Board members representing Poolesville, Damascus and Barnesville have noticed increased cyclists traffic over the last year and wanted to find ways to protect them on their rides.
The issue is how to protect cyclists on rural roads in Montgomery County and the some are advocating for more shoulders.
The Montgomery County 5th District Police station's Citizens Advisory Board took the first step in keeping the cyclists safe on Monday. The group met with County Department of Transportation engineer Gail Tait-Nouri about the possibility of adding shoulders or designated bike lanes to some of the county's narrow roads. Advisory board member Linda Panagoulis said the group wants to explore what modifications can be made to county roads.
the group is also trying to find money to fund adding bike lanes to roads.
The board will meet with county planners April 14, Panagoulis said.
Tim Guilford of the Potomac Pedalers Touring Club of Fairfax, Va. thinks shoulders would be fine, but doesn't think they're realistic. Nouri notes that to widen the roads they would need to cut down trees, but at the least she'd like to add more signs. Of course, in Maryland if there's a shoulder present, a cyclist is required to use it (unless it is too narrow, but we've seen that ignored before). So getting more shoulders may be a mixed blessing.
I suppose a cynic might think the real issue is how to get cyclists out of the way of cars, but it seems - from the article - like everyone has a genuine concern for safety. If you follow the link, there is a video of the Pedalers out for a ride.
Photo by Anthony Castellano/The Gazette
Enforcing the existing laws would be even cheaper, especially if you consider the revenue from traffic tickets.
Posted by: SJE | March 11, 2010 at 09:58 AM
Funding sources... Federal Aid in the form of Transportation Enhancements, Congestion Management and Air Quality Control, and others are all available to pay up to 100% of the cost Except the state says only off-road recreational trails qualify for transportational use of bicycles and county roads do not, in direct defiance of Federal Policies.
State law says we should use best practices in meting the needs of cyclists, the FHWA site shows examples of best practices in funding bicycle facilities, and Maryland is not even close.
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513493075 | March 11, 2010 at 01:40 PM
This is an issue in Baltimore County. Rural area residents believe that widening the road, even for a shoulder, increases traffic and speed, because people tend to drive faster on wider roads.
The AASHTO manual says that shoulders, even in rural areas, contribute to safety.
That is the tack I'd likely to push in Baltimore County, but I am not looking forward to the battles (if I am retained to work on the third phase bike and ped planning study there, which will cover the rural part of the county).
Posted by: Richard Layman | March 12, 2010 at 10:59 AM
note that I don't know about how CMAQ monies are spent, but TEA monies in MD require 20% local match. Of course, MoCo has that money. But note that the annual amount of TEA money is $10MM for the entire state.
Posted by: Richard Layman | March 12, 2010 at 11:00 AM
The AASHTO manual says that shoulders, even in rural areas, contribute to safety.
For the most part when traffic engineers talk about "safety" what they mean is increased traffic and speed.
Posted by: Contrarian | March 12, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Ahh, I should have been more specific. I meant the AASHTO manual on bicycle facilities. In that manual, the focus is on safety for bicyclists, not motorists.
In all rural land use contexts, the recommendations are for shoulders rather than for bicycle lanes.
See the charts on pages 35-37 in the Smart Transportation Guidebook: http://www.smart-transportation.com/assets/download/Smart%20Transportation%20Guidebook.pdf
Posted by: Richard Layman | March 14, 2010 at 10:16 PM