Hope Page’s comment in the Bethesda Magazine story “Are Our Streets Really Safer” (March/April 2024) unintentionally revealed the challenges that bikers face every day. Ms. Page noted that the Old Georgetown Road bike lanes are “a death waiting to happen” because cyclists will get hit since there are no stop signs at the exit ramps to I-270 or I-395 for cars or bikes. Unfortunately, Ms. Page, like many drivers, is unaware that state law requires a driver to yield when turning right if a cyclist is continuing straight in the bike lanes.
The Old Georgetown Road bike lanes have been a success – they were installed to try to stop the deaths and serious injuries that were becoming all too common on the busy road. Two children, Jacob Cassell and Enzo Alvarenga, were killed in separate crashes while riding their bikes on the Old Georgetown Road sidewalk prior to the installation of the bike lanes. Both children were unable to get around obstacles on the sidewalk and fell into traffic. The families of both children live in my neighborhood.
According to a State Highway Administration report that compared crashes on Old Georgetown Road before and after the bike lanes, five pedestrians and one individual riding a bike were injured and one person on a bike was killed in the months before the lanes. In the months after the lanes were installed, there were no pedestrian or bike injuries.
At the same time, the report also found that after a brief period of increased traffic immediately following the installation of the lanes, there have since been minimal traffic delays. During peak times driving the 2-mile corridor, travel times increased by up to one minute northbound and were not impacted southbound.
Thank you to our neighbors for their patience in getting used to the lanes, understanding their value and appreciating the need to keep more Bethesda families from going through the pain that has faced my neighbors.
Lawrence Soler lives in Bethesda.