It’s not even rush hour, but traffic is at a full standstill on Old Georgetown Road. As my car crawls towards JDS, cars around me are honking, desperately trying to maneuver across the road to turn. Glancing to my right, I see a totally open lane reserved exclusively for cyclists, yet it is completely empty.

The bike lanes from Ryland Drive to Rockville Pike on Old Georgetown Road were added on Dec. 22, 2022 as a response to two cyclist deaths in 2019, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). Though these deaths were tragic, I believe that the bike lanes are not an appropriate solution and may put Montgomery County citizens at greater risk. Since their installation, it is evident that there has been a significant increase in traffic on Old Georgetown Road. 

According to MDOT, roughly 40,000 to 55,000 drivers utilize Old Georgetown Road per day, and now there are only four drivable lanes instead of the six that there used to be. The two bike lanes take away 33% of the driving capacity on the state highway that could have been used for driving.

In spring 2024, prime time for biking, the State Highway Administration’s (SHA) District Three traffic engineering team recorded the number of cyclists that crossed two major streets that intersect Old Georgetown Road on a given day. I received their findings through the Freedom of Information Act. They found that 53 cyclists crossed Tuckerman Lane, and 37 cyclists crossed Democracy Boulevard. 

Compared to the around 55,000 daily drivers, the number of cyclists is extraordinarily insignificant, especially at a time with ideal weather conditions for cycling.

Shortly after the bike lanes were introduced, a petition circulated seeking to revert their insertion. The petition to remove the lanes is currently closing in on 10,000 signatures which surpasses the 2,000 signatures gathered to pass the ill-advised infrastructure change in the first place. This clearly goes to show that the populace of Montgomery County, along with myself, has already seen the negative effects of this heinous decision.

One would assume that the bike lanes have decreased hazards, since they were created for safety reasons. But I found that they provide new dangers for both drivers and bikers. With the perplexing setup of the bike lanes, cyclists and drivers are constantly confused and frustrated with the configuration. From my personal experience, cones frequently get knocked over by drivers, due to tight driving lanes. Even with the bike lanes present, many cyclists prefer to use sidewalks since the bike lanes are considered hazardous. 

One of the main dangers of the bike lanes is that emergency vehicles can’t move past the gridlock of traffic caused by the loss of one lane in each direction. Because emergency vehicles cannot reach their destinations on time, lives are put at risk. Bethesda Fire Department Station 20 is located on Old Georgetown Road and regularly experiences slower EMT response time, according to their active firefighters. 

Firefighter Paul Macuch has been working at Station 20 for eight years and says that in the case of heavy congestion on Old Georgetown Road, fire trucks try to stay out of the bike lanes and are sometimes forced to cross into lanes with oncoming traffic. Since Old Georgetown is an important road, and this issue is very dangerous, Macuch believes that the bike lanes are not productive for the community.

“I understand their purpose, but I don’t see people utilizing them so much,” Macuch said. “I feel like the volume [of people] using the bike lanes is not worth taking up a whole lane.”

Though the average commute has only been increased by one extra minute, according to MDOT, residents in nearby neighborhoods have seen a tremendous escalation in their traffic because of the bike lanes. For me, traffic during the peak of rush hour has resulted in larger traffic jams that rarely happened before the bike lane installation. Also, with Woodward High School recently opened in 2024, drivers can expect that their commute will suffer additional delays due to the increase of buses and morning drop-offs.

For cyclists looking for a safe recreational bike ride while avoiding the traffic, the Bethesda Trolley Trail falls directly on Old Georgetown Road. This convenient option for bikers makes the Old Georgetown bike lanes seem like an unnecessary addition for Montgomery County. 

The largely unwanted bike lanes on Old Georgetown Road have created an immense amount of frustration and have put lives at risk. These hazardous lanes must be removed promptly for the sake of the community.