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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