Ager Road: Where Complete Streets Fell Short
“This is a stroad in disguise,” remarked Strong Towns Director of Community Action Edward Erfurt when examining Ager Road in Hyattsville, Maryland. The arterial road cuts through the western corner of Hyattsville, serving as both a connection and a border between the town and its regional Metro stop. For Erfurt, a planner and urban designer, this functional ambiguity is precisely what makes Ager Road dangerous even years after its award-winning “Green-Complete Streets” transformation. “I generally believe in the power of paint, but this is a clear example of where it’s not working.”
Its makeover is a cautionary tale of where “Complete Streets” fall short. The U.S. Department of Transportation defines Complete Streets as “streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users … whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or public transportation riders.” However, using a combination of Google Maps, photos provided by locals, and documentation from the Complete Streets plans, Erfurt illustrates several post-transformation features that in fact made the street less safe.
Firstly, the number of car lanes remains the same, but each one has been expanded from 10 feet to 11 feet, a national standard and a hallmark of what Strong Towns has often described as “forgiving design.” Additionally, trees along the road’s perimeter have been removed in the interest of increased driver visibility and street parking supplanted by an unprotected bike lane. Together, these updates conspire to “optically open up Ager Road,” effectively encouraging higher driver speeds. Without street-calming measures, Erfurt notes that auspicious additions like the bike lane become unsuitable for casual cyclists. “This isn’t a bike lane for a kid or someone going to the train station. It’s for extreme cyclists, at best.”
Compare the following two views of the street…
Before (2012):
After (2022):
Locals agree: speeds are increasing. A recent traffic study revealed that 70% of drivers on Ager exceed the posted speed limit of 30 mph and 99.7% drive at speeds lethal to pedestrians. The intersection of Ager Road and Hamilton Street, one of two ways to walk to the West Hyattsville Metro Station, has seen at least one fatal crash and several close calls since Ager Road won awards for its transformation in 2021.
Ager Road’s design is perplexing because the Metro station it borders is evidently viewed as a local and regional asset. Inaugurated 29 years ago, the West Hyattsville station currently serves two rail lines, averages around 1,500 daily entries as of 2023, and can take riders to Chinatown in Washington, DC, in less than 20 minutes, beating car estimates. In recent years, the station has attracted peripheral development with retail, residential, and medical facilities being built within a short walk of the station. Brochures promoting the development underscore the environmental, social, and fiscal benefits of transit-oriented developments.
Erfurt even suggests that rehabilitating Ager Road under a Complete Streets model was in part motivated by the nascent development, a returning appetite for Metro, and evidence that the street hosts a significant amount of non-motorized traffic. Nevertheless, he asserts that if Hyattsville wants to meaningfully encourage alternative modes of transportation, like Metro and cycling, then Ager Road’s design needs to be consistent with those priorities. In other words, it needs to deprioritize vehicular speed in order to uphold pedestrian safety. “You can’t have it both ways.”
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.