Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Safe Streets Act topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County reports progress installing no-turn-on-red and school-safety reviews under Safe Streets Act
Summary
County staff told the joint committee that installations required by the Safe Streets Act are largely complete and that monitoring and crash-review processes are underway; DOT reported counts of NTOR and leading-pedestrian-interval installations and detailed next-step reviews for locations generating congestion or safety concerns.
Montgomery County officials updated the council on implementation of the Safe Streets Act (Bill 11-29, Safe Streets Act of 2023), reporting widespread installation of no-turn-on-red (NTOR) signs in designated downtown and town-center areas and the start of monitoring to identify sites that "significantly impair public safety," staff said.
Tim Harrison and Wade Holland presented installation tallies: of 161 county-owned intersections that met NTOR criteria, 148 have the signs installed, 11 were exempted because they present no vehicular-turn conflicts, and 2 remained pending at the time of the briefing. For leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs), staff said 231 county-owned intersections met the criteria and 200 LPIs have been installed, with 5 pending. County staff said the program is now in a monitoring phase to determine whether any installations require removal or operational adjustments.
Michael Paylor, the county's chief of traffic engineering and operations, explained the monitoring standard: DOT is reviewing 24 flagged intersections to decide whether removal or timing changes are required because of increased queuing, obstruction of nearby intersections, or an increase in rear-end crash risk. "We're hoping the latter [signal timing changes] as opposed to any of the ... removals," Paylor said, adding that some fixes are accomplished through signal-timing adjustments.
The Safe Streets Act also requires police to refer qualifying school-trip crashes (people walking to or from school within prescribed walk sheds during certain hours) to the responsible agency for a review. Staff gave aggregate referral data for calendar-year 2024 through Oct. 31, 2025: 1,200 non-motorist crashes were reviewed; 457 met the law's minimum review criteria, and 100 of those were related to school trips and referred for agency review. By agency, staff said referrals were divided roughly as follows: 47 to MCDOT, 26 to the State Highway Administration, 15 to Montgomery County Public Schools, 7 to municipal partners, 2 to Montgomery College, and 1 to Montgomery Parks.
DOT described typical post-referral actions: field audits of signs and markings, short-term maintenance (signal timing, markings), and medium- to long-term engineering projects such as curb bump-outs, pedestrian hybrid beacons, or redesigned crossings. Staff gave several examples of interventions already completed or scheduled, including curb extensions and upgraded crosswalk markings.
Councilmembers raised concerns about public engagement and the pace of walkability studies. DOT said it is roughly halfway through Phase 2 walkability studies, with approximately 60 schools remaining and estimated study throughput of 12'15 schools per year, implying a multi-year completion horizon unless capacity is increased. Councilmembers asked for a follow-up chart that links each referral to the intervention taken and a clearer public-engagement plan that reaches parents and students.
Staff said the county will continue interagency review and return recommended modifications or legislative changes if the monitoring reveals systemic operational problems; no formal removal of NTOR signs or changes to the law were decided at the session.
