Over in my neck of the woods, a section of Oakland Mills road was transformed in a Complete Streets project. It was completed relatively recently - - within the last year or so? One of the features of the transformation is a protected two-way bike lane on one side of the street. I believe the dividers are flexible traffic bollards.
The County made a short video explaining how to use the new road features safely.
Oakland Mills Road Complete Streets Project
Every time I have driven on that section of road since it’s completion, I have looked for bicyclists. After all, the project was meant to facilitate safe bike riding. I’m a cheery, well-meaning sort, so I’ve hoped it would be a success.
No bicycles. Not a one. Until the other day. I finally spotted the elusive Oakkand Mills Road two-way bicycle lane cyclist. They were wearing a brightly colored reflective vest and a helmet. Official business? Just good sense?
When I reported this sighting on Facebook I was surprised to learn that my friends and neighbors have been seeing bicycles there quite frequently. So, either bicylists go into hiding when I leave my house or, I don’t get out as much as I think I do.
One thing this exchange reminded me was that extrapolating from one’s personal observations is by nature limited. Turning “I’ve never seen people using the bike lanes” into “no one uses the bike lanes” is every bit as inaccurate as “l never see anyone in the library, therefore no one uses the library.”
It’s easy to slip into that way of thinking. Don’t do it.
One of the comments made was that a substantial number of bicylists has been observed traversing that section of road outside of the designated bike lanes. In particular, there was some concern about those riding right down the center of the road. Sheesh. Does that suggest that the lanes are not biker friendly? Or that some bicyclists just don’t like to follow rules? I just don’t know.
Another concern was that the designated bicycle lanes seems to be attracting yard waste and other debris which languishes there. That is something I have seen. And I’m not sure that traditional street sweepers will fit in that space. I wonder what a good solution could be?
On another bicycle front, I caught this exchange recently on Twitter:
@AmericanFiester: Four visual reasons I moved to Carlmel Indiana and why our car sits in the garage 90% of the time.
The responses:
@strangetimespdx: These paths are beautiful! Are you able to get most places on them or do you also have to ride on the road?
@AmericanFietser: We don't have on-street bike lanes. Its all separated MUPs or at worst, a sidewalk.
@benyaminsmol: Looks like Columbia Maryland, which has lots of bike trails to nowhere, & very little safe bike roadway.
Interesting - - from Carmel, Indiana to Columbia, Maryland in four tweets. But what are MUP’s? I looked it up. The short answer: multi-use pathways. The longer answer from a cyclist on a biking forum I found:
MUPs can have bikes, pedestrians, joggers, dog walkers, ladies with baby carriages, and other things I've forgotten. Conditions vary widely on MUPs for cyclists. Sometimes they are heaven on earth; sometimes the opposite.
I think it’s fair to say that not everyone likes the end product over on Oakland Mills Road. I like it because people used to speed pretty routinely on that stretch and it felt that pressure every time I adhered to the speed limit. The new configuration has slowed down the road a bit. I’m not out there being tailed by wildly frustrated speed demons anymore. But I’d love to see more cyclists enjoying those dedicated lanes.
Not everyone supports the introduction of bike lanes. Just for fun, I Googled “bike lane controversies”. Here’s the first page of results:
Are there controversies? Yes, there are. If you click on the image above to enlarge it, you will see what I mean. While people to continue to debate the desirability of bike lanes, fatalities of bicyclists in Maryland are rising. Here’s a chart from lawyers Gilman & Bennigan:
What do you think? Do you ride your bicycle frequently in Columbia/HoCo? Do projects like the one on Oakland Mills Road make you feel safer? If you don’t ride, how do you feel about sharing the road with bicyclists?
For my own part, I am keenly aware of how much damage my car could do to a cyclist and that makes me terrified of driving near them. In any confrontation the cyclist is always going to be the underdog and I’m rooting for them.
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