Worst bike lane in Maryland?

[dasgeh]

Reminds me of the bike lanes near Disney World (on US 192 in Kissimmee) — 6 lane, limited access, divided highway, and on the right, a regular old unprotected bike lane that crosses the two-lane exit to Disney World. And then disappears, with no sidewalk.

[mstone]

it’s better than the sidewalk…

[Mikey]

@mstone 106043 wrote:

it’s better than the sidewalk…

eh, at least the sidewalk is elevated from the roadway. Yes it is elevated, lowered, then elevated then lowered, then elevated again, but you could almost call that a grade separation.

[Greenbelt]

This is just SHA’s way of reminding us that they want to turn every neighborhood street into a limited access highway, and walking and biking — which is only for undesireables anyway — shouldn’t be allowed.

Everywhere else, suburbs are being retrofitted, with lane diets (Greenbelt Road is hugely overbuilt), bike lanes, trees, bioswales, infill residential, parking lot reuse etc.

Not in Maryland, dangit, we’re car drivers here, and we’ll have none of that newfangled transit oriented and sustainable economic redevelopment that has been so successful elsewhere.

http://bikeleague.org/content/summit-preview-retrofitting-suburbs

[peterw_diy]

Surely the “green book” and similar professional traffic engineering guides contain standards this violates. Average auto speed there is what, 50-55mph?

[Greenbelt]

@peterw_diy 106047 wrote:

Surely the “green book” and similar professional traffic engineering guides contain standards this violates. Average auto speed there is what, 50-55mph?

I think the speed limit is 45, but with no enforcement 50-60 is pretty common.

[dasgeh]

@Greenbelt 106046 wrote:

This is just SHA’s way of reminding us that they want to turn every neighborhood street into a limited access highway, and walking and biking — which is only for undesireables anyway — shouldn’t be allowed.

Everywhere else, suburbs are being retrofitted, with lane diets (Greenbelt Road is hugely overbuilt), bike lanes, trees, bioswales, infill residential, parking lot reuse etc.

Not in Maryland, dangit, we’re car drivers here, and we’ll have none of that newfangled transit oriented and sustainable economic redevelopment that has been so successful elsewhere.

http://bikeleague.org/content/summit-preview-retrofitting-suburbs

Move to Virginia! We’ve got all-blue state-wide leadership, and we like bikes and peds (ok, at least in Arlington).

BTW, anyone else feel like we’re in a kinda alternate reality where Virginia’s Governor is a D, and Maryland’s is a R?

[Greenbelt]

@dasgeh 106049 wrote:

Move to Virginia! We’ve got all-blue state-wide leadership, and we like bikes and peds (ok, at least in Arlington).

BTW, anyone else feel like we’re in a kinda alternate reality where Virginia’s Governor is a D, and Maryland’s is a R?

Actually, can’t blame this on conservative government. Aside from planning the purple line, you wouldn’t really know we weren’t in Alabama from the planning of the the state roads. I think the larger issue is that SHA seems to be functionally independent of public accountability. They just do what they think best, regardless of all the public visioning sessions and master plans etc. And what they think best is highways everywhere.

[Raymo853]

By the way, what is the SHA and where is this photo?

[Greenbelt]

State Highway Administration. This is Greenbelt Road looking westbound toward Kenilworth Ave (Route 201).

It’s a real issue of whether or not to criticize the engineers for building bad bike lanes, because their response might be that they just won’t build bike lanes at all.

On the other hand, these sorts of sliver segments of bike lanes on major roads really make it seem like they’re not making an honest effort, but rather just trying to fill a quota. Sort of like to be able to say in their report that they painted X miles of bike lanes, regardless of whether they’re actually functionally useful.

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 106042 wrote:

Reminds me of the bike lanes near Disney World (on US 192 in Kissimmee) — 6 lane, limited access, divided highway, and on the right, a regular old unprotected bike lane that crosses the two-lane exit to Disney World. And then disappears, with no sidewalk.

OMG. Great for #kidical no doubt

Check it out in Google maps here (scroll right from the starting point as though you are traveling east). Love how it peters out entirely.

[sethpo]

@Greenbelt 106055 wrote:

State Highway Administration. This is Greenbelt Road looking westbound toward Kenilworth Ave (Route 201).

It’s a real issue of whether or not to criticize the engineers for building bad bike lanes, because their response might be that they just won’t build bike lanes at all.

On the other hand, these sorts of sliver segments of bike lanes on major roads really make it seem like they’re not making an honest effort, but rather just trying to fill a quota. Sort of like to be able to say in their report that they painted X miles of bike lanes, regardless of whether they’re actually functionally useful.

Having a strong and committed county council seems to make a difference when battling the SHA.

OLD GEORGETOWN ROAD IN WHITE FLINT WILL HAVE BIKE LANES!

http://www.waba.org/blog/2015/01/old-georgetown-road-in-white-flint-will-have-bike-lanes/

Some good news! Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett has announced an agreement between the MCDOT and the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) to reduce the number of car lanes on Old Georgetown Road. This will allow MCDOT to construct on-road bike lanes and an off-road shared use path between Hoya Street and Grand Park Avenue.

[Author]

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