Adventures in Montgomery County bureaucracy

Thanks, sethpo! They are currently claiming they will deal with the issue within 2 days. But if they don’t, I’ll go ahead and contact the relevant councilmembers.

Cynic! Of course, that doesn’t mean you are wrong…

What is ironic is that if a traffic light goes out, apparently there is a computer system that automatically submits a report within seconds. But if the button for a pedestrian/bicyclist walk light is broken, there is no such system in place. Once again, whatever inconveniences/endangers motorists is a lot higher priority than what inconveniences/endangers pedestrians or cyclists.

@skins_brew 84709 wrote:

I bet if a revenue generating speed camera was broken, it would be fixed THAT day.

Yeah, that’s one reason I hadn’t gotten around to reporting it earlier. Another is that I was bicycling with someone else before, and didn’t want to make that person stop for long enough for me to get the pole number for the report. But today, I was biking that way later than usual, and there was no one coming the other way to push the button. And because I was alone, I was able to sit down right by the pole where I could see the pole number and call from there. (Of course, I didn’t have the presence of mind to write down the pole number, so when I discovered that the promised e-mail hadn’t come through and went to submit the issue a second time, I had to submit the report without the pole number.)

@ebubar 84712 wrote:

Keep us updated. I’ve noticed this problem myself, as with the good weather i’ve biked through there on my work day commutes. Its quite annoying, but hasn’t been a problem as i’ve had people on the opposite side pushing the button. If its not fixed soon, i’m happy to contact someone as well! TEAMWORK! Law-Abiding Cyclists UNITE!

I’m thinking that if a computer could report that a traffic light was out, they must have something that is reporting when an electrical circuit isn’t functioning. And the same system could report that the electrical system necessary to make the button work wasn’t functioning.

I can understand beg buttons being necessary at some intersections–ones in which cars also need to beg, by rolling over a circuit in the street, for example. If you’ve got a main street with constant traffic, and a side street (or trail) in which one person an hour comes through, it seems silly to keep the light cycling continuously for that side street or trail. However, I would agree that far too little attention is paid to bicycle or pedestrian traffic in determining whether cycling should happen automatically, or should require a beg button.

@mstone 84733 wrote:

I’m curious what kind of system could report that when people pushed the button, the button didn’t notice.

The bigger issue is that they keep expanding the use of beg buttons instead of just reserving some time for pedestrians.

I biked out the Georgetown Branch Trail today, and discovered that the button is working! My service request is still showing as “In Progress,” but I doubt it’s just a coincidence that after being broken for weeks, the button is finally working two days after I reported it.