A survey conducted earlier this year by Maryland’s Office of Tourism, Department of Business and Economic Development (in collaboration with Bike Maryland, the Department of Transportation, the Highway Administration, and others) has shown that cyclists in Maryland are a tech-savvy, safety-conscious group that primarily uses their bikes for health benefits or pleasure. The survey, which was open to the public from May to October 2011, received 2,300 submissions and concerned cycling habits, map resource use and preferences, demographic information, and more. The key findings of the survey are as folows:

• The top motivating factors for cycling are health benefits and for pleasure – 95 percent of respondents recognize these as leading factors – followed by environmental reasons.
• The top four activities for all respondents were: enjoying outdoors and nature, going to restaurants for food and beverages, shopping, and visiting friends.
• 75 percent of cyclists sometimes or always use paper maps to plan cycling trips.  Of those who have seen the Maryland Bicycle Map, more than 65 percent reported that the Maryland Bicycle Map was useful.
• The overwhelming majority of survey respondents also reported using online maps to plan bicycle trips – 85 percent use them currently. A little over half of respondents reported at least sometimes using navigational devices while on their trip. Google Maps is the most popular web service for planning and navigating a trip.
• Respondents across the board showed the most support for a map in a mobile application format. Additionally, they would be most interested in having a map that shows connections to local bike routes, parks and off-road trails, followed by type of riding surface and bike shops.
• More than half of respondents reported that the amount of traffic, surface type and smoothness of the road, and speed of traffic were most important to them. Additionally, almost half listed continuous, safe routes and shoulder width as important.
• For amenities, more than half of respondents reported that scenic views, parks, points of interest, and restrooms were most important to them – followed closely by food services.

The Office of Tourism and its partners in Annapolis have rightly interpreted these findings as a call for the state to engage with online resources that cyclists already use, such as Google Maps, while continuing production of the Department of Transportation’s Maryland Cycle Map. The conclusions section also includes a vow to use survey respondents to test any new products and services offered.

This very interesting and thoughtful survey missed an opportunity to learn about the infrastructure improvements bicyclists see as important for their continued and increasing use of bicycling for purposes beyond health and pleasure.  Since 45% of respondents use a bicycle for their commute to work, respondents would have been able to identify priority funding areas the state could target that might result in increasing the number of bicycle commuters in the years ahead.  In particular, efforts to make densely populate areas more bike-friendly should be a concern for state policymakers interested in reducing congestion and promoting physical fitness.

Read the full survey report here.

Richard Hall

Secretary of Planning, State of Maryland

Richard Hall has led Maryland to the forefront of state-level smart growth planning. Photo: Flickr

Politically, you can’t give enough credit to Governor Martin O’Malley for Maryland’s new state-level smart growth plan, PlanMaryland. O’Malley stood up to rural opposition and muscled legislation through late last year to put in place what may be the most progressive state-level land use planning in the country.

But you also can’t separate the governor’s successes from the man behind the scenes, turning policy positions into reality: Richard Hall. With Hall’s help, for decades Maryland has been laying the groundwork to be a national leader in smart growth.

Hall started at Maryland’s Department of Planning in 1992. He worked his way from principal planner to director of land use planning to head of the agency, a title he has held for five years.

All the while he was helping move the state toward this moment. Hall’s work contributed to the state’s Smart Growth Act in 1997, which established “priority growth areas” for the state and set the stage for PlanMaryland.

Now, under Hall’s leadership, Maryland will decide which areas of the state will be prioritized for development. The process, by its nature, divides places into winners and losers and is sure to be a thorny undertaking, full of political hurdles. But the work of PlanMaryland has always been thorny.

Hall doesn’t shy away from facing the critics head on. “Some lawmakers contend they want to ‘save rural Maryland’ from PlanMaryland,” he said in a local forum recently. “But their aim seems to be to ‘pave rural Maryland.’”

Hall and O’Malley both recognize that for too long Maryland’s system was already dividing the state into winners and losers, as the interests of cities and existing communities were supplanted by unplanned, sprawling development. It will take strong leadership to change the dynamic. But these two are up to the task.

The Alternative:  Sharrows

If 14 feet is not available for the bike lane + parking, I recommend sharrows as the preferable solution.  Maryland law requires cyclists to use bike lanes where they’re present, but riders can legally ignore sharrows.   So even if they’re painted unreasonably close to parked cars (Maryland standards call for them to be at least 11 feet from the curb, which puts cyclists in the door  zone again), cyclists are free to ignore them.  Sharrows give cyclists the discretion to ride where they feel it’s safest.   Sharrows ideally should be painted 12′ or 13′ from the curb when there’s parking.  Or they can be painted down the center of the right lane as seen on George Mason Drive in Arlington.  New ideas are being tried all the time.  Here is an interesting hybrid of a bike lane and a sharrow.

So my request to Montgomery County and the state: either 14 foot bike lanes next to parked cars or sharrows or sometimes no bike-specific markings at all.

“I want to ride my bicycle,”  is the only part of the song by Queen I know.  It’s catchy and true for me!  Last October I had the pleasure of riding in Bike Maryland’s Tour du Port.  It was at that time that I became familiar with Bike Maryland.  And now after having interviewed Bike Maryland’s Executive Director, Carol Silldorff, I know more about the organization and want to ride my bicycle!  Hope you will too.

01 Bike Maryland interview

Cycle Maryland

The state has created a new bike program called Cycle Maryland.  It looks very encouraging.  In keeping with its secrecy in goverment policy, the state did this without telling too many people, at least not MoBike.  But we’ll take it!

Part of Cycle Maryland is a bikeway “retrofit” program that will fund local projects costing under $100K each.  Counties and cities are supposed to request funding for specific projects.  However this year the county was given only one week’s notice to come up with projects!  As a result we ended up with just signage projects,  i.e. signing existing bike routes, mostly streets.  I personally suggested more robust improvements (in the 3 days notice I had) including upgrading the Bethesda Trolley Trail by White Flint Metro, providing better bike access to Rockville Metro and supporting two-way travel on Woodmont Ave to Bethesda Metro and the Capital Crescent Trail.  But things were too rushed.

Fortunately the state is requesting another round of projects from counties and cities, to be funded in 2013.  They’re accepting project submissions from local jurisdictions through May 4th, 2012.

This Gazette article describes the funding initiative, but it’s misleading because it states that “bike paths” are going to be built or upgraded when nothing more than signs are being added.  Here are the actual state-funded projects: