Montgomery County Media Advisory
For Immediate Release: July 25, 2000
Contact: Esther Bowring, 240-777-6530
Del. William Bronrott, 301-652-6016

PEDESTRIAN AND TRAFFIC SAFETY BLUE RIBBON PANEL HOLDS FIRST MEETING

                          Wednesday, July 26, 2000
                                8:30 a.m.
                        Executive Office Building
            101 Monroe St., Lobby Level Auditorium, Rockville

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan will kick off the first meeting of the new Montgomery County Blue Ribbon Panel on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and members of the County Highway Safety Panel will be announced.

The Blue Ribbon Panel, chaired by State Delegate Bill Bronrott (D-District 16), will then receive a briefing from representatives of the County's Police Department, Department of Public Works and Transportation, and Health and Human Services on current efforts to address pedestrian and traffic safety.

Duncan appointed the Panel in response to increasing pedestrian fatalities and injuries, and growing concerns about highway safety in general. Over each of the past five years, more people in the County have been killed as pedestrians than in homicides. The Panel will seek ways to improve and coordinate various highway safety efforts, such as pedestrian safety, aggressive driving and drunk driving. The Panel will recommend changes in the County's current education, enforcement and traffic engineering efforts and will advocate improvements to local and state laws to reduce traffic deaths and to encourage safe and walkable communities.

The Panel will hold public hearings in the future to solicit input from national and local highway safety experts and from concerned citizens.

Directions: From I-270, take Falls Rd. exit towards Rockville. Proceed on Maryland Ave. Turn right onto Fleet St. Proceed one block and turn left onto Monroe St. Proceed two blocks. Parking is available in the underground parking garage of the Executive Office Building.

              PEDESTRIAN AND TRAFFIC SAFETY BLUE RIBBON PANEL

*Brandy Anderson, national public policy director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving

*Lon Anderson, public and governmental relations director for the Potomac Chapter of the American Automobile Association

*Gordon Aoyagi, Montgomery County fire administrator

*Don Barclay, Bethesda resident and advocate for greater pedestrian safety and access

*Anita Brady, Communications Training Consultants president and Mid-County Citizens Advisory board member

*William Bronrott, Maryland State Delegate, District 16

*Cindy Buddington, Montgomery County Commission on People with Disabilities representative

*Leslie Downey, past chair of the Transportation Committee of the Blair High School PTSA

*Peter Franchot, Maryland State Delegate, District 20 and chair of the House Appropriation Sumbcommittee on Transportation and the Environment

*Douglas Gansler, State's Attorney for Montgomery County

*Dr. Carol Garvey, Montgomery County Health Officer representing Chuck Short, director of the Department of Health and Human Services

*Albert Genetti, Jr., director Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation

*Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

*Alice Helm, Montgomery County Commission on Aging representative

*Dr. Miguel Kamat, Bethesda activist

*William "Skip" Lanham, deputy director of the Special Operations Division for the Montgomery County Police Department

*Charles Loehr, director of Park and Planning for the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission

*Adrienne Mandel, Maryland State Delegate

*Kim McGuire, Damascus High School student

*Charles A. Moose, Ph.D., Montgomery County Chief of Police

*Susan Morris, Equals Three Communications president, Washington Regional Alcohol Program board member, and National Commission Against Drunk Driving board member

*John Mouldin, National Commission Against Drunk Driving president and Transportation Safety Associates president

*Marilyn Praisner, Montgomery County Councilmember, District 4

*Richard Pratt, Transportation Planning Consultant and Traffic Engineer

*Walter Smith, GEICO vice president

*Margo Stanton, Montgomery County traffic safety coordinator for the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services

*Cornelius Vaughey, District Court judge and vice chair of the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission

*Robyn Watts, east county resident

*John Wetmore, national expert on pedestrian safety issues, and producer and host of a nationally syndicated television show called "Perils for Pedestrians"

*Bill Wilkinson, executive director of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking