The Silver Spring stop– on the edge of a six-lane thoroughfare, along a grass embankment with no sidewalk or crosswalk nearby– captured the voters support and beat bus stops in New Castle, Del., Asheville, N.C., Boston and Kansas City.

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“In terms of pure danger, it’s hard to top this tiny refuge next to a state highway with no crossing to protect pedestrians from speeding traffic,” Streetsblog’s Angie Schmitt said about the winning stop in a Monday afternoon announcement. Silver Spring won with 80 percent of the vote from a total of just under 1,100 votes.

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The bus stop also captured the county’s attention. Montgomery County officials say they have asked the Maryland State Highway Administration to review all alternatives to make the bus stop more accessible, including the option to add a crosswalk or a traffic light.

“The primary issue is whether something can be done to make crossing US 29 at that location safer for those in the Woodmoor community,” county spokeswoman Esther Bowring said in an email.

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The bus stop serves an average of 15 riders a day who come from the Woodmoor neighborhood across the street, officials say. They say those who use the stop don’t walk along US 29 on the east side, and passengers from adjacent communities on the east side have access to other bus stops. Officials say that’s why building a sidewalk on the opposite side of US 29 from Woodmoor isn’t the solution.

Given the stop’s low ridership, some officials say the most prudent action would be to remove the stop, which is served by the Z-Line Metrobuses heading toward the Silver Spring Metro station.

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“Putting a stop without a safe way to access it doesn’t make any sense, but that is what happened in this case and it is not the only case,” said Montgomery County Council member Tom Hucker (D-Eastern County), who represents the area.

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“It can be dangerous. In this case it encourages people to run across the street where there is not a crosswalk to access the stop,” he said. “Ideally we would only put stops where there are crosswalks or traffic lights and safe ways for people to access them.”

But bad bus stops are a concern all across his district, he said, where communities such as Colesville, Four Corners, Silver Spring and White Oak have become more transit dependent.

“Overall we under-invest in transit a lot and in particular we under-invest in bus stops,” he said. “We have many bus stops that are simply a flag stuck in the mud. Not materially different than bus stops in poor rural communities worldwide. They are not the type of quality that you would expect in Montgomery County.”

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County transportation officials, however, point at an $11-million, 10-year improvement project that began in 2008, after a study identified 3,400 of the county’s 5,400 bus stops as needing upgrades. Eight years later, the county has made improvements to more than 3,000 stops. Last year the agency said it had built 1,255 ramps at 826 intersections, 85,618 square feet of sidewalks, and concrete pads at 2,474 bus stops.

The Silver Spring “sorriest” bus stop was improved about six years ago with a concrete pad for people to stand on. And in 2009, Montgomery County built a $3.8-million sidewalk on the Woodmoor side of US 29, between Lorain Avenue and Northwest Branch, to improve access and pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Still, officials say they recognize that much work needs to be done to make bus stops more accessible and safer. In the Washington region, bus riders all over the area encounter challenges such as bus-stop signs beside six-lane roads that have no sidewalks or ramps. Of the region’s 19,000 bus stops, about one-third — or 6,200 — are inaccessible to wheelchair users and others with limited mobility, according to Metro. And even where improvements have been made, many stops fall short of true accessibility because they lack walkable pathways, accessibility and transit officials say.

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Although 99.8 percent of public buses nationwide are accessible to people who have mobility problems, broken sidewalks — or an absence of sidewalks — and curb cuts that are in disrepair remain obstacles, transportation officials say.

Transit advocates say the conditions mirror a culture where many neighborhoods were developed for car use. But as more people want to walk and bike and ride transit, road engineers and transit planners face real and costly challenges to retrofit roads.

The Streetsblog crowd-sourced completion, now in its second year, aimed to draw attention to the conditions that bus users face.

“Many of the stops in the competition are not just uncomfortable or degrading but outright dangerous,” Schmitt, Streetsblog’s editor, said last week. “We hope the competition helps people see these places with fresh eyes. … Relatively inexpensive infrastructure like bus shelters and trash cans can really make a difference for riders. In other cases, sidewalks, crosswalks and the wider set of street conditions need attention.”

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In the case of Silver Spring, the county gave the neighborhood a bus stop conveniently located across the street from the development, but unsafe to get to. The bus stop is just north of Four Corners and south of the Shoppes of Burnt Mills.

Because U.S. 29 is owned by the state, the county cannot make changes to the road without first consulting with the state highway administration. The county transportation department has asked SHA to review all the possible improvements, officials said, but a review could take 60 to 90 days.

If the state says no to adding a traffic light or crosswalk, officials could consider removing the stop and ask bus riders to use the closest stop at Southwood Avenue. Officials say residents of Woodmoor can exit their community at Crestmoor, use the sidewalk on their side of the street and walk south to US 29 and Southwood Avenue, just a short walk away.

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Another option, officials said, is to create another exit from the Crestmoor community to U.S. 29, at Eastmoor Drive so residents can exit their neighborhood closer to the Southwood Avenue bus stop.

Neighbors should expect the county to call a meeting to discuss options before any changes take place.