Howard planners take to their bikes to test county roads
Part of a plan to make Columbia, county highways more pedestrian-friendly
By Larry Carson, The Baltimore Sun
Howard County traffic engineering chief Diane Schwarzman's old one-speed bike rarely gets out of her Ellicott City garage, but lately she's using a borrowed, more sophisticated two-wheeler to pedal along Columbia's streets and pathways with a few professional colleagues.
"The street is the same," she said about the experience of riding a bicycle where she normally drives a car, "but you realize the characteristics of the paved surface." The officials said riding bikes themselves helps them plan for altering streets to make them safer for cyclists.
That's becoming increasingly important as county planners see bicycles as a traffic-friendly part of the transportation mix for the redeveloped downtown Columbia, and as a part of County Executive Ken Ulman's push for environmentally sound and healthy ways to get around. Now, every road the county works on is first examined for ways to add improvements for bicycle riders.