Buoyed by a gigantic map showing each bicycle lane and path in Montgomery County, Planning Board Chairman Casey Anderson couldn’t hide his excitement at Saturday’s “2nd Great MoCo Bicycle Summit.”
“This is like a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I couldn’t be more excited,” said Anderson, who told a crowd of about 75 bicycle advocates in Silver Spring about the Planning Department’s upcoming Bicycle Master Plan.
The plan will likely outline a new network of recommended bike lanes that could guide county transportation officials for the next two decades.
Council member Hans Riemer, who organized the summit, said he was just as excited about what he sees as a more welcoming attitude toward bicycle infrastructure from the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT).
“I think it’s a new day at DOT,” said Riemer, who complimented Acting Director Al Roshdieh. Roshdieh took over last December for Art Holmes, who retired.
“I want my friends here in the bicycle community to know that whenever I’ve ever needed something, whenever I’ve had a point I’ve needed to make with DOT, Al is always willing to listen,” Riemer said.
Saturday’s event started with a group of a few dozen on a bicycle ride from Elm Street Park in Chevy Chase to the Silver Spring Civic Center, mostly along the Capital Crescent Trail.
Riemer said last year’s first-ever Bicycle Summit led to “a lot of very tangible outcomes,” including a buffered Goldsboro Road cycle path that the County Council added to the budget. He also praised MCDOT for its work in White Flint, where it installed the county’s first ever buffered cycle track on Woodglen Drive.
The map, which spanned the length of an entire room in the civic center and came in three 7-foot high sections, was for attendees to mark in where they’d like to see improvements and additions to the county’s bicycle path network.
County planning staff will scan the maps and create an online document to help its work on the Bicycle Master Plan.
“You can see this is probably the biggest map of Montgomery County ever made,” Anderson said. “It’s one example of how we are getting serious. This allows you to get down in the weeds and show us what needs to be done.”
Many of the attendees at the summit had plenty of suggestions. While some agreed with Riemer that there’s been a tangible shift in the county toward bicycling priorities, there were still concerns about actually implementing improvements.
The group’s ride from Chevy Chase to Silver Spring included a few challenging on-road crossings that regular bicyclists must deal with every day.
Roshdieh, who was also at the summit, said a look at the county’s recently passed fiscal year 2016 operating budget shows more money has been directed toward bicycle facilities than in recent years.
“I’m not suggesting I’m going to reduce the level of maintenance of our roads,” Roshdieh said. “But it’s a shift. There is a change.”
