Category Bicycling

MCDOT Commuter Services Announces new Bicycle Swag Bag Contest

Amy Ginsburg 0 Comment
Bicycling

And this week, the contest is at the Bethesda Trolley Trail

While biking the trail, take a selfie, tag us on Twitter or Instagram and you’ll be entered to win. Details=http://ow.ly/8WBi50Ega7e

How to Participate    Starting Monday, April 5 through Sunday, May 30, 2021, MCDOT Commuter Services will promote Bike To Work Day by featuring a different bike path/trail in Montgomery County each week. We’re asking bike riders to submit a favorite picture of themselves enjoying their ride along the featured trail to be entered into a weekly drawing.

 Just take a selfie or have someone take a picture of you and your bike at that week’s featured bike path/trail entrance sign or at your favorite place anywhere along the featured bike path or trail. Post your picture and tag us at @mococommuter (on Twitter or Instagram) along with the hashtag #MoCoBikes to be entered into that week’s drawing for a Bicycle Swag Bag prize. No worries if you’re not a social media user: you may also send your photos to us by email to commuter.services@montgomerycountymd.gov. Participants grant MCDOT Commuter Services permission to publish photos on our social media accounts.  Prize drawings will be held on Monday morning of the following week and winners will be notified via direct message on their Twitter/Instagram account. A consent form will be sent and your prize will be mailed to the address you provide.  One entry per person per week.   The contest is open to persons 18 years and older.  

Where and when appropriate, please remember to practice safe social distancing and wear your favorite face covering.  Please wear a helmet while riding.  Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @mococommuter  Each week the featured bike path/trail will be announced on our Twitter and Instagram accounts.   NOTE: To participate you must be a Montgomery County, Maryland resident or be an employee of a company located in Montgomery County, Maryland. 

A Vision Zero Toolkit

Amy Ginsburg 3 Comment
Bicycling Pedestrian Safety

The Planning Department has developed a Vision Zero Community Toolkit.

Montgomery Planning’s Vision Zero Community Toolkit is a resource intended to help community members understand and advocate for specific types of road safety designs to reduce crashes involving motor vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians. It consists of over 40 design treatments and outlines how each treatment can address road safety challenges in different contexts throughout Montgomery County. The Vision Zero Community Toolkit will help users identify which design strategies are best suited for the specific safety challenges of their neighborhood. Certain treatments are aimed at reducing vehicle speeds, while others may provide safer crossings for bicyclists and pedestrians. Because not all treatments are suited for all roadway types, this toolkit highlights which ones are most effective in a given context.

Some tools we particularly thought would enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety include:

  • Advanced Stop Lines (page 12)
  • Bike Boxes (page 20)
  • Buffered Bike Lanes (page 22)
  • Corner Radius Reduction (page 28)
  • Crossing Islands (page 30)
  • Curb Extensions/Bulb Outs (age 32)
  • High Visibility Crosswalks (page 40)
  • Leading Pedestrian and Bicycle Intervals (page 42)
  • Lighting (page 44)
  • Off-Street Trails (page 54)
  • Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (page 58)
  • Protected Intersections (page 64)
  • Raised Crossing (page 68)
  • Road Diets and Lane Width Reductions (page 74)
  • Separated Bike Lanes (page 80)
  • Shared Streets (page 82)
  • Sidepaths (page 86)
  • Tree Buffer (page 92)

Vision Zero Conference Jan 23

Amy Ginsburg 1 Comment
Bicycling Pedestrian Safety

2020 was marked by another unfortunate milestone with 18 pedestrians and cyclists killed in traffic incidents in Montgomery County. It is clear that the county and state must do more to make walking and biking safer in all of our communities. 

Join Montgomery County Councilmember At-Large Evan Glass and Congressman Anthony Brown Saturday, January 23 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for a virtual Vision Zero conference to discuss road safety, the county’s efforts to implement Vision Zero and how residents can best advocate for safer streets. The event is co-sponsored by the MCCPTA, CASA de Maryland, Washington Area Bicyclists Association, Action Committee for Transit, Sierra Club Montgomery County, and the Coalition for Smarter Growth.   

These traffic fatalities are preventable, and we as a county must do more to make our streets and roads safer for all.

Use this link to RSVP: bit.ly/visionzero-townhall

Affordable Protected Bike Lanes

Amy Ginsburg 0 Comment
Bicycling Transit

From Greater Greater Washington and Spin

As a StreetsBlog USA’s says, “The delineators most of our cities use to separate vulnerable road users from car traffic…kinda suck. The COVID-19 era is the perfect time to think outside the box and find something better.” Build a Better Barrier contest was sponsored by micromobility company Spin in response to the surge in active transportation during the coronavirus pandemic. 

An ultra-affordable bike lane made out of recycled car tires by WeClaim won first place. It’s environmentally-friendly, too. Spin says the WeClaim design will be made available for free to communities, and will need little more than “a simple template, [a few] used tire[s], a few basic hardware store parts, common tools, and a bit of elbow grease” to install and maintain.

Here are some other ideas:

“The Chain” Bike Lane Delineator, designed by team Culture House lead by Aaron Grenier, features a bike lane shielded from car and bus traffic by a large, waist-high lane delineator that resembles a large bicycle chain. The links in the chain form the barrier while the pins of the chain are anchored into the ground.
The Streetbloc, designed by Dayton Crites, features a protected lane, shielded from car traffic by a waist-high barrier made out of neon pink-and-orange blocks that resemble Legos. 
The Saris “Wave” delineator is one of a tiny handful of road barriers that both provide meaningful protection to the vulnerable *and* aren’t hideous to look at.
“The WAVE” bike lane barrier creates high-comfort bike facilities, is easy to implement, and is highly customizable. The modular design of the WAVE allows other features to be easily added to the bike lane, such as intersection foot rests, breaks for accessible parking or bus stops, and planters.