Planning Board to Consider the White Flint Master Bike Plan This Afternoon

Today at 1:00 pm the Montgomery Planning Board will consider the White Flint Master Bike Plan. There will be a work session on the White Flint Separated Bike Lanes Draft Plan  Today the Planning Board will receive stakeholder input and provide feedback on the Draft White Flint Separated Bike Lane Network. 

The Separated Bike Lanes Draft Plan is a comprehensive document that shows how we can … without adding extra width to roads or without eliminating and lanes … include cycle tracks that make it safe, convenient and easy for folks to ride their bikes around the Pike District.  Imagine being able to quickly and safely jump on your bike to meet a friend for coffee, catch a red line train, or pick up that special spice you need to create tonight’s culinary masterpiece.  You won’t need to dodge traffic or parked cars or pedestrians with separated bike lanes. The separated bike lanes will, in the vernacular of the Planning Board, permit “low stress biking” for all ages and levels of biking experience.

White Flint Separated Bicycle Plan

We agree that the modifications suggested by MCDOT in regards to the Western Workaround ought to be part of the plan. The Western Workaround is too far down the line to insert separated bike lanes.  (There will be bike paths, though, so bike riders are pretty much taken care of.) Adding separated bike lanes at this point would be close to impossible, requiring years of tax-payer funded work to be tossed out the window and for the Western Workaround to be unacceptably delayed. The MCDOT modifications state:

“As of October 2015, The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has two projects either under contract for construction or nearing design completion, consistent with the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan, as of the publication of this document. The recommendations for separated bike lanes along the following four segments are expressed with the understanding from MCDOT that the associated active projects are not able to incorporate the facilities as proposed within this document without significant delays and greatly increased costs due to complete redesign, which also requires changes in current State Highway Administration policy. For these four segments, MCDOT has indicated that they will continue to proceed under the direction of the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan. The facilities proposed by this document for these four segments will be implemented under separated projects at a future time.”