by Geoff Fox
The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration will be holding a virtual meeting on Wednesday, July 23, for residents of Washington County to gather input from the public on pedestrian and bicyclist needs in the state.
The July 23 date is also open to residents in Howard, Carroll, Frederick, Allegany, and Garrett counties.
You can follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/5x72ds23 to join the meeting via the internet, or call to be part of the meeting at 1-667-262-2962, passcode 526650253# as an alternate option.
The MDOT SHA said they are committed to improve safety for vulnerable road users, which are defined as those walking, cycling or rolling, and is conducting the online survey and virtual meting series to gather public feedback to help update the agency’s Vulnerable Road User Assessment.
Vulnerable road users are particularly susceptible to being killed or injured in a crash and account for a growing share of transportation fatalities in Maryland and across the country.
The purpose of the VRU Assessment is to evaluate safety needs for pedestrians, cyclists and any other non-motorists and to update the state’s plan to improve safety for those travelers.
The survey is available until midnight on August 7, and a link is on our website. The only Washington County locations, and only locations in Western Maryland, are centered in Hagerstown.
In the survey, participants can use a digital map to provide feedback on their experience walking, biking, and rolling on routes that have been identified through analysis as corridors of interest and suggest enhanced biking and walking infrastructure that could help make Maryland’s roads safer for all users.
The five virtual public meetings this summer, all within the month of July, allow residents to ask questions and provide additional feedback on areas of interest.
All meetings will be held 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. via Microsoft Teams and focus on specific geographic areas.
On July 8, the virtual meetings include Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Kent, Caroline, and Talbot counties; July 15 includes Montgomery and Prince George’s counties; July 16 includes Baltimore County and Baltimore City; and July 22 includes Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties.
The first VRU Assessment was completed in November 2023 and is being updated this year in conjunction with federal requirements. After this year, the assessment will be updated every five years.
The VRU Assessment reinforces the MDOT’s Serious About Safety initiative, and enhanced, department-wide program to drive safety goals and save lives, as well as the Complete Street police that prioritizes safe, reliable, equitable and sustainable travel across all modes to make roads safer and connect Marylanders to jobs, education and economic opportunity.