Montgomery County’s first cycle track is being installed Thursday and could be finished in a matter of days.
Crews were putting up flex posts along Woodglen Drive in North Bethesda/White Flint, where new road markings have already been put down for the Woodglen Drive cycle track. The project is the county’s first use of the concept of a buffered bike lane and could be put to use in downtown Bethesda in the next few years.
The cycle track will run from Edson Lane — where the off-road portion of the Bethesda Trolley Trail ends — to Nicholson Lane.
Redevelopment plans for the Metro Pike Plaza shopping center north of Nicholson Lane could include extending the cycle track all the way to Marinelli Road, where there’s an entrance for the White Flint Metro station.
The cycle track will mean a row of metered parking spaces on the west side of Woodglen Drive will move off the sidewalk. The road runs along the North Bethesda Market development anchored by Whole Foods.
The two-way track is eight-feet wide and separated from the parking lane by a roughly three-foot wide buffer area that includes the plastic flex posts.
Montgomery County Department of Transportation officials said the cycle track would also include green-painted pavement to highlight “conflict areas,” where the cycle track crosses intersections or driveways.
