Nearly seven months since its introduction at a November public meeting, Howard County's Office of Transportation unveiled the preliminary designs for North Laurel's connections project Wednesday evening, allowing final community input before submitting the plans to the state Department of Transportation.
The bike and pedestrian pathways will connect the Patuxent Branch Trail at Savage Park to the North Laurel Community Center. Additional pathways include connections to the MARC stations at Laurel Park racetrack and Main Street in Laurel.
During the second and final meeting on June 15, bicycle and pedestrian planner David Cookson showed a dozen new and familiar residents a map of the possible connections, including existing and proposed bike lanes, sharrows and shared-use paths, as well as signage.
After listening to comments and suggestions from cyclists and walkers last year, Cookson said engineers have spent the past few months developing preliminary designs for the connections project.
"We were looking at where people identified they would want to go and then any sort of opportunities or issues that they raised," Cookson said. "We also collected and collated that input from them to work on defining the route."
Engineers and planners developed low-cost solutions by analyzing the existing pathways, and developed routes based on the community's parameters.
"We're trying to develop a route that the broadest range of people would be able to use," Cookson said. "There are a couple things we're trying to get out of this project: the overall signage plan for the route, and then where we're proposing to put some bike lanes and install a shared path to make this connection work."
As an avid cyclist, West Laurel resident Rino Sanchez said he "loves" the department's plans. Sanchez currently rides his bike 12 to 14 miles every day to his job in Columbia, but said he's restricted because of limited and dangerous roadways. With the new connections, he said, his commute would be more enjoyable and North Laurel residents would have a route to reach their community center..
"It's easier for them to bike around," Sanchez said. "I'm a nature guy. [Biking to work] is better than angry people in their cars. I'm a much happier person riding."
Cookson said the transportation department is also working to minimize any potential impacts on private property right-of-ways that are owned by the county, BGE or homeowners associations.
"Right now, all the sign placements and pathway connections are either on the public right-of-ways or on Baltimore Gas and Electric right-of-ways," he said. "We've already reached out to Baltimore Gas and Electric to start talking to them about how we can work with them to get this connection put in."
The proposed shared-use pathway will connect Ridings Way to Royal Path Court, taking cyclists and pedestrians under BGE power lines.
"I saw people have rode through there on mountain bikes, but I was not going to ride that every day with mosquitoes and ticks," Sanchez said. "But, I would regularly ride this route once there is that connection through the power line area."
Joanne Barr, director for the city of Laurel's Parks and Recreation Department, said she's pleased Howard County is encouraging people to bike more. Barr said Laurel city officials hope to have connections south of the MARC stations.
"Our overall goal is to get the project to connect to Riverfront Park along the Patuxent River," Barr said. "But, that's long term."
After gathering community input, Cookson and the transportation's bicycle and pedestrian team are now tasked with finalizing the connection design drafts by July and reaching out to the Maryland Department of Transportation for further comment in August.
Once the preliminary designs are in place, the county's transportation office plans to submit additional state grant applications in spring 2017 to fund the signage and the pathway connections project.