Planning Board Chairman Casey Anderson and staff from the Planning Department will tour parts of Silver Spring and Bethesda via bicycle next week in an effort to highlight needed bike improvements.
The tour, set for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 12, will pass through Lyttonsville, downtown Bethesda and Westbard, three areas of the downcounty that are the subjects of ongoing sector plans.
While those individual sector plans will likely include recommendations for new bike lanes, cycle tracks and other accommodations, the event is meant primarily to promote the department’s upcoming Bicycle Master Plan.
Work on the plan will start July 1 and is set for County Council review in 2017, will lay out where bicycle facilities should go to create a countywide network of low-stress bikeways that connect with transit systems such as Metro and the planned Corridor Cities Transitway.
“The bike tour will allow us to experience the planning areas at a more fine-grained level of detail,” Anderson said according to a press release. “At the same time, it will help us identify the places where a safer, more connected bicycle network is still needed in the county.”
The tour will start at 11 a.m. at Planning Department headquarters in Silver Spring. Members of the public are invited to join, but will be required to sign waivers.
The 15-mile round trip will stop at Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring, Battery Lane Urban Park in Bethesda, Veteran’s Park in Bethesda and the Giant Food-anchored shopping center on Westbard Avenue.
