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Your last point is a very good one. I am someone who takes Metro to work half the time and bikes in the other half, with variations depending upon the season. In signing up for my transit subsidy benefits, I still ask for the full amount (as if I commute by Metro every workday) because it is difficult, if not impossible, to change the subsidy amount every three to four months. Accordingly, for large portions of the year, I get more Metro benefits than I use. This problem has been somewhat alleviated with my unused subsidy going back to the government at the end of the month, but still ...

what is free parking? If I work at 7-11 and park in the customer lot, is that free. Or if I work at best buy in a suburban shopping center? Or in a downtown garage?

The left turns on L st are getting worse. Rather reminds me of K st and the "dont' turn from main lane" that everyone ignores. I've been almost clipped several times as a driver, biker, and pedestrian.

If I work at 7-11 and park in the customer lot, is that free. Or if I work at best buy in a suburban shopping center? Or in a downtown garage?

Yes

Rode the L last night just for heck of it. I found the gap between left turning vehicles and straight ahead vehicles to be kinda narrow. (esp if left turning vehicles were in the middle of an intersection waiting for peds or gridlock to clear).

L street merge areas should be altered.

Instead of the green appearing from the buffer, it should come from the left (the bike lane) creating a diagonal green line. The diagonal allows the placement of yield triangles aimed at cars, to better indicate the entrance area. The entrance area should also be extended somewhat, to allow time to see it, realize what it is, yield, and then merge, vs " wtf is happening"

The through lane should have a very clear "straight arrow only" painting.

I also rode the L Street Cycletrack for the heck of it last night.

I wish they had figured out a way to put the "Drivers Yield to Bicycles" signs in the buffer. Maybe using a design similar to the "DC Law: Stop for Peds in Crosswalk" signs.

In fact, exactly those signs (with different text) would not only improve driver instruction but also more clearly mark the beginning and end of the crossover zone.

Had I realized that was you interviewing me, I'd have chatted more. As it was, I had to book back south quickly.

I would swear that once upon a time that's how the transit bennefit worked. At an intern job (at a DOD contractor) one summer in the early 90's I had a choice of either getting a (free) parking space or a 75 dollar metro farecard every month

How in the world did I miss that absurd suggested redesign for MD355? Just where did those planners think they would get--let's see, the diagram still shows 6 lanes of North/South through-traffic, then the "local lanes" are 2 wide, with a third lane-width for parking on each side (so that's total nine lanes) and the boundary separating local and through lanes is roughly a lane in each direction--11 lanes wide?? Would they really consider bulldozing pretty much everything that's there now (in what timeframe?)? They'll have a load of fun in downtown Rockville and St Mary's Cemetery (where F Scott Fitzgerald is buried); the existing 6 lanes of road (and two for turning onto Veir's Mill Rd) and cemetery have already pinched the sidewalk. And no doubt the planners have this idyllic image of me toddling home on those local lanes--in between people walking to their parked cars, backing their cars out, cross traffic....--when I really just want to go home? --they want to try to extend that service road by Best Buy? ugh!

Now - it's nice that Rockville has been selected for an honor, and I hope it does provide impetus to make the place better, but the article highlighted it: the existing bike routes are on residential streets (see the ones that connect Norbeck to Twinbrook parallel to Vier's Mill) that are zig-zag, stop-and-go affairs. Main thorough-fares are fairly well ignored. Nothing seems obvious as a straight path. Maybe it's fine that way and maybe my route home from work on MD355 doesn't need a lot of fixing, but it sure seems that the suggested routes don't have a lot to recommend them. Millennium Trail does have rough edges - and to answer the one question on the linked page: it handles intersections at MD355 (and everywhere else) just like a really wide sidewalk: fairly smooth ramps with safety bumps. Nice thing about it: the people coming out of the office complex with Comcast typically back up to clear the path when they see people on the trail coming towards where they've already stuck their nose out to wait for a clearing in auto-traffic on West Gude.

Does anyone know what happens to the MUP-path along Montrose Road when it comes to the top of the hill by the St. Elizabeth's Church (between Tildenwood and Farm Haven)?

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