Bicycle Advocate to Join Walkers
Jun 19, 2007 11:52 - 1 Comment
The >Frederick News Post reports that “Bicycle riders will be represented on Montgomery County’s Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee if the county council approves the idea today of extending the committee until July 2012.”
More:
The committee set a goal of reducing pedestrian-vehicle collisions by 50 percent by 2005, but [County Executive Isaiah] Leggett recently sent a memo to Council President Marilyn Praisner saying, “We are nowhere near achieving that yet. In fact, 2006 saw the highest level of fatalities (18) since 2002.”
The chief sponsor of the move to add a bicycle advocate to the safety board, Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, said that cycling “will become ever more central to the county’s efforts to meet the challenges of urban growth, public health and global warming.”
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The City’s Traffic and Transportation Commission has stated (in their April 24, 2007 Minutes) that they would like to review Montgomery County’s accident reconstruction reports of traffic fatalities in Rockville (vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle) from 2004 forward. They think that the reports may help the Commission in determining suggested improvements for pedestrian, bicycle, and driver facilities. >
I’m glad the Commission is taking a look at fatalities in Rockville and that they included bicycles. The City has really been promoting bicycle use for recreation and transportation with lots of classes and bikeway projects, and this unfortunately will mean more accidents involving bikes. The County definitely needs to address all these safety issues too.