Tricky Intersection Has Drivers Stuck in Traffic

Intersection near Metro station frequently blocked

An intersection near the Bethesda Metro Station has drivers frequently stuck in gridlock.

Jennifer Ferrigno is fed up with sitting in traffic after work at Edgemoor Lane and Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. The problem is drivers running the red when turning left from Edgemoor onto Old Georgetown. Over the past few months, News4 cameras -- and Ferrigno’s cell phone -- have caught car after car, bus after bus running the red, getting stuck in the intersection and blocking traffic.

The State Highway Administration, which controls the intersection, studied it twice in two years and determined it’s not an engineering problem, but an enforcement issue.

Technically, some of the drivers aren't actually running the light, police said.

“It’s not illegal for them to enter the intersection, wait until the light turns red and then clear it,” Capt. Thomas Didone said.

Ride On bus driver and union representative Nelvin Ransome believes adding a left turn signal for traffic coming out of the Bethesda Metro Station and perhaps slightly tweaking the timing of nearby lights would make all the difference.

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