MDOT Seeks Community Feedback On MD 235 Pedestrian Safety Plan

GREAT MILLS, Md. — Residents gathered Thursday evening at Great Mills High School to review proposed pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements along MD 235 (Three Notch Road) as the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) State Highway Administration (SHA) continued planning upgrades to one of St. Mary’s County’s busiest corridors.

The public informational workshop, held March 12, allowed community members to view project displays, ask questions of transportation planners and provide feedback on proposed design concepts for the corridor between MD 246 (Great Mills Road) and MD 237 (Chancellors Run Road).

According to data in MDOT materials presented at the workshop, 559 crashes occurred within the corridor between 2018 and 2023, including seven involving pedestrians and seven involving bicyclists. The six-lane roadway carries more than 30,000 vehicles per day in some sections and has a posted speed limit of 45 mph.

The MD 235 project focuses on approximately 3 miles of state roadway between Great Mills Road (MD 246) and Chancellors Run Road (MD 237) in the Great Mills and Lexington Park area.

Transportation planners say the corridor runs through what MDOT described as a suburban activity center, where commercial development lines the highway and residential neighborhoods, parks and schools are located nearby.

This context-driven planning approach designs roads based on how surrounding communities use them, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all traffic model. Planners consider nearby factors aiming to improve safety and connectivity across Maryland’s transportation network.

The workshop served as a follow-up to earlier outreach efforts, including a January public informational meeting, community feedback gathered through comment cards and the project’s online portal.

During earlier outreach, residents raised concerns about speeding traffic, drivers running red lights and the long distances between safe crosswalks.

State officials said the roadway project planning is only about 15 percent complete, with the current phase focused on design and concept development. Preliminary work is expected to reach a 30 percent design milestone by summer 2026, with construction anticipated to begin in winter 2028 or 2029.

Jim Joyner, deputy director in the Office of Communications for the SHA, said the Great Mills workshop was part of the agency’s broader plan to improve safety across the state.

“We’re here to get feedback on a concept that we’ve come up with regarding this corridor,” Joyner said. “It stems from the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, a report we published back in 2023 that listed dozens of corridors across the state that we wanted to look at to make improvements for bike and pedestrian safety.”

Joyner said the initiative identified many corridors across Maryland that showed safety concerns or opportunities for targeted improvements. He said 18 corridors were currently being evaluated under the program.

Of the 18 corridors being studied, 13 were identified through Maryland’s Vulnerable Road User Assessments under the PSAP and Strategic Highway Safety Plan, while five were separate District Safety Projects identified by the SHA. 

The MD 235 corridor in Great Mills is one of those now moving through the various planning stages. Thursday’s workshop represented the second round of public outreach for the area, where transportation engineers presented concept designs following community feedback. 

Joyner said the program often focused on modest infrastructure changes that can significantly improve safety.

“Different kinds of crosswalks, pedestrian crossings, bike signals and bike lanes are small changes that can make a big difference,” Joyner said.

Community input is shaping the plans, and Joyner said that residents, local officials, law enforcement and advocacy groups are encouraged to review proposals to share feedback at workshops and through the project’s online portal. 

“That’s the philosophy of our administrator — let’s learn from people and get feedback from people at the front end of the process,” Joyner said. “That feedback doesn’t end tonight. The project portal stays open throughout the whole process.”

Officials said improving pedestrian access and safety has become a growing priority as development and traffic volume increases along the corridor.

Kimberly Tran, district engineer for MDOT’s SHA covering Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties in District 5, said the Great Mills workshop represented a critical step in a community-driven planning process for pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements along the MD 235 corridor.

Tran said the presented concept, at the 15 percent design stage, was a part of a process known in transportation planning as the line-and-grade phase. 

“Now that some of these concepts have been put on the plans, we’re coming back out to the public,” Tran said. “It’s their opportunity to give their feedback so that we can then go back and either adjust, change or add to the plans.”

The program identified corridors with high numbers of pedestrian incidents or locations where residents relied more on walking, biking or transit systems. 

For the MD 235 corridor, proposed improvements included changes to intersections, new pedestrian crossings and shared-use paths intended to improve safety for people traveling along the corridor. 

“Part of the continuous auxiliary lane is being converted into a shared-use path for bikes and pedestrians,” Tran said. “We’re adding some median fencing to channel pedestrians safely to the crosswalk instead of crossing mid-block.”Tran also emphasized that community input remained a key part of the planning process, encouraging residents to review project materials online and submit feedback through the project’s public portal.

Proposed Improvements Along MD 235

Community Feedback And Concerns Emerge

During the workshop, residents were encouraged to review displays of proposed improvements, leave suggestions on maps and share feedback directly with transportation planners.

While the project is still in early design stages, several people who attended the workshop said they had questions about how the proposed changes could affect daily traffic along the corridor.

Ryan Daniels, a 2026 commissioner candidate for St. Mary’s County’s District 4, said he attended the MDOT workshop to better understand the proposed safety improvements along the MD 235 corridor and to hear directly from transportation officials and members of the community about the project proposals.

Daniels said he supported efforts to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists but expressed concerns that some of the proposed design changes could create traffic challenges along the busy corridor. One concern he had involved the conversion to a shared-use pathway, which he said could create additional congestion or rear-end collisions.

“Not having that turning lane is going to be disastrous,” Daniels said. “Now you would have to decelerate in traffic to turn.”

Daniels also questioned whether the proposed shared-use path would duplicate infrastructure already being developed nearby along FDR Boulevard, where the county has constructed a multiuse path intended for walking and biking.

“This is creating that pedestrian path along 235, which personally I don’t really see a lot of people walking around 235 anyway,” Daniels said. “We already kind of have that just off of 235 along FDR.”

MDOT materials noted that several related transportation projects were underway or planned in the area, which included the county’s extension of the Three Notch Trail, SMART traffic signal upgrades along MD 235 and additional sidewalk projects near Patuxent River Naval Air Station gates.

While Daniels said he appreciated the state’s effort to gather community feedback, he believed earlier communication about the project could have helped reduce confusion among residents who only recently learned about the proposal through social media and local media. 

“It kind of took people off guard,” Daniels said. “It’s also really important to me that I understand everything that is happening too.”

Adrianne Mathis, a 2026 candidate for state delegate in District 29B, said the MDOT workshop was a useful way for residents to learn more about the proposed MD 235 pedestrian safety project and offer feedback, but she believed the state should have begun broader public engagement earlier in the process.

“It’s a great setup, and it’s a good way for us to gain a little more knowledge on the project,” Mathis said. “I do feel like we missed the mark.”

Mathis said she supported safer spaces for bicyclists and pedestrians in principle but questioned whether the current concept was the right fit for the MD 235 corridor. She said some of the proposed changes, particularly along the south side of the corridor, appear to create new safety concerns.

“That 235 is very, very congested because of base traffic,” Mathis said. “It just seems like all of the different entrances and exits along this stretch, this plan sets it up for additional unsafe spaces for bikers and pedestrians.”

Mathis argued that the project should have been discussed with more of the community before officials reached the roughly 15 percent design stage. She said outreach should have extended beyond an afterhours school-based meeting, to locations such as public libraries and accessible community spaces.

“We should be presenting it in more than one way, so that everybody gets a good sense of what’s happening,” Mathis said. “It needs to go to the library now.”

More broadly, Mathis connected the project to her campaign for state delegate, saying she is running in part because she believes the southern portion of St. Mary’s County is too often overlooked in Annapolis. She noted that residents need stronger representation when state agencies are planning projects that affect their communities.

“I really feel this is where I stand in terms of the absence of even thinking about St. Mary’s County and what we need here,” Mathis said. “That’s one reason I’m running, to fill that gap, to bring a voice to St. Mary’s County.”

Complete Streets Policy Shapes Corridor Planning

The MD 235 improvements are part of Maryland’s Complete Streets Policy, which directs transportation agencies to design roads that safely serve all users, not just motorists.

Under the policy, MDOT and SHA evaluate how pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and drivers interact with a corridor when planning upgrades or reconstruction projects. That approach can include adding sidewalks, shared-use paths, improved crosswalks, safer intersections and other features intended to reduce crashes and improve accessibility.

Transportation officials said the goal is to address safety risks for what planners call “vulnerable road users,” including pedestrians and cyclists, while maintaining vehicle mobility along busy corridors like Three Notch Road.

• Pedestrian Safety Action Plan
• Maryland Strategic Highway Safety Plan

Officials emphasized that community input will be incorporated into the design process as the MD 235 project moves forward.

Residents can continue to submit comments online and review project materials through the MD 235 Project Portal maintained by the MDOT’s State Highway Administration.

Officials said projects selected through the PSAP are also intended to deliver safety improvements without requiring major roadway reconstruction.

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