New Rockville Pike

Consultants will present a new design for Rockville Pike.

If followed, the plan includes widening Rockville Pike to make room for two-lane access roads in each direction. The lanes would be split: one for buses and bikes, the other for local traffic.

Rockville Bike Advisory Committee Chairwoman Nancy Breen said bicycles are critical to any plan to redesign Rockville Pike.

"Bikes are going to get a lot more people off the roads (than walking), especially commuters without heavy loads," Breen said. "Rockville Pike is the face of Rockville and putting bike lanes on Rockville Pike would invite cycling more than anything else we could do in the city."

I don't want to compete with walking, and I think the point is to keep people on the roads, but on bikes - but I see what she's trying to say.

The plan sites K Street in the District and Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona as examples of well-executed plans.

Really? K Street? Isn't that kind of a mess? Isn't that why we're trying to redesign it?

Comments

[Ren]

I think Columbia Pike in Arlington should give a lane to buses and bikes during rush hour.

[Tim H]

from Gazette: "If followed, the plan includes widening Rockville Pike to make room for two-lane access roads in each direction. The lanes would be split: one for buses and bikes, the other for local traffic"

To me, a bike lane that you share with buses is hardly a bike lane at all.

Of course, I regularly ride on the pike on this stretch and it could hardly be worse for cycling than it is now.

I don't have evidence but I question whether bike/bus lanes really achieve any of the goals we expect of bike lanes (such as increasing ridership, especially for those who do not feel as comfortable sharing lanes with cars).

I'm really glad they are trying to accommodate bikes though. Carl Henn RIP.

[oboe]

My guess is that--best intentions aside--the county will make a pig's breakfast out of this effort. There are too many suburban residents who will fight any shift in focus with every fiber of their being.

It's hard enough getting this sort of thing done in the city, where the majority of trips are not even by auto.

As a city homeowner, I'm betting the suburbs continue to suck. I have a neighbor who described his urban house purchase as "shorting suburbia."

[Read Scott Martin, 13th Street NE]

"Shorting suburbia." Precisely.

[SJE]

If you follow the recent deficit reduction comission, they call for repeal of the mortgage interest tax credit and a rise in the gas tax. That can only improve the relative benefits of city vs suburbs.

[Early Man]

I am glad that the "suburbs suck" crowd is happy with their residential choice, but Rockville's effort on this has already demonstrated a seriousness that DC could learn something from. The town held a design charette last year that required the active involvement of 100s of residents in assessing and critiquing the Grand Boulevard plan, among others. I am sure the formal release of the plan will draw out all sorts of opposition in letters to the Gazette, but most of this conversation already occurred during the charette. Town officials should be well prepared in addressing these complaints rather than being blindsided (e.g., Pennsylvania Ave.).

[Jack]

From the article...
"The Pike lacks a sense of place; it has the undistinguished look of generic suburban strip developments characterized by one to two story buildings," the plan reads. "The undistinguished appearance of the study area is likely to affect the corridor's economic competitiveness in the region."
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I think the Pike does have a sense of place; it's just that it's a pretty awful place. At one point there is more retail per mile there than anywhere else, so I've heard. That makes it stand out as a place. It's not such a bad idea to group strip malls together on one strip. Then you can visit multiple places without a lot of driving (or biking). But it's horrid to walk from one plaza to the next, with barriers to walking between plazas and even within them.