4th Street Boulevard Construction

Construction is underway on the final piece of the 4th Street Capital Improvement Project.  This project includes the transformation of this...


4th Street near Ashford Blvd

 ...into this:


Cross-section of 4th Street, with bike lanes and tree-lined median

The tree-lined center-medians will aid in traffic calming on this road and also will allow for better traffic management, when traffic picks up again on the Laurel Mall site.  DPW crew are currently installing bikes lanes, and contractors are repairing sidewalk, curb-and-gutter.  A new pedestrian crossing is being installed at the intersection of 4th Street and Ashford Boulevard.   In addition, the crosswalks and median openings at the intersection of 4th and Cherry will be widened to 14' wide on both sides of the intersection. These wider crossings will allow for easier and safer pedestrian and bike access from 4th Street to the Gude Lake, via the newly-built connecting path.  When all the concrete work is complete, contractors will mill and overlay select portions of the road. Construction is expected to take up to a month, depending on weather conditions.

DPW crew installing bike lanes on 4th Street today

Transportation & Public Safety Committee Meeting

The next Transportation & Public Safety Committee Meeting will be held in room #2 at City Hall on October 26th at 7pm.  City staff from DPW and LPD will be there.  The meeting is open to the general public, as well as committee members.

Effects of Traffic Calming on Montrose Ave: Before and After Study

Traffic calming has previously been shown to reduce instances of speed in the City.  And now here's more poof:

This summer, the City installed a traffic calming island in the intersection of Montrose and 10th Street in order to slow down motorists on Montrose Ave, which has a speed limit of 25mph. This new concrete center-island median is bisected with a ladder-style crosswalk and has added signage to improve visibility.  DPW conducted a "before" study to determine the number of speeders prior to its installation. After letting drivers adjust to the presence of the new island for a couple of months, we conducted an "after" study to compare the island's effect on driver behavior.  Here are the results:

1. Speeders in excess of 25 mph decreased from 72.5% of all vehicles to 41.3% of all vehicles.
2. Speeders in excess of 30 mph decreased from 47.7% of all vehicles to 14.1% of all vehicles.
3. Speeders in excess of 35 mph decreased from 19.4% of all vehicles to  2.4% of all vehicles.
4. Speeders in excess of 40 mph decreased from 4.7% of all vehicles to 0.3% of all vehicles.

The results, while not perfect, show that speeding drivers slow down dramatically when there is a large concrete island in the middle of the road; speeding drivers apparently prefer slowing down over crashing. Call it blunt, but nothing else reduces speed as much, or is more cost-effective than simply removing, by design, the ability to speed.

Before and After Study showing effect of traffic calming on Vehicle Speeds

New Pedestrian Signal Installed at Cherry Lane & Van Dusen Road

This week, the City is installing a new push-button pedestrian signal to allow for safe dedicated crossing of Cherry Lane at Van Dusen. ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps were installed on the "pork chop" island, as well as on the southeast corner, to accomodate the crossing. 

New Signalized Pedestrian Crossing at Van Dusen Road & Cherry Lane

Weather permitting, the City will install has installed a crosswalk this week  in order to finalize the crossing.  This crossing will allow pedestrians to safely cross Cherry Lane (ADT of 22,000 cars) without having to walk down to the nearest pedestrian signal at Ashford Boulevard, over a 1/4 mile away.

City Hall gets custom bike rack

Click on Picture to Enlarge

New MD law on passing bicyclists

As of October 1st, 2010, Maryland law now requires that when drivers pass a bicyclist on the road, they must give at least 3 feet separation between their vehicle and the bike. Exceptions to the rule include:

1. A bicyclist is not riding in the designated bike lane
2. A bicyclist has taken the lane.  Bicyclists should use the entire lane on roadways that are too narrow for bikes and cars to share comfortably.
3. The road isn't wide enough to legally pass with 3 feet separation.

Aerial view of Laurel: Google updates its maps

A month ago, Google's satellites passed over Laurel and they updated all aerial imagery of the City.  There, you can see changes made to the City over the last few years.  Below, are some of very projects that WalkLaurel has mentioned over the last year or so.

Roundabout at Montrose/Harrison

Traffic Calming Island at Montrose/10th

Intersection of Montrose/4th looking spiffy.  Note the Sharrows

New Path connecting Gude Lake with Cherry/4th

 New Pedestrian Signal and Sidewalk at Van Dusen/Killbarron

New Sidewalk and pedestrian ramps at Van Dusen and Cherry

The City's first Bike Lanes, on 4th Street

Decorative crosswalks at 4th and Montgomery

Bulbout and decorative crosswalk at Main and 5th

 Decorative crosswalks at Montgomery and Sandy Spring

Finally, the future ICC interchange with I-95. And the empty land that will someday be Konterra Town Center 

City Branding with Bike Parking

The City has purchased new custom bike hitches. The hitches will be placed at municipal buildings and parks and facilities along existing and proposed bike routes.  These offer a common bike parking solution that is unique and identifiable with the City of Laurel.  In addition, they also complement and blend-in with our existing public infrastructure - such as the decorative lamp posts, trash can and benches found on Main Street and throughout the City.


City of Laurel Bike Hitch



CDBG funding for Bowie Road pedestrian improvements

The City of Laurel has applied for CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funding to make road improvements along Bowie Road from MD 197 to Lafayette Ave.  The grant, if received, would be used to install sidewalk along this entire segment.  Because this portion of Bowie Road contains mostly garden-style apartments and offers quick access to bus stop and shopping along Route 1, it has a lot of pedestrians.  Currently, sidewalk is sporadic on the south side of the road, and virtually non-existent on the north side.  The grant will allow for one continuous sidewalk to be constructed along the north side of the Bowie road - from MD 197 to Lafayette Ave, and on the south side, would connect both apartment complex driveway entrances to the existing sidewalk by the Fire and Rescue squad.  Future grant requests (project phases) will address the remaining portion of Bowie Road - from Lafayette to US 1 Southbound.

Intersection improvements completed at Cypress & Laurel Lakes Ave

The City just completed some minor safety improvements at the intersection of Cypress Street and Laurel Lakes Ave.  These improvements include new crosswalks on the north, south, and west legs of the intersection; a relocated pedestrian ramp on the southeast corner; and new sidewalk leading to the Safeway grocery store.

MD 197 and Bowie Road

The City of Laurel has made a request to the State Highway Administration for a pedestrian signal for crossing MD 197 at Bowie Road/Clubhouse Blvd. There is already a traffic signal at this intersection, and SHA has made many pedestrian improvements to the area – particularly on the west side.  The request is currently in the 90-day review period. This blog will be updated when the review status changes.

Street Paving

This week, the City is re-paving Phair Place, 10th Street (from MD198 to West St), and the intersection of Greenview Drive and Clubhouse Blvd. The milling and resurfacing is expected to be complete this week, weather permitting. Any crosswalks and lane markings will be re-striped by DPW after the streets are resurfaced.

Sharrows

If you're wondering what those strange markings along 4th street are,

they are called Sharrows - shared arrow markings. 

They are used to indicate to drivers that this is a

preferred bike route and to emphasize that the street is to be shared with bicyclists.  Where the markings are right in the middle of the travel lane, they are combined with this sign,

 

"Bike May Use Full Lane" to emphasize that bikes are allowed to use the entire lane, the same as a vehicle. This combination is used on preferred bike routes where the travel lane isn't wide enough for bikes to ride side by side with vehicles.

The first photo above shows 4th Street from Montgomery toward Main Street.  On-street parking is allowed on the left side of the street only.  The rest of the street isn't wide enough to incorporate a 5' wide bike lane and still have enough room for a vehicle to travel safely.  Instead, sharrows were used to indicate a safe bicycle riding location that also allows for a large enough gap between them and passing vehicles.

On other parts of 4th street, namely between Gorman and Talbot, sharrows are placed 11' from the right curb. This location guides bicyclists to an area that prevents them from getting hit by opening doors from cars parked on-street along the right side of the street, yet still allows for a comfortable separation distance for vehicles to pass on the left. See photo below.

Sharrow on 4th Street between Gorman Ave and Talbot Ave

New Bike Lanes

The City of Laurel is in the initial phase of implementing its Bikeway Masterplan.  As part of this phase, the City has installed their inaugural on-street bike lanes.  The lanes shown below are on 4th Street from Talbott to Montgomery Street.  This segment is one-way only with on-street parking on both sides.  The bike lane has been installed on the left side of the street to reduce the likelihood of bicyclists getting "doored."  The next set of on-street bike lanes to be installed will be along 4th Street from Gude Park to Greenhill Drive.

Turning roads into walking paths - literally

A short - but important - hiker/biker path was recently completed by the City in order to connect the intersection of the 4th Street and Cherry Lane with the popular walking paths around Gude Lake. The novel thing about this connecting path is that it was built from other City roads.

A recent repaving job on Sandy Spring Road provided the millings (ground-up asphalt) that comprised the foundation of the path. And the fill dirt that was used to provide a smooth grade on the sides of the path came from a new roadway currently being cut in another portion of the City.

From nothing, to a base-foundation, to a graded and top-coated path

The result is a path that required over 100 CY of base-course asphalt, fill dirt and surface-course asphalt - where over 90% of the materials used were recycled from other City roads.

Another view of the new connecting path