As you drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, can you imagine seeing bike commuters or recreational cyclists pedaling in a dedicated lane alongside you? This could be a reality when the new Bay Crossing, currently being studied, is eventually built. A new petition, uniting more than four dozen cycling advocate groups nationwide, urges planners to include a bike path in the design.
Plans to rebuild the Bay Bridge have been in the works since 2017, when Governor Larry Hogan ordered the first phase of a Bay Crossing study. Now in Tier 2 of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study, transportation leaders have settled on replacing both existing spans with two new, wider ones. A bike path along one of the new spans is among the features being considered, and many cyclists have raised their voices in support.
56 national, regional, and local organizations signed the petition, addressed on June 11 to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). In it, they request a shared-use path for bikers and pedestrians. As the MDTA described in a December open house, it would be a paved, two-way path, protected from traffic by a physical barrier. It could also double as an extra lane for emergency and maintenance vehicles, which the current bridge lacks…