Posts tagged ‘bicycling’
Planning Department to Present “Complete Streets” Concept as Part of International Parking Day
SILVER SPRING, MD – A “complete street” provides safe areas for cyclists and pedestrians, environmental features to diminish the harmful effects of stormwater runoff and a welcoming appearance. Oh yes, and it provides lanes for vehicles.
On Friday, staff from the Planning Department will host an outdoor display in downtown Silver Spring depicting a complete street as part of international Parking Day. The annual event invites people to transform parking spots into informational displays or temporary parks. Begun six years ago by a California design firm, Parking Day has grown to include hundreds of participants in cities around the world showing alternatives to cars and asphalt.
The Planning Department’s complete streets display will go the heart of the intent of Parking Day – to rethink the way streets are used and reinforce the need to improve urban areas. The display will transform a parking space using a three-dimensional version of a streetscape with pedestrian- and bike-friendly elements as well as stormwater management techniques that reduce pollution.
Planners and urban designers are recommending the complete streets concept to improve Montgomery County’s aging corridors. Environmental tools like stormwater infiltration trenches lined with plants filter runoff that flows from impervious surfaces into streams and rivers. Pedestrian- and bike-friendly features can improve the street’s use for all people, not just motorists.
The Planning Department will be joined in neighboring parking spaces on Ellsworth Avenue by local businesses Pyramid Atlantic, the Green Commuter, and Growing Soul, which will offer art activities and demonstrations of the latest urban-designed bicycles and filtering used vegetable oil for diesel engines. The Congress for New Urbanism-DC will display a beach and a county planner will showcase an artistic view of a park constructed of tissue paper.
Who:
Montgomery County Planning Department
What:
Complete Streets display for international Parking Day
When:
10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, September 16
Where:
Ellsworth Drive between Fenton and Cedar Streets, Silver Spring
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SILVER SPRING, MD – County planners have drafted an electronic tool called a bicycle heat map to help the Planning Board and other policy-makers prioritize future investments in bike routes and support facilities. The heat map, which shows high-demand areas in hues of red and orange overlaying a map of Montgomery County, estimates where future bike commuting and other non-recreational cycling trips are likely to occur to help determine where to focus capital investments in bicycling.
The number of people commuting by bike has soared in the Washington, D.C. region. In the last decade, Montgomery County has seen a 62-percent increase in bike commuters, although that number is still only about half of 1 percent of commuters. In Washington, D.C., commuting by bicycle increased by 86 percent to 2.2% of commute trips.
The county has plans to build a network of bikeways, including nearly 400 miles of shared-use paths and more than 150 miles of bike lanes. About one-third of the shared-use paths and one-fifth of the bike lanes have already been built. The county also has a robust network of existing hard surface park trails.
Based on the methodology used to create the map, areas with the greatest cycling demand include Bethesda/Friendship Heights and Silver Spring. Other high demand areas include Rockville, White Flint and Wheaton.
In developing the heat map, planners used 11 factors to estimate demand for cycling, such as proximity to jobs as well as major destinations like Metro stations, recreation centers, libraries and schools. The map takes into account not just commuting, but also running errands and taking other non-recreational trips by bike. Not surprisingly, the map shows demand highest at clusters of homes and jobs.
As the map is a work in progress, planners encourage cyclists and others to weigh in using an online comment function embedded in the heat map webpage.
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