OCEAN CITY, Md. – Ocean City officials are formally opposing a proposed State Highway Administration pilot project on Philadelphia Avenue, arguing the plan could create new safety risks for bus riders, drivers and others traveling through one of the town\u2019s busiest corridors.<\/p>\n
The proposal would test converting part of the northbound bus lane on Philadelphia Avenue between 17th and 26th streets into a dedicated bike and scooter lane. Under that setup, buses would move into the travel lane and stop there to pick up and drop off passengers.<\/p>\n
Ocean City\u2019s council voted this week to send a letter of opposition to the state.<\/p>\n
City Manager Terry McGean said the town supports efforts to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety, but believes this specific proposal creates too many concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo first of all, we applaud the state highway\u2019s efforts to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety on Coastal Highway. And we\u2019re 100% behind that goal,\u201d McGean said. \u201cOur concern with what they\u2019re calling the quick build is basically what they\u2019re going to do is remove the bus lane and right turn lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGean said that change would force buses to stop in the travel lane, which he said could back up traffic and raise the risk of rear-end crashes. He also said bus passengers would no longer be stepping out at the sidewalk, but instead into an area shared by bicycles, scooters and similar devices.<\/p>\n
In addition to the bus concerns, McGean said removing the right turn lane could create more conflict for drivers entering businesses along the corridor and for those trying to pull back onto Coastal Highway.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we think the potential negatives, increased risks of doing what\u2019s being proposed, far outweigh the potential benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McGean said the town does not oppose bike safety improvements in general and remains open to other ideas from the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, we\u2019re always open to suggestions to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety on Coastal Highway,\u201d he said. \u201cThis particular proposal we have significant concerns with.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to WBOC, the State Highway Administration said public input from citizens and elected officials is \u201calways meaningful and important\u201d as the agency studies possible changes along the corridor. SHA said the section of MD 528 between 15th and 67th streets was identified because of a high number of incidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.<\/p>\n
The agency described the Philadelphia Avenue concept as a temporary test designed to evaluate bus operations and the possible effects on traffic.<\/p>\n
McGean said Ocean City staff had already made the town\u2019s concerns known at the staff level and said officials are willing to continue working with the state on a different solution. For now, though, the town is making clear it does not support the pilot as proposed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCEAN CITY, Md. – Ocean City officials are formally opposing a proposed State Highway Administration pilot project on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4581,68018,68013,4664,7603,68020,69,71,70,68019,68014,68015,68016,6166,68017,68021],"class_list":["post-148954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-bike-lane","tag-coastal-highway","tag-cycling-infrastructure","tag-maryland","tag-ocean-city","tag-ocean-citys-council","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-similar-devices","tag-state-highway-administration","tag-terry-mcgean","tag-town-manager","tag-transport-infrastructure","tag-travel-lane","tag-wboc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}