Bikesharing expands to Maryland tomorrow

Who'd have thought it'd be Bethesda before Baltimore? And it may be a catalyst for more bike friendly policies in general. 

We get it now," says Councilmember Valerie Ervin, who started working toward the bike sharing program in 2007. "We have trails that were never completed, and so we have lots of very frustrated residents."

Now, the influx of new bikes adds some urgency to shore up the county's infrastructure to match the new demands for safe places to cycle.

"Our streets are not striped everywhere like they are in D.C., our motorists and our pedestrians are not used to sharing the roadways and the sidewalks yet and we have some very interesting laws that allow bicyclists to be on sidewalks with pedestrians," Ervin says.

Also, she said she hopes for some uniform policies across the county that address issues like riding a bike on the sidewalk.

"Montgomery County is not as biker-friendly as Washington, D.C., and Arlington are, but we're getting there quickly," she says.

One significant change could affect those who prefer to get around on four wheels.

"For safety purposes we want to look at preventing right turns on red [lights] just in the most densely populated areas of the county," Ervin says.

"We know that there are going to be a lot of unhappy people, but Montgomery County is growing up," she says.

Comments

[Joe in SS]

I made the same comment on the WTOP story - of all of the things to help bikers, No Right Turn on Red (which is already prevalent at 90% of the intersections in Downtown Silver Spring, is at the bottom of the list. If I am at a red light, that just means a ton of cars turning, conflicting with me in the right lane, once the light turns green. If I am crossing (i.e, with the green light), I can still see the car about to pull out, and avoid it. Valerie Ervin did not bother to show up at any of the CaBi meetings in Silver Spring, so I don't know where she's getting this info from.

[SJE]

Ervin has no clue. The problem is not drivers having the right to turn on red, its whether drivers exercise caution and prudence, and whether MoCo police enforce the laws.

[Joe]

Unfortunately driver peds and cyclists are very lax on the rules in this area. As hitting peds and cyclists with a motor vehicle can be quite deadly and drivers don't want to take the proper responsibility, it might very well be necessary to have no right turn on red in places. If driver's start to take the proper responsibility to come to a complete stop and insure the road and sidewalk are truly clear then we don't need to do away with ride turn on red.

As for bikes on sidewalks, the bike share bikes are really slow so unless there is a very high volume of sidewalk users it shouldn't be an issue. If it's faster to be on the road, bike share users will choose the road over the sidewalk.

And yes... it would have been very helpful if the County would have built the cycling infrastructure we have been asking for, for years!

[antibozo]

When stopped at lights i normally position myself at the *left* edge of the right lane, so that right-turners can go past me on my right. This makes everyone happier (well, almost everyone), and seems pretty obvious to me, but i rarely see other cyclists doing it.

[Nancy]

I do that, too, antibozo, if there's room.

I think one problem is the phrase "right on red." We should start emphasizing the STOP, as in "right after STOP on red." Most drivers treat right-on-reds as green right turn arrows.

[just another rider]

What I would like for the county and the state to get clear is whether side paths, or trails are part of the roadway or more like a parallel road. Drivers treat it like a parallel road and end up pulling through it with the expectation that cross traffic must wait. Now, MD State law is clear that peds must wait to cross a roadway if the crossing traffic cannot stop, but no mention if the cross path user cannot stop - you end up with a driver hooking the cyclist who is on the side path or side walk. Like the guy I called emergency services for two weeks ago when his bike couldn't come to a screeching halt before hitting the car as it hooked him.

[just another rider]

What I would like for the county and the state to get clear is whether side paths, or trails are part of the roadway or more like a parallel road. Drivers treat it like a parallel road and end up pulling through it with the expectation that cross traffic must wait. Now, MD State law is clear that peds must wait to cross a roadway if the crossing traffic cannot stop, but no mention if the cross path user cannot stop - you end up with a driver hooking the cyclist who is on the side path or side walk. Like the guy I called emergency services for two weeks ago when his bike couldn't come to a screeching halt before hitting the car as it hooked him.

getting that might clear up some of this mess.