The state of Maryland recently awarded Rockville several grants for projects beginning in 2023 to improve mobility and safety for pedestrian and bicyclists.
The city received a $52,000 grant for designing bicycle lanes along Martins Lane, from Mannakee Street to North Washington Street, and a $42,000 grant for six permanent automatic pedestrian and bicycle counters. The counters will help track patterns and trends, including increases or decreases of walking and bicycling in the city from season to season and year to year. They will be installed at locations with regular bike and pedestrian traffic that are yet to determined.
The grants, announced as part of the state’s “Walktober” awareness campaign this fall, were part of $2.6 million in funding for 21 projects statewide through the Maryland Department of Transportation Kim Lamphier Bikeways Network Program.
Rockville also received $312,000 through the state’s Transportation Alternatives Program for a feasibility study and project design to fill in sidewalk gaps and improve intersections in Twinbrook.
These are the latest of several grants awarded this year. In June, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments awarded the city $50,000 for a feasibility study to identify the most effective safety improvements for intersections along Beall Avenue and develop three alternative concept designs for each. In April, COG awarded the city $60,000 for a Complete Streets feasibility study of Fleet and Monroe streets in Rockville Town Center. The study will evaluate three alternatives to improve streets, including adding features such as bike lanes; bus lanes; wider, buffered sidewalks; and traffic-calming infrastructure.
The Complete Streets approach increases bicycling facilities and multimodal travel, which can reduce speeding vehicles and help move the city towards achieving the goals of Vision Zero, a plan adopted by the Mayor and Council to eliminate traffic- and pedestrian-related deaths and serious injuries. Learn more at www.rockvillemd.gov/visionzero.
In the months ahead, the city will conduct public meetings for each project to discuss findings and options for pedestrian and bicycle improvements.