'Don't Block The Box' Bill Gets Support Of Montgomery Council

ROCKVILLE, MD — A bill that would make it illegal for drivers to block certain intersections at a red light received support recently from the Montgomery County Council, but is not yet adopted.

Proposed by state Del. Al Carr and Sen. William Smith, the county bill would only apply to designated intersections in Montgomery County with a "Don't Block the Box" sign and a traffic light. If the legislation passes, drivers who block those intersections will receive up to a $500 fine and get a point on their driver's license.

The intent of this bill "is to get at the congestion that's created when people get into an intersection and clearly can't get out before the light turns red," said Sara Morningstar, from the Montgomery County's Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

There are, however, a few exceptions to the bill: Drivers will be able to make a right turn on red, or a left turn from a one-way street onto another one-way street.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has voiced support for this bill, but said he didn't want drivers to receive a point on their license. The county council members were also generally supportive of the bill; however, some of them expressed reservations about the possible $500 fine and the point on the driver's license.

Washington, D.C., and Baltimore City enforce similar "Don't Block the Box" laws, requiring violators to pay a fine of $50 and $125, respectively. Currently, the Motor Vehicle Administration does not have the authority to assess a point on a driver's license.

At the Dec. 4 meeting, council member Gabe Albornoz said the bill would be instrumental to helping alleviate traffic congestions at intersections — particularly one in Kensington.

"Del. Carr and I live very near each other and the corner section of Knowles and Connecticut [avenues] could be the poster child for this legislation," Albornoz said.

As of now, it is unclear which specific intersections would are being considered for this bill. Melanie Wenger, the county's director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, said the Montgomery County Department of Transportation and public safety officials would make that determination.

Council president Nancy Navarro's office told Patch that the county Council will vote on this bill in the spring of 2019.

Also a topic of discussion: pedestrian and bike safety. Montgomery County's string of vehicular collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists have left the Council scrambling to find solutions.

While several council members — including Will Jawando, Sidney Katz, and Craig Rice — said the bill may make roads in Montgomery County safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, they suggested that more needs to be done.

Council member Rice brought up the issue of pedestrians standing on medians and called on the Maryland legislature to give the county authority to take action.

"We will never have true pedestrian safety if we continue to allow people to stand on medians throughout this county," Rice said. "It's a tremendous travesty that has continued to exist. We've seen a firefighter whose been hit in August. We had a person who died in my district in June of this year. I don't know how many more it takes for us to ask the state legislature to give us the authority to ban people from standing in medians."

"We heard it from [the State Highway Administration] who testified in front of us who said it is not safe for people to stand in the medians," Rice later said. "They're not designed that way. We have refuge places for them but they are not designed to stand there for hours on end and run the risk of being hit by a vehicle. So, while this is an important initiative, we're missing a key, glaring component of our Vision Zero and pedestrian safety initiative, which is to stop people from standing in medians."

This is the third time Carr has introduced a "Don't Block the Box" bill. The first two pieces of legislation, however, had statewide application and never made it through the Senate. Carr said he will be introducing a statewide version of this bill once the General Assembly is in session next year.

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