University Blvd Bike Lane Mtg this Week!

SHA to hold meeting Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 6:30pm LINK BELOW

Maryland State Highway Administration will hold a meeting online this Wednesday, Jan 26 at 6:30pm.

We at Open Streets Montgomery hope that they will reveal a plan to make bike lanes a permanent feature on University Boulevard in Wheaton, MD. We advocated for the lanes to be installed in 2020, and we were pleased with the pilot project that resulted.

Here are the details:

In June 2021, the Maryland State Highway Administration began a temporary experiment by installing a protected bike lane on MD-193/University Boulevard, between Amherst and Arcola Ave, in Wheaton. This installation was made after a request from advocates which was heavily supported by local elected officials.

At the start of the pilot we requested that SHA take a lot of data about usage, including the speed and rate of vehicles before and after the pilot. Data was collected, and now needs to be reported.

The project was funded by a federal grant. We also hope that the data gathered will help SHA build more protected lanes, and we want to encourage them to make the lanes truly protected with concrete or other barriers. During the summer the lanes were protected with plastic pylons. This was also the first project of its kind in the state of Maryland.

TAKE ACTION

From everything that we’ve seen, the bike lanes on University Blvd were a tremendous success. The lanes have made it more comfortable to bike and walk on this stretch of University Blvd, increasing safe access to transit and slowing traffic to the speed limit without creating congestion. We believe that the SHA should make these lanes permanent and extend them further east and west to bring these benefits to a wider set of users.

We need support at the meeting this week. To attend, simply to the link below, scroll down and look for the “Community Engagement” section. There you will see a box that allows you to submit a question AND a box for attending when the meeting starts at 6:30pm Wednesday, Jan 26, 2022.

https://mdot-sha-md193-amherst-to-arcola-shared-streets-maryland.hub.arcgis.com

Please share this info with your networks! We need as much help and support as possible!