Montgomery Co residents rolling into the County Council Building for the "Great Montgomery Bike Summit." @wtop pic.twitter.com/lLNcgGaW8a
— Kathy Stewart (@KStewartWTOP) June 18, 2016
Mont. Co Councilman Hans Riemer at 3rd annual Bike Summit talks about progress made by previous bike summits. @wtop pic.twitter.com/0mkZnDJDSx
— Kathy Stewart (@KStewartWTOP) June 18, 2016
ROCKVILLE, Md. — It was a great day for riding a bike — and for the Great Montgomery Bike Summit — on Saturday.
The summit, which is in its third year, gives the bike community a collective voice, said Montgomery County Councilman Hans Riemer, who helped organize the bike summit at the council headquarters in Rockville.
The event brings together bicycling advocates and policy makers. The initiatives that come out of the summits help move the county toward becoming a great place to bike.
Washington Area Bicyclist Association Executive Director Greg Billing, one of the speakers at the summit, said the county’s bike master plan should be done this year and would lay out a foundation for the entire county for the next 20 years.
“It’ll actually make Montgomery County a leader in suburban bike planning,” he said.
Billing said the master bike plan was a product of prior bike summits and said that he’s excited to see that kind of progress being made.
”We’re really excited there are some protected bike lanes being built in downtown Silver Spring this year that will make it safe for people to bike around downtown Silver Spring,” Billing said.
Billing also talked about “Vision Zero,” an initiative to end traffic deaths and seriously injuries on county streets and roads. He said 45 to 50 people in the county each are killed each year.
“We, as organization, are working to bring that number to zero both in the county and region wide,” Billing said.
Cyclist Marina Voss attended because she wanted the county focus more on bike safety. She said she’d love to do more riding for things like daily errands but she’s worried about safety.
“I want to make sure it’s going to be safer than it is right now,” she said.
