Study Details Post-BRAC Rockville Pike Delays

It will take you an extra 45 seconds to make your way down Rockville Pike near the thanks, in part, to a new traffic signal at North Wood Road.

Evening rush travel time on Rockville Pike near Walter Reed Bethesda increased by 45 seconds per vehicle between April and October, according to the results of a study presented Tuesday by the Maryland State Highway Administration. About 3,000 cars drive the stretch every 24 hours, the Gazette reported.

The study was conducted to look at the impacts of the new traffic signal at North Wood Road and Rockville Pike, along with the impacts of BRAC traffic and other factors. The Navy requested the traffic light to allow easier access to the base.

SHA presented their findings at a meeting of the BRAC Implementation Committee Tuesday evening.

Traffic has increased on the stretch of the pike near the military hospital following its September merger with the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The merger is part of the federally-mandated Base Realignment and Closure process. It added 2,500 new employees to the hospital staff, and the number of yearly visitors is expected to nearly double to one million.

The study, conducted both before the impact of BRAC and the new traffic signal and afterward, revealed that travel time between Jones Bridge Road and Cedar Lane during the evening rush – between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. – increased from 6.2 minutes to seven minutes per vehicle.

“I guess that’s as good as we can hope for –clearly, they have to stop an additional time,” said Matt Snare, an SHA traffic engineer who presented the study.

Snare said the second leg of the study was conducted following mid-October timing changes on traffic lights along Rockville Pike, allowing more “green time” for cars headed north in the afternoon. Snare said the timing changes should have helped ease post-BRAC delays on the pike.

Delays for cars leaving Walter Reed Bethesda and heading north to Cedar Lane were significantly reduced – by 75 percent, from 9.6 minutes to 2.4 minutes. However, delays for cars leaving NIH at Wilson Drive and heading to Cedar were increased by 60 percent – from 3.9 minutes to 6.2 minutes, according to the study.

Snare said that the light “did its job” by allowing more afternoon and evening traffic to exit Walter Reed Bethesda onto the pike. Prior to the signal installation, exiting traffic was faced with daunting wait times.

“Obviously with a lot of traffic on Rockville Pike, it’s hard to find a gap, and the delays were pretty extensive there,” Snare said.

SHA is still tweaking the timing to address the wait time for those exiting NIH, Snare said.

Some at the meeting, however, said delays on northbound Rockville Pike were significantly longer than the study indicated.

“It’s a parking lot in front of the Medical Center,” said Vince Brannigan, who was representing East Bethesda at the committee meeting.

Brannigan said the study should be broadened to include impacts on other Bethesda thoroughfares.

“It’s a question of what people do as alternatives – that’s the real impact,” Brannigan said. “Nobody wants to go anywhere near that spot…people aren’t stupid, they go down Battery Lane and they go out Old Georgetown Road.”

Others looked at the new traffic changes as a balancing act.

“The Navy had delays of 45 minutes to an hour to get off the base – nobody else had those delays,” said Debbie Michaels, a committee member representing Glenbrook Village. “When you look at the big picture and the impacts on everybody, it’s fairer for the whole community. It’s just a compromise. It’s not the best for anybody.”