Letter: Bikes on Sidewalks in Maryland

A blanket sidewalk riding ban creates unsafe conditions for people in areas without bike infrastructure.

You can view this document in PDF form here.

2023-HB0519-BikeOnSidewalks-FAV

HB0519: Bicycles, Play Vehicles, and Unicycles - Authorizations and Requirements Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee
Washington Area Bicyclist Association – FAVORABLE

March 27, 2023

Chair Smith and members of the Judicial Proceedings Committee,

Transportation safety is a paramount mobility concern. HB0519 would make bicycling safer. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), an advocacy organization with 1,300 Maryland members, supports the bill.

Bicycling in traffic with cars, trucks, and buses is dangerous and discouraging for bicyclists, yet Maryland law currently prohibits people, including children, from riding a bicycle (or a scooter) on a sidewalk unless expressly allowed by local ordinance. Montgomery and Howard Counties do have an ordinance to allow bikes on sideways and have experienced no significant issues. It’s time to make this simple and sensible provision uniform across the state, by enacting HB0519.

Maryland is committed to Vision Zero, a goal of zero motor vehicle-related fatalities and serious injuries by 2030. We are building out a network of bike lanes and trails while working to make neighborhood streets safer for all users. Allowing bicycling on sidewalks is part of this important in-progress work.

Allowing bicycling on sidewalks also advances equity. Many lower-income individuals rely on a bicycle for trips to work, school, shopping, and other destinations, and bike for recreation, but live and travel in areas that lack safe bikeways.

Making bikes on sidewalks the default, via HB0519, will help Maryland meet our transportation safety and equity and Vision Zero pledges.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association urges a Favorable HB0519 JPR report and Senate floor vote.

Seth Grimes, Maryland organizer Washington Area Bicyclist Association seth.grimes@waba.org

HB0519

More about Maryland Legislation

WABA develops and advocates for state legislation to make bicycling in Maryland safer and more accessible and for state funding to expand Maryland’s bicycle network, working directly with legislators and Maryland Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) leadership and as part of the Bike Maryland coalition. We also work on broader road-safety, transit, and environmental legislation and funding, typically as part of larger statewide coalitions. The annual Maryland legislative session runs from January to April, but our work developing legislation starts the preceding summer.

We’re thrilled that several bills we worked on or supported were enacted in 2024, directing an MDOT Vision Zero Coordinator and public review process; the Better Bus Service Act, allowing bus-lane enforcement cameras (with bikes allowed); authorizing stop-sign cameras near schools in Prince George's County; and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act, addressing penalties for hitting a cyclist in a bike lane.

Our 2024 advocacy included unsuccessful efforts that we will likely pursue in future years. (It often takes years to pass a bill. ) These include a Great Maryland Trails Act, an E-bike Rebate and Voucher Program bill, and a bill addressing maintenance responsibility for sidewalks and bike paths along state roads. Another topic on our list for 2025 is contributory negligence, a prejudicial statute that says that if a crash victim is even only 1% at fault, then they are liable and may not recover (full) costs and damages from the party largely at fault.

More about Laws & Policy

WABA works with grassroots advocates at the local, county and state level to support laws and policies that make it easier and safer to walk, bike, and take transit. And we work to changes ones that make biking less safe, make it harder to build bike infrastructure, or that deprioritize the safety and convenience of people walking, biking, or taking transit.

In practice that means advocating for robust and transformative Vision Zero programs, enforceable Complete Streets policies, and funding for new infrastructure that supports biking, walking and transit.

Other regional legislative priorities include:

Reforming Contributory Negligence (passed in DC, in the works in Maryland and Virginia).
Getting rid of the Level of Service engineering standards in transportation decision-making.
Funding E-bike purchase rebates.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.