Silver Hill Rd at Suitland Parkway onramp

[creadinger]

Yesterday evening leaving work I saw what I think was the aftermath of a collision between a car and cyclist at the in-bound on ramp for Suitland Parkway on Silver Hill Rd. It’s adjacent to the Suitland Metro Station and the Suitland Federal Center.

There were about 6 police cars on scene, and the car was parked at the cross-walk and the bike was on its side just in front. Based on positioning it would seem like a clear case of a driver not yielding to the cross-walk and hitting someone. I can’t find anything in the news about it, so hopefully it wasn’t serious. The huge police response though makes me wonder.

Here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8431462,-76.9312447,3a,75y,308.52h,82.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLVryB4xnbFrCdTXf6CVTpw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[creadinger]

A related aside….

If you look nearby in the streetview picture you can see a bike sharrow painted in the right lane and the “Bikes May Use Full Lane” sign… whomever decided to put this stuff up needs to be made to ride up and down Silver Hill Rd and then tell us that it’s safe enough to be considered a bike route. It’s absolutely ridiculous! It’s a 6-lane highway with lots of turns and cross traffic, and cars weaving in and out of lanes, all while going 50mph. I would absolutely take the sidewalk if I had to go this route everyday, as the person above was doing.

I did some other digging for Maryland’s bike transportation maps and Silver Hill Rd does not come up as a bike route AND it’s in the red F category for bicyclist comfort, cause of all the drivers racing around at 50 mph in heavy traffic. What the hell?? Is this a case of PG County padding their “bikeable county” stats?

http://maps.roads.maryland.gov/cyclemaryland/

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