Powerline Trail Funded!

Great news! On Monday, Montgomery Parks announced additional funding to extend the powerline trail which will connect South Germantown Recreational Park to Cabin John Regional Park. I'm not going to be utilizing it much since I don't live or work that close to it, but I'm hopeful that similar actions will be taken in other parts of the county.  

• A little history: https://www.thewashcycle.com/2015/02/montgomery-county-power-line-trails.html
• Examples of existing powerline trails: http://www.pedestrians.org/topics/row-gallery.htm

As stated, thanks go to "Delegate Korman, the entire Montgomery County Delegation, and the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts."

Cheers!  Looking forward to seeing parts of the trail getting built in 2022.  

Pedestrian Master Plan for Montgomery County

I just received notification about the new initiative for a Pedestrian Master Plan (much like the previously adopted Bicycle Master Plan) and the first community meeting will be in September 2019.  Sign up on this website to stay informed. 

https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/transportation/pedestrian-planning/pedestrian-master-plan/

Only Shared Use Path Available -- BLOCKED

The only semi-safe route available along MD-198, and it's blocked!

It's bad enough that this path along MD-198 doesn't connect all the way to Cedar Tree Rd, stopping at Dino Dr.   Now there is construction that appears to be daily now and constantly blocking the only shared use path my kids and I would like to use. 

The path (shown below) west of the construction connects to the Downtown Burtonsville area and considering the basically non-existent shoulder, speeding cars (rarely enforced along this stretch), and groups of motor vehicles jockeying for position as they leave the US-29 intersection by cutting around each other in the right hand merge lanes, I have no place to safely ride along this stretch of road. 

The Lorenzo Construction LLC appears to be doing the construction (410-984-1935) but unfortunately, feels the need to park their vehicles on the path.  The road at this point is essentially 5 lanes, with the merge lane ending.  It would be simple enough to put up cones and block the end of this merge lane without blocking the path.  It would not cause any problems for traffic either.

Additionally, it appears Lorenzo is also doing some construction at the U-turn at Dino drive where they are parking all their trucks and filling the U-Turn extension that I believe was put there to allow larger trucks the ability to make the U-Turn. 

I would love to see a better policy created and adhered to prevent blocking of sidewalks and paths for vulnerable road users.   Those walking and biking have no choice.  Vehicles have 5 lanes of options.  Please keep the sidewalks and paths open whenever possible.

Public Comment for the MD 28, Norbeck Road, and MD 198, Spencerville Road/Sandy Spring Road project AW068_11 (was MO886_11)

Please submit a public comment about MD-198 by July 19th!

Here's my message -- thanks Sebastian for producing a template that made it easier to put these items together.  


To: jbeck@sha.state.md.us
Cc: eric.luedtke@house.state.md.us, Tom.Hucker@montgomerycountymd.gov, craig.zucker@senate.state.md.us

Dear Mr Beck,

As a regular user of MD 198, I am pleased to see progress at making this road safer for bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers. That being said, there is room for improvement.

I have been a long time resident of Burtonsville and have been a strong supporter of rebuilding this community into a destination via my participation in the design of the Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan and continuing work through the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (MBPAC) and Montgomery County Bicyclists Advisory Group (MCBAG).   I envision and walkable and bicycle friendly business district with bicycle connections between all surrounding communities and parks.   To make this happen, I urge the State Highway Administration to make the following revisions to the MD 28/198 Corridor Improvement Study.

For all All of MD198/MD28

• I support bike-friendly facilities, in particular, the off- road shared-use path on one side of MD 198 in areas with few driveways or curb cuts.  Areas that currently have a high density of access points should be reconfigured to reduce curb cuts/access.   The path and roadway should be separated by a green space buffer wide enough for tree planting to provide shade. 
• The shared-use path should be wide enough for two directions of bicycles and pedestrian traffic and designed to be as straight as possible and for a reasonable bicycle cruising speed of up to 15-20 miles per hour. 
• Crosswalks should be announced with markings and signage to warn drivers about crossing bicyclists and additional markings should be made where driveways cross the trail, possibly with raised crosswalks to slow drivers and raise awareness to trail users. 
• High-speed, right- turn slip lanes that turn across the trail should be reconfigured to slow down turning vehicles and improve visibility of cyclists and pedestrians.

Critical recommendations for SHA Project Management Division, Segment D (Burtonsville):

• Comply with the Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan by providing a landscaped median with breaks to establish a grid of local streets, enhance safety, and improve access to businesses.  This would look more like the Alt-3 Access Management Profile.  
• Lanes should be narrowed from 11 ft to 10 feet to discourage speeding and bring a more residential/commercial quality to the business district.
• In addition to lane with reductions, speed limit through Burtonsville Business District should be set to a maximum of 25 mph.
• Overhead utilities should be cleaned up and buried.
• Widen grass buffers between sidewalks and road to 6 ft to allow streetscaping.
• Widen bike lanes to 5 ft and add 2 ft buffer from travel lanes to improve safety.
• Add traffic circles at Old US-29 and MD-198 and at Old Columbia Pike (diagonal intersection) and MD-198.  This will facilitate those who need to make U-Turns since left turns will be essentially eliminated through the Business District with the exception of a traffic light at the Burtonsville Town Square intersection.

Critical recommendations for SHA Project Management Division, Segment E (West Laurel):

• Add second turn lane from McKnew Road to MD 198 or add a signalized intersection at Cedar Tree to relieve the aggressive behavior people exhibit when attempting to leave the community.  
• Drivers leaving McKnew Rd to MD-198 should not have any turns while MD-198 through traffic is green.  The limited visibility and speed of traffic in this segment makes even right-on-red dangerous.   Additionally, a bicyclist on the shoulder has no bailout area due to the volume and speed of traffic which is a problem when vehicles routinely make continuous right-hand-turns on red (without a stop). Even with a stop, the vehicles are pulling well into the bicyclists useable shoulder area. 
• The MD-198/McKnew intersection should be completely controlled, including left turns with red-arrows from MD-198 to McKnew to prevent the frequent collisions that occur today.   

Critical recommendations for the SHA District 3 office include:

• Allocate funding for intersection improvements at MD 198 and Peach Orchard Rd.
• Install traffic signal at Burtonsville Town Square.
• Install speed activated signs in 25 and 30 mph speed zones.
• Provide crosswalks for people to safely cross MD 198 (see Coalition to Fix 198 document for locations).

Critical recommendations for Montgomery County include:

• Install gateway landscaping and signage at entrance to Burtonsville retail district.
• Accelerate funding for Burtonsville Access Road.
• Draft amendment to state legislation to clarify applicability of speed cameras.
• Construct sidewalk on McKnew Road to connect to MD 198.
• Extend Sidewalk on North side of MD-198 from 4140 Sandy Spring Rd to McKnew Rd to allow pedestrians a place to walk while not forcing crossings midway.  Also allows safer access to bus stop.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the study. I encourage you to review the full report developed by the Coalition to Fix MD 198 (download at: https://goo.gl/LUCzep) for more recommendations.

Sincerely,

Stephen Ashurst




 

Maryland Legislation 2017

I've recently sent an a record amount of letters to my legislators about both worthwhile and horrendous bills.  Here are some of my top subjects:

I supported these bills:

• HB0578 - Vehicle Laws - Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons (cross-filed: SB0338)
• Amendments have jointly been made by Bike Maryland, State Highway Administration and other sponsors to conform to the Federal Highway Administration standards. 
• Almost all motorists (99%) of drivers adhere to these Beacons and 76% of cyclists and pedestrians understand and use them. Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons save lives.
• HB0332 - Montgomery County - Maximum Speed Limits Outside Urban Districts MC 23-17
• This would give Montgomery County the authority to set speed limits as low as 20mph on certain roads outside urban districts.  This will give local engineers another option in their tool bag so they can make certain streets safer.
• HB0997 - Vehicle Laws - Bicycles, Play Vehicles, and Unicycles - Operation on Sidewalks and in Crosswalks
• This would allow bicycles to operate lawfully on sidewalks and in crosswalks.     This bill adds legal protections for bicycles that are at the same level as pedestrians when using sidewalks and crosswalks.
• HB0011 - Vehicle Laws - Causing Diesel Emissions to Discharge Onto Another - Prohibition
• Intentional emissions of diesel exhaust is a menace to cyclists, runners, and drivers. I've personally had a truck do this while driving in Montgomery County.  This dangerous practice should be prohibited.
• Video of this action happening to a cyclist: https://youtu.be/h8k8bhGrXIo

I do not support these bills:

• HB1451 - Left Lane Use for Passing
• This bill only seems to enable and legalize speeding on our roadways. Maryland roadways are severely congested already and even in normal flowing traffic conditions, all lanes must be used, whether passing or not. In order to move all traffic down the road, all lanes must be used. 
• There are many specifics missing from this bill. We don't know how long is "too long" to say in the left lane. As vehicle speeds vary, even while passing, it may be impossible to always continue passing as someone in the right lane speeds up. Also for left exits, there's no rule about how far in advance of the exit we may enter the left lane. For an area, such as MD-32 and I-95, I generally get in the left lane to go from MD-32 E to I-95 N almost 2 miles in advance knowing that if I wait till I'm only one mile or one-half mile from the exit, it may be backed up and I won't be able to merge into the left lane. On roads like US-29 with stop lights and left turns all along it, there's no reason for people to move out of of the left lane, and doing so would only cause chaos as people are concerned with getting tickets for being caught in the left lane for too long. 
• This is a dangerous bill to people's safety while traveling our roads. It will encourage speeding and aggressive driving and likely enable more road rage incidents.
• HB1456 - Vehicle Laws – Passing to the Right – Use of Shoulder
• This bill makes no mention about the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists using the shoulder in a legal manner.   Even completely focused drivers, not to mention distracted drivers, are rarely verifying the shoulder is clear of these vulnerable users before bolting around a vehicle just to save a second or two of time.   This bill endanger these users of the road and shoulder.   Instead of passing this bill, a future bill to require re-engineering of roadways to allow for proper, safe left-turns while keeping a through lane open and preserving the shoulder and perhaps a protected bike lane would be more appropriate.

I encourage you to contact your legislators and get involved with your community and state level issues.

Montgomery County Transit Forum

Photo by Greg Billing

Although I was not able to attend the #mocotranspo (Montgomery County Transportation Forum) I was able to get a sense that our communities and representatives understand that the primary mode of transportation via car is outdated.  Let's hope all of our candidates will continue to push for better transportation options as indicated by these live tweets from the forum.

Thanks all for your support, let's make it happen!

Make it Human Friendly

While driving some local roads, I thought about this blog's topic.   The current title, "Make It Bikeable" encompasses what I believe to be the most critical infrastructure improvement that can be made in our area.   But honestly, it's narrowly focused.

Today's streets are unsafe for bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike.    What we need are streets designed to be safe for all users.   This means that streets are engineered so that all users can progress without conflict.

Merging lanes with unclear signs, streets with no accommodations for bicycles, sidewalks barely wide enough for a baby stroller all lead to conflicts with other humans.    Humans make mistakes and poor decisions and where there is an unclear or poorly designed facility, conflict will occur. 

Here is a blog entry I came across as I was researching the possibility of a new title for this site: http://www.rebexart.com/english/blog/?p=72

I believe all states and municipalities have the resources and responibility to create human friendly infrastructure. 

Add connections to Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan

The Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan focuses on revitalizing the core commercial district. One of the goals listed states:

What can be done to improve connectivity within the commercial area and integrate the MD 198 realignment and loop road improvements and other proposed transportation infrastructure improvements?

Allowing multi-modal transportation methods into the core through added and completed connections will strengthen the community and allow for varied use of the core areas. More people from the large communities of Greencastle and McKnew/Saddle Creek areas will be able to walk or bike to the central shopping district.

 

View Burtonsville Access to Fairland Regional Park in a larger map