The new bikeway along Woodmont Avenue between Norfolk Avenue and Old Georgetown Road got a lot safer to use on Thursday. A Montgomery County Department of Transportation crew installed flexposts along the 2-way cycle track yesterday. While the new automobile and bike lanes were striped a couple of months ago, the lack of physical barriers has meant drivers were sometimes using the bikeway as a right-turn lane onto Old Georgetown.
It's still not clear to me if all the parking spaces are going to be taken away for the new bike lane.
ReplyDeleteClearly at least some of the spaces on the west side of Woodmont, across from Marriott, will still be available on the street. You will just have to walk across the bike lane to get to the parking meter.
ReplyDeleteHow about the nightmare which is going to be Montgomery avenue at the corner of Wisconsin at the former but that's a police station? It's absolutely outrageous that when you cross 355 heading towards East-West highway that there is a bike lane in the right lane. That corridor is already a mess with other construction and that bike lane is beyond misplaced Please report on this.
ReplyDelete@ 5:49 I can't agree more...
ReplyDeleteBike lanes that are left of parking lanes place cyclists lives in danger. In comparison, for the cost of some paint and some plastic sticks, you can significantly increase total throughput of all traffic, while saving lives.
ReplyDeleteCar owners decry the lack of parking availability, despite the fact that businesses do worse when they have parallel parking blocking the frontage of their stores from view instead of pedestrian infrastructure.
It's not a secret that downtown Bethesda is the success story that it is because of its pedestrian friendly design. People liked being able to leave their cars in one of many giant garages (which are still there, by the way) and then be able to safely walk to the stores they liked to visit. Wide sidewalks, separated from roads by trees, bollards, and railings make Bethesda the comfortable and safe space for people that it is, by keeping cars away and slow.
The problem is that people who like to drive their cars view the vulnerable cyclists as enemies, while depriving them of the infrastructure required to be safe, at the cost of economic well being of the stores they claim to be caring about.
The problem has always been that despite extremely high level of service roads being nearby and easy to access, people have always insisted on taking the marginally more efficient route by driving their two ton piece of metal through the pedestrian friendly part of Bethesda, and then growing upset at the infrastructure there that serves said pedestrians and business.
I'm reminded of the late 2000s where people were mad about the crosswalks on Bethesda lane, which saved lives and made downtown a more pleasurable place to be.
Some things are more important than being able to drive your car fast through places where people are.