Almost a year ago, Maryland State Highway Administration placed buffered bike lanes on a 3+ mile stretch of MD-187, Old Georgetown Road, responding to the two deaths of teenagers Jacob Cassell and Enzo Alvarenga, who were killed when biking on the narrow sidewalks along the road. The immediate impact of these lanes was to make the sidewalks safer for walking and biking. As reported by MoCo360, “data collected by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) shows the bike lanes along a two-mile stretch of the road have caused very little change in driving time but have actually reduced fatalities and tripled bike traffic.”
We can make this safer streets facility even safer and more useful. The physical barrier between car traffic and those using the lanes and sidewalks can be enhanced by placing hard-rubber curbs or other solid barriers in addition to the plastic bollards already there. The intersections of the lanes with the entrances and exits to I-495 and I-270 can be made much safer also. In addition, the lanes can be extended southwards into downtown Bethesda to directly connect to the network of protected bike lanes on Woodmont Avenue and East-West Highway.
