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Belcrest Road/Queensbury at Queens Chapel

SITE DESCRIPTION:

The intersection of Belcrest/Queensbury Rd and Queen’s Chapel lies between the residential area of Hyattsville Hills and the Prince Georges Plaza Metro Station and surrounding retail areas. The intersection is used heavily by both pedestrians and automobiles to get to these areas and as a commuting route to and from Washington, DC. There is considerable new development both retail and residential occurring around the metro station currently. The new development is likely to increase the volume of traffic in the future as more people visit and move into the area. It is also serving to increase congestion right now as roads are closed to accommodate construction.

Currently, the only crosswalk across Queen’s Chapel is on the north connecting Queensbury and Belcrest Roads. Pedestrians approaching from the southeast corner have to cross Queensbury, Queens Chapel, Belcrest, and the Belcrest to Queens Chapel right turn lane just to reach the metro station (see Figure 1 below). There is a user conflict here as vehicle traffic (primarily from Belcrest traveling east) pulls into the intersection and blocks the crosswalks, or turns when pedestrians have the right-of-way. Many pedestrians simply avoid this intersection by crossing Queens Chapel farther to the south (near the bottom of the hill) to reach the metro and shops to the west.

Drivers on Belcrest and Queensbury that are turning left have limited visibility and difficulty knowing how far to edge into the intersection before turning. WHY? Many cars get nearly to the other side of the intersection before actually turning, passing the cars from the other direction that are also edging out to turn. Their focus on turning against oncoming traffic leads them to disregard people in the crosswalks.

Figure 1: Only legal path for pedestrians approaching from the south

Figure 2: View of intersection from the northeast Corner (note lack of a pedestrian crosswalk on south side)

Also, the signage on Belcrest heading eastbound toward the intersection is misleading which adds to the confusion for motorists. A “Right Lane Right Turn Only” sign appears approximately 100 yards prior to the intersection. This causes motorists to merge left only to find that the left lane (lane 1 in Figure 3 below) becomes left-turn only, the center lane (lane 2) goes through to Queensbury and a right-turn only lane (lane 3) sprouts out of the previous two. This causes drivers to change lanes immediately before the intersection and/or ignore the “Left Turn Only” sign and causes a conflict with cars in the center lane. Both Belcrest and Queensbury are cut-throughs drivers use to avoid MD 410 and its intersection with US Route 1, which have frequent backups.

Figure 3: Three eastbound Belcrest Lanes (Lane 1-left turn only, Lane 2-through to Queensbury, Lane 3-right turn onto Queens Chapel)

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Add a light cycle that accommodates pedestrians where all vehicular traffic stops to give adequate time (see video link below) for pedestrians to cross.
• Add a count-down timer for pedestrians.
• Add a crosswalk spanning Queens Chapel on the south side of the intersection
• Pedestrian Flags? what?
• Increase signage such as "Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk"
• Improve signage leading to the intersection on Belcrest from the west (and all other directions)
• Add dotted 'guide lines' for left-turns so that cars don't edge into the intersection.
• Install a left turn light on Belcrest so that cars don't dart through carelessly.
• Improve lighting on all corners and for all crosswalks
• Discourage the use of Belcrest and Queensbury as “cut-throughs” to alleviate traffic in general. How?
• Improve snow removal in front of Hyattsville Fire Department so that snow does not make sidewalk impassable for pedestrians - pushing them into the street with vehicular traffic.
  

JURISDICTIONS:
Queens Chapel Rd. (Rte. 500) - Maryland State Highway Administration, "SHA"
Belcrest Rd. (Rte. 410A) Maryland State Highway Administration, "SHA"
Queensbury Rd. - City of Hyattsville
Wards - This intersection lies in Hyattsville Wards 3 & 4

HISTORY:
Queens chapel between 410 and Hamilton was redesigned following citizen action and pedestrian fatalities some time around the year 2000. A Washington Post article was written about the fatalities (see citation below) and the community action. The road was reduced to four lanes from six, possibly following recommendations by the Queen's Chapel Road Task Force in existence at that time (2001). [need more research on this task force] In November 2006, county delegate Anne Healy posted to the HOPE listserve that she was going to request a SHA study on this intersection. In the same posting, Delegate Healy alluded to other studies on this intersection done by or requested from SHA.

ACCIDENTS:

According to Maryland State Highway Administration, from 2001 to 2005, within 0.2 mile of intersection:

• 2001 - no police reported pedestrian or bike accidents
• 2002 - 2 Injury accidents = 2 total accidents
• 2003- 2 Injury accidents = 2 total accidents
• 2004- 1 Injury accident = 1 total accident
• 2005- no police reported pedestrian or bike accidents

Citations
"Fatal Accident Fuels Fight Over Road; Despite 280 Crashes, Hyattsville Street Isn't Dangerous, Md. Officials Say" By Jamie Stockwell
Monday, November 20, 2000; Page B01

Primary Authors:
Jason Riggs and Matt McKnight