Maryland Gov. Wes Moore walked alongside two busy state-run streets in Wheaton, Wednesday afternoon and heard from leaders about the pedestrian and traffic safety concerns in the area.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore walks the streets of Wheaton, Maryland with leaders including Montgomery County council member Natali Fani-González.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
WTOP/Mike Murillo
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said his staff will look at how they can better work with local governments and create safer roadways.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
WTOP/Mike Murillo
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore walked alongside two busy state-run streets in Wheaton.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
WTOP/Mike Murillo
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore walks the streets of Wheaton, Maryland with leaders including Montgomery County council member Natali Fani-González.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
WTOP/Mike Murillo
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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore walked alongside two busy state-run streets in Wheaton, Wednesday afternoon and heard from leaders about the pedestrian and traffic safety concerns in the area.
Moore came to Montgomery County after being invited to walk the area by council member Natali Fani-González.
During the walk, Fani-González pointed out the narrow sidewalks and the lack of bike lanes. The council member said she’d like to see Georgia Avenue re-imagined as a boulevard that offers those safety features.
“That means making sure that you have protected bike lanes, making sure that you have BRT, which is bus rapid transit, making sure that you have enough bus shelters, making sure that you have enough bike racks so people can leave their bike safely, making sure that you have more density near the Metro,” Fani-González said.
“We want people to know that we’re prioritizing this,” Moore said about the concerns.
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According to the county, between 2015 and 2022, five pedestrians were killed in the area of Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road in Wheaton. During that same period, almost 30 pedestrians were seriously injured in crashes.
The council member said more lighting and tree canopies would also help make the pedestrian experience in the area more enjoyable, but since the road is state-run, the state department of transportation will have to lead any changes.
County Executive Marc Elrich, who also took part in the walk, said there are low-cost ways to get started — adding flex posts and square corners — that could prevent cars from speeding around corners. Elrich said the county would be willing to do some of these projects if granted permission from the state.
“We need more license from the state to do this, any place we think it’s appropriate,” Elrich said.
Elrich said he’s hopeful the Moore administration will be more open to working with the county than his predecessor, and he said seeing the governor accept the invitation demonstrates that.
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“You know, we’ve made announcements and it’s great to have the governor come down, but having the governor come down for things like we wanted you to look at a street and the importance of a design that says something about this being on his radar,” Elrich said.
Moore said his staff will look at how it can better work with local governments and create safer roadways.
“You know, when you have people who simply want to feel safe in their own communities, and they simply want to feel safe when they’re walking into stores, or walking to schools, or going to see their neighbors or going to see their friends, it’s a basic ask that we have to do a better job of making sure that we’re providing the access for them to be able to do that,” Moore said.
The governor said in Wheaton, it is also not lost on him that a large percentage of the community are immigrants. Moore promised they will be seen and heard when it comes to their concerns getting around.
“That means making sure that all people have the basic right to movement and access in a way that is safe,” Moore said.
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Moore also highlighted a driver education element to all this after witnessing several motorists breaking the rules of the road during his brief walk.
“People were not following the basic laws and the basic premise that we have in place right now. People need to follow the laws,” Moore said.
Also on the walk was Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld, who said there is a tremendous need for the community that is reliant on walking, biking and public transit, adding safety zones and even trees are possible in the near future.
“Those types of things I think we can do pretty quickly,” Wiedefeld said.
Wiedefeld said the speed limit on Georgia Avenue was recently dropped to 25 mph, and now he said more enforcement needs to happen to make sure people are following the rules of the road in the area.
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He added that some projects, such as moving utilities or store parking might be a bit more complicated.
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Michigan State has an excellent chance to make a strong statement this weekend that the rebuilding job under new head coach Jonathan Smith is ahead of schedule, if the Spartans can take down 8-point favorite Maryland on Saturday.
A Michigan State victory would be a strong statement within the football industry, but maybe not as strong from a fan perspective. I’m not sure Maryland’s football brand is as respected in the state of Michigan and regionally as it should be, for a program that has gone 8-5 in the past two seasons and defeated Auburn and North Carolina State in bowl games the past two years.
Maryland is good. The Terrapins are coming off a 50-7 victory over a weak UConn team last week. Maryland’s offense looked very good against a weak, soft, conservative UConn defense.
Michigan State’s defense was ahead of schedule last week against a mediocre Florida Atlantic offense. Michigan State’s offense was behind schedule, experiencing inconsistent accuracy and decision-making at the quarterback position, which was somewhat understandable considering it was sophomore Aidan Chiles’ first start as a college player. MSU’s running game also lacked consistency, especially in short yardage and in the red zone.
The big news from Maryland last week in my opinion was the excellent play of new starting quarterback Billy Edwards. The 6-foot-3, 222-pound redshirt-junior had waited behind the outgoing, record-breaking Taulia Tagovailoa for three years. Tagovailoa left Maryland as the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader. He went undrafted and is now playing in the CFL.
Edwards looked good last week. He’s strong in the pocket, is a physical ball carrier on designed runs or scrambles. He was accurate over the middle on intermediate routes, and seemed to do a good job processing coverages, although UConn’s coverages were simple, slow and soft.
I saw this Michigan State vs Maryland game as a swing game on the schedule prior to the season. But considering how well Edwards and his receivers looked last week, and Michigan State’s sputtering start on offense, this game goes from being a swing game to uphill slog for the Spartans.
One teen shot another during a dispute in a Maryland high school bathroom Friday in what authorities called an isolated incident.
The victim, a 15-year-old student at Joppatowne High School, was in serious condition after being airlifted to a hospital, the Harford County Public Schools said in a news release, citing information it received from the county sheriff’s department.
A 16-year-old student whom police identified as the shooter fled shortly afterward but was caught minutes later nearby, according to the news release. Officials said no information would be released immediately about the weapon, which had not been recovered.
The state’s attorney has said the suspect will be charged, the release said, citing Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler.
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Shortly after the shooting, the sheriff’s office asked people to avoid the area, but emphasized that the confrontation was an “isolated incident, not an active shooter.” A parent-student reunification center was established at a nearby church. More than 100 personnel responded to the high school about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Baltimore, Gahler said.
The fight happened two days after a shooter whom authorities identified as a 14-year-old student killed four people at a high school outside Atlanta. Wednesday’s attack renewed debate about safe storage laws for guns and had parents wondering how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.
Michigan State football heads out east looking to open Big Ten play with a big-time victory.
The Spartans will play at Maryland on Saturday afternoon in their first conference game of the year. Michigan State enters this matchup with a 1-0 record on the year following last week’s win over Florida Atlantic. Maryland is also 1-0 thus far on the season, picking up a blowout non-conference win over UConn last week.
Maryland enters this game as a more than touchdown favorite depending on the sports book. The Terps have won the last two meetings between these two schools.
Below are the details for Saturday’s matchup between the Spartans and Terps:
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Game time: 3:30 p.m. ET on September 7
Location: SECU Stadium (College Park, Md.)
TV: Big Ten Network
Live Stream: fuboTV (try it free)
Listen: Spartan Media Network or MSUSpartans.com
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Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on Twitter @RobertBondy5.
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