Montgomery COUNTY

Connecting the ICC Trail

For years cyclists were promised a spectacular 18-mile hiker-biker trail from Gaithersburg to Laurel along the Intercounty Connector highway. But now the state says building the trail is up to Montgomery County, and Montgomery County planners want to cut the trail into pieces. WABA is now working with other local groups like Montgomery Bicycle Advocates on making sure the trail segments along the ICC are connected into a coherent whole.

BRAC Improvements

The State Highway Administration is redesigning several roads to handle more cars in preparation for the consolidation of jobs at the Naval Medical Center as part of BRAC, and the early word is that their plans are likely to make conditions worse for bikes -- and prevent improvements for bicycles in the future. WABA is working to ensure that master planned bike facilities are included in the new design.

The Metropolitan Branch Trail in Silver Spring

Our organization supported the creation of a bike and pedestrian bridge over Georgia Avenue and a tunnel beneath East-West Highway for the Met Branch Trail in Silver Spring. This recommendation has since been adopted by the county as their preferred alternative. However, since the plan was selected in 2006 all work has ground to a halt. We urge the county to begin phase II of the project using existing facility planning dollars, and to begin to identify additional funding for the construction of the trail.

“WABA wants to thank Rails to Trails and the Coca-Cola Foundation for their support of the Metropolitan Branch Trail”.

White Flint Sector Plan

The Montgomery County Planning Board is updating its plans for the White Flint area of Rockville Pike. Local developers have joined together to develop the area in a way that makes Rockville Pike more transit, pedestrian and bike friendly. The Planning Board has presented revised plans for the area that lack dedicated bike facilities along the Pike, but a consulting firm hired by the developers has developed an amazing vision for the Pike that WABA fully supports.

Bike Friendly Road Code

The county's Road Code Stakeholder Work Group, which was created in part through WABA's efforts has completed it's work. The group came up with a series of road design standards which the County Executive (essentially DOT) has just submitted to the County Council for approval. These are much better from a cyclist's perspective than the original draft standards proposed in 2007 county legislation.

But wait! The County Council is demanding revisions to the Executive's (and work group's) standards. The Planning Board first came up with these revisions and the Council is now insisting the Executive resubmit its standards with these revisions incorporated, or presumably the Council will not approve what the Executive submitted. But the Executive is refusing to make the Council's (Planning Board's) revisions.

Bike Safety and Education Programs for Children and Adults

Even if the engineering efforts to design and construct on-road bike facilities and multi-use paths are successful, efforts should be made to educate County residents on how to take advantage of such facilities in a safe and enjoyable manner. Throughout the Washington region, in-school bike and pedestrian safety education programs, and confident city cycling classes for adults, encourage the use of bicycles for transportation and recreation. New federal transportation dollars, both in 402 safety funds and through the new Safe Routes to School program, can be tapped.

LOCAL ADVOCACY INFORMATION

MoBike (Montgomery Bicycle Advocates)
MoBike is a bicyclists' advocacy group that often works closely with WABA
website: www.mobike.org
email: info@mobike.org
listserv>>

Montgomery County Bicycle Action Group (MCBAG)
Meets the 3rd Thursday of the month from 6:30 - 8:30 pm
100 Edison Park Drive 4th Floor, Gaithersburg MD 20878
Website>>

Montgomery County Bike Coordinator

Gail Tait-Nouri

(240) 777-7244

bike@montgomerycountymd.gov

MD State Bike Coordinator
Michael Jackson

mjackson3@mdot.state.md.us

Report a Problem

Roads: (240) 777-7632

Trails: mnc-community@mncppc-mc.org

Montgomery County Bikes Budget
posted 2/22/08

See below for detailed comments on the Montgomery County budget prepared by WABA, MoBike and the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail.

WABA's Budget Comments

Fund and Track Bikeways Master Plan Implementation
The award-winning Countywide Bikeways Functional Master Plan recommends a threefold expansion of the current bikeway system in the next 20 to 25 years. We urge the county to fund bikeway projects at the higher levels necessary to achieve the plan’s goals. To ensure steady progress, we ask you to set specific annual targets and establish a process for measuring and reporting against these targets.

Increase the Bikeway Program budget to $1,000,000 a year and Increase Staffing Devoted to Bikeways
We strongly urge expansion of the DPWT Bikeway Program to $1,000,000 to make better progress towards creating a bike-friendly county. We've already identified several new cost-effective projects suitable for this program. Moreover, DPWT only has one full time bikeway specialist but two are required to handle the work load. The situation is just as difficult at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) where one planner spends only 4 to 8 hours per week on bike issues, leaving important tasks unfinished. Please support M-NCPPC’s recent request for additional bike planning staff.
Fund Bikeway Maintenance In the FY06 DPWT Operating Budget, the County Council provided an additional $50,000 for routine bikeway maintenance, including sweeping of key routes several times a year. But it appears that no additional sweeping was performed, nor were expenses tracked adequately to determine if funds were spent on bikeways. Please direct DPWT to improve tracking and establish a bikeway sweeping schedule. Also investigate the purchase of a dedicated trail sweeping machine as the City of Rockville owns. Ensure that trail maintenance includes snow removal,, especially on the Capital Crescent Trail.

Fund Selected Alternative for the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Silver Spring
Our organizations supported the creation of a bike and pedestrian bridge over Georgia Avenue and a tunnel beneath East-West Highway for the Met Branch Trail in Silver Spring. This recommendation has since been adopted by the county as their preferred alternative. However, since the plan was selected in 2006 all work has ground to a halt. We urge the county to begin phase II of the project using existing facility planning dollars, and to begin to identify additional funding for the construction of the trail.
Fund Bike Safety and Education Programs for Children and Adults ($80,000)
Even if the engineering efforts to design and construct on-road bike facilities and multi-use paths are successful, efforts should be made to educate County residents on how to take advantage of such facilities in a safe and enjoyable manner. Throughout the Washington region, in-school bike and pedestrian safety education programs, and confident city cycling classes for adults, encourage the use of bicycles for transportation and recreation. New federal transportation dollars, both in 402 safety funds and through the new Safe Routes to School program, can be tapped.
Construct the US 29 Commuter Bikeway
The US 29 Commuter Bikeway is an opportunity to make bicycling a viable choice in an important transportation corridor. Maryland SHA has built key sections of the bikeway as part of its US 29 interchange improvements, but it's up to the County to join these sections into a contiguous facility. The County needs to begin funding completion of the missing segments.

Fund More Facility Planning Studies
The county must fund bike-related Facility Planning studies at a quicker pace if we’re to make any progress against the Bikeways Master Plan. Lack of studies has limited the county's ability to select good projects for implementation when the time comes. This year MoBike and WABA performed an analysis of key bike corridors and relevant gaps in Montgomery County. We especially looked for long and useful routes across the county. This exercise enabled us to identify important yet feasible projects and prioritize these projects. In light of that, we recommend that you begin study of improvements to the following ten key corridors and routes:

US 29/Colesville Road Corridor – In addition to the mostly unfinished US 29 Commuter Bikeway, this corridor is plagued by gaps at Northwest Branch and various Silver Spring locations.
Shady Grove Road – This linchpin of the planned upcounty bike route network has bike lanes east of I-370 but is all but unbikeable elsewhere; the bike lanes must be extended to MD 28
Woodmont Avenue – This street's one-way configuration is anathema to cyclists. No good alternate routes are available. Yet Woodmont sits between two CBD centers and two premier bike trails.
Connecticut Ave./Georgia Ave. corridors – Several small gaps in these corridors make north-south travel difficult for cyclists; these can be addressed by building linking paths in key locations.
MD 355 corridor – Required fixes include finishing the Bethesda Trolley Trail, making Woodmont Ave. a two-way street, addressing gaps like the one at Twinbrook Metro, and building path segments where planned all the way to Clarksburg.
Seven Locks Road – The section north Montrose Road must be improved for road cyclists; Seven Locks Road is the primary north-south route for cyclists west of Rock Creek.
Jones Mill Road – This busy bike route must be made safer for cyclists between Beach Drive to Jones Bridge Lane
Olney/Cloverly connections –Improve the main east-west route (Bonifant Rd., Good Hope Rd.) by adding continuous bikeable shoulders per the master plan. Improve access to Olney by adding on-road space on Doctor Bird Rd. and Norwood Rd.
Montgomery Village connections – Montgomery Village remains one of the most bike-unfriendly areas of the county. At a minimum, select two or three arterials for improvement to provide a tolerable grid of bike routes (e.g. Goshen Road, Centerway Drive, Watkins Mill Road, etc.).
Twinbrook Parkway/Parklawn Drive connections – These roads are obstacles to both north-south and east-west travel by cyclists. A better crossing of the railroad tracks is badly needed, for pedestrians living in new housing as well as for cyclists.