Governor Larry Hogan signs bill requiring timely confirmation by State Highway Administration of areas needing improved bicyclist and pedestrian safety and access.
SILVER SPRING, MD –The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, helped to initiate a new Maryland law requiring the State Highway Administration to act within one year on local designations of Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Areas. Work on the newly enacted law began with a collaborative effort among County Transportation Planner Larry Cole, Maryland House Delegate Alfred Carr, Jr. and Kelly Blynn of the DC regional Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Maryland Senator James Rosapepe introduced the bill on February 6, 2015 and, on February 12, 2105, the Planning Board voted to support it. The final Senate Bill 371 was signed by Governor Larry Hogan on April 14, 2015: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2015RS/bills/sb/sb0371T.pdf
The designation of Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Areas is intended to ensure that the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians are taken into account during all phases of transportation planning, design, construction or expansion. The aim is to provide for greater safety and access through bike lanes, paths, sidewalks, crosswalks and other physical road improvements and traffic control devices. Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Areas have become an integral part of Montgomery County’s recent Master Plans, developed by the Planning Department to promote multi-modal transportation in the more densely developed areas of the County.
The passage of the bill is timely as Planning staff is currently updating the Master Plan of Bikeways, which has not been done for more than a decade and is being renamed as the Bicycle Master Plan. This planning effort will initially focus on developing a high-quality bicycle network that facilitates access to stations planned in the Great Seneca Science Corridor area of the Corridor Cities Transitway, a 15-mile bus rapid transit (BRT) line proposed to run from the COMSAT facility near Clarksburg to the Shady Grove Metrorail Station. The first public meeting introducing the Bicycle Master Plan will be held on April 20 from 7-9 p.m. at the Academic and Research Building of the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus (9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850).
The White Flint Sector Plan area in North Bethesda was confirmed by the State Highway Administration (SHA) as a Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area in 2011 and is currently the only one in the State of Maryland. More than two dozen other areas in Montgomery County, such as the Silver Spring and Bethesda Central Business Districts and the areas around Metrorail and Corridor Cities Transitway stations, are now awaiting SHA approval. The Planning Department looks forward to working with the SHA on the plan of improvements for each of these Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Areas after confirmation of the designations.