A few days back, a change.org petition was started to remove the bike lanes that were recently added to Old Georgetown Road (MD187) in North Bethesda. Now a counter-petition that shows support for the bike lanes has been started. MDOT converted one travel lane in each direction of the road, between south of I-495 and north of Nicholson Lane, to a buffered bicycle lane that include flex posts and green pavement. The remaining 11-foot travel lanes were also narrowed to 10.5 and 10 feet.
Per the petition, “Show support to the State Highway Administration’s decision to enact a road diet when replacing a portion of Old Georgetown Road. Any action that reduces vehicle miles traveled is a net good for our county and the DMV. This change make being a pedestrian safer, makes being a bicyclist safer, and reduces car speeds and therefore makes being a motorist safer. We should applaud the action and support further action in more state highways in Maryland. The opposition wants these safety measures removed. They want to be able to drive faster and more recklessly down this road. Do your part and support the new bike lanes and encourage the SHA to continue to make changes to make our county and state a safe place to get around with or without a car.”
Featured photo courtesy of the ‘Support the SHA redesign of Old Georgetown Road’ petition.
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2 comments
I disagree with the bike lanes. All it does is cause congestion, thus keeping cars on the road longer and counteracting the bike lane initiative to begin with. Secondly, there aren’t enough cyclist on the road to support this. So the idea is to remove an entire lane off the road to accommodate the very very small number of people the ride bikes on the road.
Inconveniencing thousands of vehicles for a few bicycles is inappropriate. The area is not population dense enough to support bike lanes.