Tempers flared at a recent Hyattsville City Council meeting when recommendations to improve the city’s busiest intersections suggested channeling some state road congestion into Hyattsville’s residential neighborhoods. 

Representatives from the Baltimore engineering firm Sabra, Wang, and Associates presented their recommendations to the Hyattsville City Council Monday, July 19 after their year-long assessment of Hyattsville traffic conditions. The study was approved by the council in February 2009 and cost the city $46,764.60. 

“The overall goal of the plan is to develop recommendations to support the city planning and infrastructure,” said Paul Silberman, a project manager at Sabra, Wang and Associates, in his presentation to the council. 

The most critical information in the report had to do with the level of service measurements taken by engineers of all the intersections in Hyattsville. 

These measurements give intersections grades “A” through “F,” with an “A” intersection causing less than 10 seconds delay at a traffic signal and an “F” intersection causing more than 80 seconds delay. Currently, 12 intersections in Hyattsville receive an “F” grade, and the study projects that without any improvement, 19 intersections will be graded “F” using the current city development projections. 

To combat these traffic problems, Silberman recommended the council lift the current access restrictions on Queensbury Road between 42nd Avenue and Queen’s Chapel Road during peak hours.  

This recommendation was greeted with outright disgust from some citizens and skepticism from council members. 

“You’ve chosen to put traffic through the residential streets of the city to solve the major intersections away from the city,” said Scott Wilson, a Hyattsville resident and former city council member. “The restrictions that were put in on Queensbury were a direct result of community input over a long period of time... It was very much our intent to keep the traffic out of the residential areas of the city.”

Other recommendations, such as diverting traffic from the U.S.1-and-East West Highway intersection by re-purposing 44th Place and Queensbury Road as a way to siphon traffic from the busy intersection, had some residents fuming. 

“They’re trying to alleviate the problem (traffic congestion) by screwing the people of Hyattsville,” said Hugh Turely, a longtime Hyattsville resident. “The city council ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

While the recommendations were contentious, Silberman was clear to assure residents that these recommended changes are not final.

“It’s not our intention that any of these projects move into construction tomorrow without further public input,” Silberman said. “These are just concepts, and community feedback is welcome throughout the process.”

Mayor Bill Gardiner echoed the same sentiment. 

“This is our presentation to hear these recommendations as well, and I suspect that we’ll have additional discussions as to what recommendations we’d like to move forward with,” said Gardiner.

Future debate on the traffic study recommendations is scheduled for this fall.