The construction of a protected bikeway along Montgomery Lane between Woodmont and Wisconsin Avenues in Bethesda is proceeding slowly. This bike lane will connect to the one on the other side of Wisconsin where Montgomery Lane becomes Montgomery Avenue alongside the Avocet Tower. It's a real mess at the moment, and is a year behind schedule. The project website hasn't been updated for some time, even though work has been ongoing since the last update.
15 comments:
I hope it's simpler and less convoluted (and with fewer berms, curbs, and edge traps) than the labyrinth at the CCT trail head.
Forever altering the roadway and causing a major undue burden just for an occasional bike. Definitely the most unused of all these crazy lanes
fOrEvEr aLTeRiNg tHE rOAdwAy!
All these bike lanes with o thought for pedestrians,
I bothe walk and drive by there.. seems it’s turned three lanes of traffic and a decent sidewalk path into two usable lanes, and no usable bike path. What a mess.
Kudos, about sums it up.
Yes, obviously that's how construction works 6:21.
You all know that the Downtown Bethesda Sector Plan proposes to change the one way loop of East-West Highway, Old Georgetown Road, Woodmont and Montgomery Avenues back into two-way streets.
The bike lane is an important connector in the downtown Bethesda bike network. The CCT is the most heavily used rail to hiker-biker trail in the country, with about one million users each year. Once the CCT is completed to Chevy Chase Lake, Rock Creek Park and Silver Spring, I expect the CCT and connected bikeways will be even more heavily used.
Bike lanes help pedestrians by narrowing the traffic lanes, and reducing the crosswalk length. This does add a bit of conflict between bikes and pedestrians, but I think I would rather be hit by a bike that a car. Bike lanes also reduce the turning radius for vehicles, reducing the speed of cars and trucks. The new separated bike lane at Montgomery and Wisconsin actually eliminates a dangerous slip lane for turning traffic from eastbound Montgomery to southbound Wisconsin. This area is also getting a much wider sidewalk area on Montgomery, as well as on Wisconsin and Elm, which also will enable large street tree planting on all three sidewalks.
Quite a bit of thought went into the redesign of this area for both pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles. It will be great to see this vacant gas station site finally be redeveloped into a new mixed-use, multifamily over retail tower, with underground parking. I also quite like the clever pinwheel massing and tall angular glass shards that extend above the roof terrace at the top. Much more interesting than so many rectangular towers. One of SK+I Architecture’s most interesting designs to date, and will become an iconic and dynamic high-rise in downtwown.
6:31 - Yes, the return of EW Highway to dual direction traffic is much needed. That would certainly take pressure off Montgomery Lane and thus avoiding the silly bike lane on either side of Wisconsin Ave. Roads are meant for cars after all.
"Quite a bit of thought went into the redesign of this area"
Doesn't matter was an entire department of traffic engineers say. JAC is the one who really knows best.
1:14 - An entire department of engineers and how many citizens were sufficiently notified or even asked beforehand if this is what they wanted done here? How many of the engineers are on the same, green utopian page as Elrich & Co? I can guess. This is happening here and in many parts of the country and is designed to do one thing, make it harder to drive thus forcing or rather social engineering a change in behavior. Lastly, make sure you post a similarly critical comment to the at least one other poster on this thread. That would be quite equitable. Thank you!
That is truly adorable JAC knows so little about the area that he thinks the Montgomery County Bicycle Master Plan just came out of left field without the input of citizens. In reality, there were literally dozens of opportunities for community input over several years before this bike lane was approved.
https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/transportation/bicycle-planning/bicycle-master-plan/bicycle-master-plan-engaging-outreach/
And we all know how effective "community input" has been!
@11:16am Spot-on comment. Those berm shapes are dangerous and misleading especially when most of us pedestrians have be conditioned to the height & shape of a normal curb, curbside or median...
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