The bike lanes on Old Georgetown Road, installed in Dec. 2022, have caused controversy in Montgomery County. Some locals disapprove of them because of increased traffic issues and have initiated a petition demanding their removal. Others support the bike lanes, citing safety reasons.
Many insist that there are substantial traffic slowdowns due to the new bike lanes. More than 9,000 people signed a Change.org petition titled “Remove the catastrophically dangerous bike lanes on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, MD.” The petition explained, “[the road has been] reduced by 39% in driving capacity [and] is consistently congested.” The removal of two traffic lanes and the narrowing of the remaining ones is said to have caused delays throughout the road. As a result, drivers have been cutting through residential areas to avoid Old Georgetown Road. There are also worries about whether the two lanes available on each side are enough to provide snow removal trucks with access.
Another issue drivers have with the bike lanes is that they see nobody using them. “I saw my first cyclist on [Old Georgetown Road] this Sunday [after] months of seeing no one on the closed lanes,” one poster wrote on the Nextdoor app. People have pointed out that bikers can utilize the Bethesda Trolley trail instead, which runs parallel to Old Georgetown Road. In addition, the State Highway did not warn drivers of the lane removal on Old Georgetown Road, so they could not provide input on the decision. State Delegate Mark Korman agrees that the State Highway could have done better by spreading the information about the bike lanes’ installation.
However, the idea that the bike lanes are causing traffic congestion may be unfounded. The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) collected data on the road, stating that travel times along the stretch during the AM and PM rush hours have only increased by about 60 seconds since the bike lane installation. For buses, travel times have decreased in the western direction of the involved section. Greater Greater Washington (GGW) stated, “These surprising results are actually not so surprising, since road diets have been shown to improve safety and traffic flow simultaneously.”
One of the main reasons that prompted the creation of the bike lanes was a considerable number of crashes. Between 2014 and 2018, there were 338 reported crashes along the road. According to the Corridor Needs Analysis, 65 were severe, fatal or life-changing, and 18 involved pedestrians or bikers. The SHA expressed the need for the roadway to be safer for pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists.
Two fatal biking accidents in 2019 and 2022, involving teens Jacob Cassel and Enzo Alvarenga, made the local headlines. Within the ten months before the bike lane creation, there were 40 crashes, six related to pedestrians and bicyclists. Since the lanes’ installation, there have been no reported accidents involving bicyclists or pedestrians on Old Georgetown Road.
Kristoffer Nessler, a bicyclist who often uses the lanes, stated, “[the lanes are] a more direct route… a flatter route, so it’s just made [his] life as a daily commuter into the city a lot easier.” GGW commented, “Separated bike lanes and road diets increase safety and comfort, helping more than bicyclists.”
Currently, the bike lanes seem effective in minimizing pedestrian and bicycle crashes. However, not enough time has passed to confirm that the bike lanes have made a difference. Current data shows that the lanes address safety issues, but the number of accidents could rise in the upcoming winter months. Although some locals believe the lanes are causing traffic issues, the collected data on travel times by bus are almost the same.
Written by Huy Changvu of Cabin John Middle School
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons