Lobbying for safety
By Monty Tayloe
Eric Knudsen, chair of the the transportation committee of the Great Falls Citizen's association, is unhappy with his progress.
“We've been talking about crosswalks and rumble strips and traffic lights and sidewalks, and we haven't gotten anywhere,” said a frustrated Knudsen.
For years, the GFCA and concerned citizens in Great Falls have been trying to find a way to control traffic on the Georgetown Pike, to preserve their idea of Great Falls as a rural village and to make the place they live safer. According to Knudsen, nothing has yet worked, but “Safe the Pike” is his and the GFCA's latest attempt.
“We want it to be saved and we want it to be safe,” Knudsen said.
“Safe the Pike” is a petition, both online and in hard copy, for citizens who want to preserve Route 193 and make it safer to show their support.
According to information Knudsen gleaned from VDOT, traffic on the Pike doubled between 2001 and 2006, a rate of growth that concerns him and others.
“We are well into the hundreds of signatures,” Knudsen said.
The petition calls for a comprehensive traffic study of the Pike to determine if those numbers are accurate and for action – from traffic lights to crosswalks – to bring that growth down and make the area safer for those who live there. “Safe the Pike” reflects a growing concern for traffic safety among residents of Great Falls, even outside the GFCA membership.
A recent gathering to discuss a traffic light on Riverbend Road drew more than 50 people, Supervisor John Foust and Del. Margi Vanderhye (D-McLean); and a petition for that light has also drawn signatures from many residents. Ken Lyons, a Riverbend resident who organized that meeting, is also frustrated by a lack of action to make the Pike safer.
“The only thing to do is make the Pike safer. ... We have to get people to understand that. Nothing so far has worked,” Lyons said.
For more information on both petitions, visit www.gfcitizens.org and riverbendlight.googlepages.com.
email the reporter at mtayloe@timespapers.com