Just a few feet from where a white ghost bike marks the spot where Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was killed while riding her bike on River Road three years ago, new bike lanes are being installed.
In 2022, Langenkamp, a diplomat and mother of two, was coming home from a back-to-school event when she was stuck and killed by a truck.
Three years later, her husband, Dan Langenkamp, walked along the sidewalk on the busy state road where Maryland State Highway Administration crews had been working on Monday.
Pointing to the upgraded bike lanes on the roadway, he said, “You can see that the bike lane is now wider,” noting the horizontal green stripes that stood out against the dark asphalt.
And, he said, there will be “plastic stanchions that will help alert cars that a cyclist is there.”
Incorporating the features designed to protect the most vulnerable road users while still moving traffic through a busy corridor, Dan said, is “the modern way of doing things.”
Since his wife’s death, he has become an advocate for improved road safety.
“What we’ve realized is that you can get a lot of traffic through, but also keep people safe,” he said. “I’m delighted to see that they’re moving forward with these kind of measures.”
As a couple, the Langenkamps had lived abroad for most of their working lives, and Dan pointed out how other countries design cities and neighborhoods around a number of transportation modes, prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists, not just cars.
By contrast, he said, “You cannot eat outdoors at a restaurant in America without the roar of traffic and honking horns behind you.” At that very moment, a nearby driver laid on their horn.
The River Road project will include bike lanes on both sides of the state road, from Brookside Drive to Little Falls Parkway. Weather permitting, the work should be completed by the end of October.
Each year since his wife’s death, Dan has led a bike ride called “Ride for Your Life,” which coincides with the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
“We start in downtown Bethesda and we’ll come by Sarah’s crash site and we’ll go to the Lincoln Memorial for a rally, where we’re going to be advocating for safer roads — so people like Sarah don’t have to die,” he said.
This year, that ride will take place on Nov. 16.
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