Phase 1 of Bikeway Masterplan Completed

In the Fall of 2009, the City of Laurel passed a resolution adopting a City-wide Bike Masterplan (3mb PDF).  In 2010, the first phase was designed and vetted in public meetings.  This phase consists of 4th and 5th streets and connects to the City's Gude Lake Park with Riverfront Park, both of which have their own trails. 5th Street also fronts Laurel Elementary School and two of the City's community centers - the Anderson-Murphy Armory and the soon-to-be-opened community center at 811 5th Street.  In addition, 4th Street provides access to two large shopping centers. Since 4th Street is only one block offset from Route 1 and carries far less vehicle traffic, these new routes provide safer alternative for north-south travel.  See map below for a graphical depiction of the Phase 1 bike routes.

This initial phase started last summer with 4th Street bike lane striping in Old Town.  Now, Phase 1 has been completed.  The Phase 1 build-out consists of 3 miles of designated bikeways -1.25 miles of on-street bike lanes and 1.75 miles of shared roads designated as bike routes.  These routes are signed with the familiar bike route sign and are marked in the road with sharrows.  These sharrows help cyclists find the lateral location in a shared-lane where they are unlikely to be impacted by the sudden opening of a parked car door.

Click for larger image

Decorative sign posts on Main Street

At the intersection of 5th & Main Streets, DPW is replacing wooden 4x4 sign posts with black aluminum historic sign poles to match the existing historic luminaires. Three wooden posts will be replaced, and the new crosswalk sign pole will be moved off of the sidewalk and onto the new bump-out to increase its visibility. In addition, the sign frames have been added to match the historic-style sign poles.



More Street Lights for 5th Street

At the City's request, BGE will be adding has added a couple of overhead street lights and upgrading a couple of the existing lamps on the 900 block of 5th Street, between Montrose and the new Police Station HQ.
Updated:  12/13/2010

Bike Plan to begin roll-out

Tomorrow, the City of Laurel will begin implementing the first phase of its City-wide bike master plan. This initial phase is a north-south route that connects several neighborhoods, ending at Riverfront Park to the North and Gude Lake to the South.  The route runs along low-volume 4th/5th Streets and is a mix of on-street bike lanes and shared-route markings/signage, with a short hiker/biker trail connecting the intersection of 4th  and Cherry with the trails around Gude Lake.  In total, the City will be using signage and street markings to designate 3 miles of roads as preferred bike routes, with 1 mile of that stretch to include on-street bike lanes.*  Sharrows and signage will be used on the remaining two miles to emphasize the shared nature of the road. Work north of Greenhill Drive will begin on Friday, with the exception of any sharrows that need to be installed on roads that WSSC is in the process of patching/re-surfacing.  The on-street bike lanes on 4th Street from Cherry to Greenhill will be installed as part of a 4th Street CIP expected to start later this month.

A few of the bike guide signs to be installed

*To put this into context, the City maintains about 56 miles of local roadways and about 100 miles of sidewalk in a 4.5 square-mile municipality.

Bump-out on Main Street at 5th

This Next week, contractors will be installing a brick sidewalk bump-out on the north side of the intersection of Main Street and 5th Street. This bump-out will extend the sidewalk 7.5 feet into Main Street at the existing crosswalk location in front of Selborne House.  The bump-out will allow for vehicle and crossing-pedestrians to better see each other without any reduction in on-street parking.  This sidewalk extension will also reduce the incidences of speeding at this location.  In addition to the bump-out, both ramps on the south side of the intersection will see improvements in alignment and ADA accessibility.

Sidewalk Repair Contract Starts up Again

After a long weather-induced hiatus, the current sidewalk repair contract has re-started this week.  This contract will also cover:

• New sidewalk along Van Dusen and 
• Bulb-outs at Main/5th.

Public Hearing: New Bike Lanes on 4th Street and 5th Street

A Public Hearing will be held in Meeting Room #2 at City Hall on 7pm, Thursday January 28, 2010 on the topic of adding two miles of bike lanes along 4th Street and 5th Street. The on-street bike lanes will connect the Riverfront Park trail to the paths around Gude Lake Park. In addition, 4th Street provides direct access to Main Street, the Historic District, Laurel Commons and the Laurel Shopping Center.

For those that cannot make the Public Hearing, discussion material is presented below. As always, comments can be submitted directly to the City, DPW, or on this site.

Map of affected routes (shown in green)

Proposed Re-striping of 4th street from Cherry to Greenhill

Proposed Re-striping of 4th Street from Greenhill to Gorman (WB 198)

Proposed Re-striping of 4th Street from Gorman (WB 198) to Talbot (WB 198)










Proposed Re-striping of 4th Street from Talbot (WB 198) to Montgomery Street










Proposed Re-striping of 4th Street from Montgomery Street (WB 198) to Riverfront Park










Proposed Re-striping of 5th street from Main to Gorman










Proposed Re-striping of 5th street from Gorman to Montrose

Map of Designated Bikeways