WABA and MoBike just presented their list of recommendations of needed bike improvements in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park and Friendship Heights to help BikeShare fulfill its tremendous promise in Montgomery County. The improvements are designed to encourage people to use bikes as transportation. They include bike lanes, intersection changes, road diets (lane or parking removal), sharrows (shared lane markings) and off-road paths. Bike lanes may be positioned next to traffic (traditional bike lanes) or separated from traffic (buffered bike lanes or cycle tracks). Sharrows are a way to make existing travel lanes more hospitable to bikes, and are often accompanied by “Bikes May Use Full Lane” signs. The recommendations also include finishing key transportation trails that have been left incomplete for too long.
See also the map showing the recommendations as well as the printable list. Here’s a copy of the recommendations:
Trail Priorities
- Metropolitan Branch Trail – Complete the Silver Spring segment of the trail.
- Bethesda Trolley Trail – Upgrade the substandard southern section. This requires the following:
- Set the trail back a safe distance from Old Georgetown Road between Charles St. and Lincoln Dr.
- Widen the trail along the NIH border and through Battery Lane Urban Park.
- Silver Spring Green Trail – Finish this urban trail east to Sligo Creek Parkway. Also extend it west along Second Avenue to Spring Street, reconfiguring the Second Ave/Fenwick Lane intersection to connect to a trail segment being built by a developer.
Bethesda
- Make Woodmont Avenue a two way street for bicyclists south of Old Georgetown Road by providing a “contraflow” northbound bike lane from Hampden Lane to Old Georgetown (optionally with a northbound car lane) or a cycle track on the east side. Reconfigure the Woodmont/Elm Street intersection and the bike lanes south of Elm Street.
- Add bike lanes on Woodmont Avenue from Old Georgetown Road to Battery Lane. This may require removing on-street parking on one side of the street.
- Implement a “road diet” on Arlington Road north of Bradley Boulevard, reducing the number of travel lanes from four to three (including a two-way left turn lane) to provide space for bike lanes.
- Make the short one-way section of Glenbrook Road/Little Falls Parkway (just south of Bradley Blvd.) a two-way street for bikes.
- Provide sharrows in the right-hand lane on Old Georgetown Road from Wisconsin Avenue to at least Battery Lane.
- Provide bike lanes and a shared use path on Bradley Boulevard west of Goldsboro Road. This is currently in facility planning.
- Provide sharrows on Bradley Boulevard from Goldsboro Road to Wisconsin Ave.
- Consider other sharrows – Norfolk Avenue, Cordell Avenue, portions of Bethesda Avenue and Elm Street
Friendship Heights
- Place bike lanes on Friendship Boulevard between North Park Avenue and Western Avenue.
- Place bike lanes on Western Avenue between Connecticut Avenue and River Road.
- Place bike lanes on Willard Avenue between Wisconsin Avenue and River Road where they fit.
- Improve connectivity from Dorset Avenue to Friendship Boulevard/North Park Avenue (upgrade dirt path for example)
Silver Spring/Takoma Park
- Place bike lanes or sharrows on Second Avenue from Seminary Road to Colesville Road.
- Place bike lanes on Cameron Street from Second Avenue to Spring Street
- Place bike lanes on Spring Street/Cedar Street from 16th Street to Wayne Avenue.
- Place a “contraflow” bike lane on the one-way section of Ellsworth Drive (just south of Springvale Road)
- Place bike lanes on Georgia Avenue from Spring Street to 13th Street.
- Place bike lanes on the east (northbound) side of Colesville Road from East-West Highway north to Georgia Ave.
- Place bike lanes on East-West Highway from Georgia Avenue to 16th Street.
- Place bike lanes on Fenton Street from Cameron Street to Takoma Avenue.
- Place bike lanes on Takoma Avenue and Eastern Avenue from Fenton Street to Cedar Avenue.
- Place bike lanes on Maple Avenue from Carroll Ave. (D.C. line) to Sligo Creek Parkway.
- Place bike lanes on Holly Avenue from Eastern Avenue to Grant Avenue.
- Place bike lanes on Grant Avenue from Piney Branch Road to Ethan Allen Avenue.
- Place bike lanes on Greenwood Avenue from Carroll Avenue to Piney Branch Road.
- Improve the Capital Crescent Trail connection into Silver Spring:
- Provide two-way cycle track on the south side of Stewart Avenue from Brookville Road to the path connector to Kansas Ave.
- Provide sharrows on Kansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Talbot avenues to provide improve wayfinding. Continue sharrows on Grace Church Road to Second Avenue.
Left off the formal list because it’s already moving along:
- Capital Crescent Trail – Obviously very high priority. Finish as a paved trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring.