Residents along a stretch of Cedar Street near downtown Silver Spring voted to make improvements to a bike path there — sort of.
Five out of 13 homeowners on Cedar between Wayne Avenue and Bonifant Street voted to run a bike lane against the traffic flow on the west side of the street (below), Patricia Shepherd, project manager for the county’s transportation department, reported Wednesday to Silver Spring’s transportation committee.
The problem with that design, Shepherd explained, was that cyclists would be rolling next to parked cars and their unpredictable car doors that tend to swing open without warning. On top of that, five more homeowners on that block didn’t vote on the changes, she said.
A vote was necessary because back in the day, homeowners there asked the county to reserve curbside parking for permit holders only. A two-thirds vote would have flipped the script on what exists today: parallel parking on the street’s west side, with one-way northbound traffic rolling on the street’s east side.
The existing bike path on Cedar’s west corner with Wayne Avenue is about 20 feet long and dead ends in a curb, according to Slate magazine. Because of these characteristics, Slate dubbed it “America’s stupidest bike lane” in May 2008.
The transportation department’s preference would have been to extend the bike lane on the west side of Cedar, and allow parallel parking on the east side (below). That design would have minimized the car-door hazard. However, only 2 of 13 homeowners swung that way, Shepherd said.
Homeowners were not asked to reveal why they voted one way or the other, or why they didn’t vote at all. A newsletter describing proposed changes was mailed last fall to each home on the block, with a simple ballot enclosed. Some on the transportation committee wondered if residents mistook the newsletter for junk mail.
It’s unclear whether the transportation department will pursue its preferred design, or if it will hang with block residents’ choice.
Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user SashaFatCat. Embedded photos courtesy of the Montgomery County department of transportation.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
Perhaps they mistook it for junk mail, but perhaps, as with many multiple choice questions, it’s that they weren’t offered any answer that they agreed with.
The biggest problem is not car doors. The biggest problem is that all the choices offered involve bikes riding head-on into traffic that’s often traveling at inappropriate speeds for a residential street, hitting the gas to beat the light at the corner. It’s a really horrible accident waiting to happen.
I’m still amused live within a block of this lane. But I’m on the other side of Wayne and a renter in any case, so I didn’t get a vote.
The funny thing is that it’s probably not the worst form of planning within a block of me. I give that prize to the Whole Foods parking lot.
If you like this plan you’d have loved what they tried a few years back. They built the bike path between the parked cars and the sidewalk. This had a number of problems, but they’re weren’t convinced to get rid of it till a drunk or stoned driver actually drove down the bike path one night, sideswiping cars and trees because, of course, there wasn’t really room for a car on the bike path. The current dead-end bike path is a remnant of that one.
I ride my bike all the time heading downtown for an errand or passing through.
There’s a slight downhill on that stretch and you can take on that road pretty fast. There’s no way in hell I’d ride in the proposal that puts the bike lane alongside the cars it’s just a matter of time before someone’s taken out by a car door.
Anyhoo… Doing just fine right now without the bike lane… Why bother? Once you clear that tiny stretch you’re just going to have to share the road with cars.
Is cedar lane really so traffic filled as to need a bike lane at all?? Why not save the hassle and put the effort towards a lane on colesville or georgia or east-west… something that would really benefit from it…
Just moved into the neighborhood. I’m an old bikey. Just rode that area today…and that precise block. Can’t say I think it’s worth anyone’s tax dollars to stripe any part of that street. How about a nice sign that says something like “Look behind you! Bike about to ride into your opening car door.”
Sometimes we over-engineer, don’t we.