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Action Alert from Bike Maryland - Complete Streets Across Maryland

  • Tue, February 20, 2018 8:12 PM
    Message # 5787703
    Jim Hudnall (Administrator)

    Action Alert from Bike Maryland

    Complete Streets Across Maryland

    Please write your Delegate(s) today and ask them to support HB 744 and HB 535.

    This Thursday, February 22, The House of Delegates Environment & Transportation Committee will hold hearings on 2 bills relating to complete streets, a fundamentally important concept in helping to make Maryland a safe place for cycling (and all other forms of transportation).

    The committee will be holding a hearing on HB 744, which requires the State Highways Administration (SHA), The MD Department of Transportation (MDOT), The Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA), The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), and the Maryland Aviation Administration to formally adopt Complete Streets Policies.

    The second bill, HB 535, creates a program to assist local governments in the creation, design, and implementation, of their own complete streets policy.

    As you are all too aware, our road system has been designed exclusively for cars.  Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.  Even more than that, however, as Barbara McCann says it in “Completing our Streets”, “at its heart is a policy initiative that seeks to change the way all roads are built in the United States.”

    Currently the SHA has a complete streets policy but since the reality of our transportation network is that all of the various links in the network are managed by several agencies across governments and all of them need to adopt a complete streets policy for it to work.

    The rebuilding of the Nice Bridge is the perfect example of a situation where if the agency had a complete streets policy, the rebuilding effort would look very different and cyclists and pedestrians would be assured a safe route across the bridge. You can check out more about that issue here.

    Please write your Delegate(s) today and ask them to support HB 744 and HB 535.

    Tell them:

    We need Complete Streets to encourage healthy transportation -- bicycling and walking.  Please support HB 535 and HB 744 which will encourage the Maryland Department of Transportation and local governments across Maryland to complete our streets.  

    If you would like more information on complete streets, check out the Complete Streets Coalition.

    Unsure of who your delegate is?  If you enter your address here, you can find out.

    We need you to voice your support today for these two bills.

    As always, feel free to contact us at bikemd@bikemd.org if you have any comments, questions, or concerns.


Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club
P.O. Box 81  
Oxon Hill, MD 20750-0081

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