plans to deploy four strategies to improve safety at access points in the parks.
- Creating safe trail connections in nearby neighborhoods.
- Provide people walking, biking and driving with safe crossings at intersections.
- Creating a program of low-volume streets into neighborhood greenways.
- Creating separate spaces for those who use the transportation network in more dense areas.
Additionally, the department is considering adding street lighting, increasing enforcement for those who fail to yield to pedestrians and providing safety education programs. Montgomery Parks is also considering evaluating 12 to 15 trail crossings with major roadways for improvements.
