WABA Prince George’s County 2024 Advocacy Update #4

November 27, 2024

Did you make WABA’s November 2 Cider Ride? The routes visited the Patuxent Research Refuge, Lake Artemesia, College Park, and other Prince George’s sites. Check out this post’s header photo, taken during the Cider Ride at Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

Let’s start this quarterly Prince George’s County WABA Advocacy update with a look ahead, at…

Our agenda through the end of the year

The next Prince George’s Active Transportation Advisory Group (ATAG) meeting will be on Monday, December 2, a Prince George’s Planning opportunity to discuss issues impacting bicycle, pedestrian, and shared-use paths in Prince George’s County.
The State Highway Administration (SHA) will host public informational workshops to provide information and gather community input on Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) projects in Prince George’s County. The PSAP identifies areas of need and prioritizes corridors for pedestrian and bicycle safety projects. The workshops are for the 1) MD 201 (Kenilworth Ave) 52nd Ave to Good Luck Rd project, Wednesday, December 4, 5 pm-7 pm at Bladensburg Elementary School, 4915 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg and 2) the MD 214 (Central Avenue) project, 5 pm-7 pm on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at Central High School, 200 Cabin Branch Road, Capitol Heights, MD. The maps, displays and other information also will be available on the project portal page.
Join us for a 2025 Maryland State Legislative Preview, online via Zoom on Thursday, December 5 starting at 7:30 pm. We’ll be joined by Senator Will Smith, who chairs the Judicial Proceedings (JPR) Committee. Register here. Chair Smith will brief us on the 2025 legislative calendar, the transportation budget outlook, and effective advocacy from a legislator’s point of view, and WABA and our partner Bike Maryland will provide an overview of our 2025 legislative agenda and how you can get involved.
To thank WABA members for your support, we’re throwing a member-exclusive happy hour at Old Dominion Brewhouse in Hyattsville on Wednesday, December 11. Come at 5 pm and meet other WABA members and staff, enjoy a free drink on us, earn prizes in our raffle, and more. Click here to let us know if you’re coming; if you’re not a current WABA member, you can (re-)join today at https://waba.org/donate/. Dues are pay-what-you-can. We appreciate your support!
Please respond to a Vision Zero Public Survey, an opportunity for residents to share their perspectives and concerns about traffic safety in Prince George’s County. This short survey is part of the 2025-2030 Vision Zero Action & Implementation process developed by the Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T). The survey can be reached at this link.
And please respond to a WABA action, Ask Maryland to Fully Fund Bikeways and Complete Streets. The gist is that the state’s transportation-funding picture is dire, and MDOT was forced to propose spending drastically reduced from last year’s levels, including funding for critical safety programs. Our advocacy letter calls on Governor Wes Moore and the General Assembly to fully fund the Kim Lamphier Bikeways Program and Complete Streets Program, should current revenues allow that, and to prioritize those programs as new revenue sources are brought online.

2025 Maryland legislation and transportation priorities

The 2025 state legislative session starts January 8. A number of our 2024 priority bills that didn’t pass will be reintroduced in the 2025 Maryland legislative session. They include Bicycle Safety Yield (a.k.a. Stop as Yield), Bikes On Sidewalks as the default statewide, the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act, and an Electric Bicycle Rebate and Voucher Program bill.

We’re thrilled that Delegate Michele Guyton (District 42B, Baltimore County) will introduce a new bill, prohibiting stopping, standing, or parking in a striped bike lane or a bicycle path such as a cycletrack, and District 26 (Prince George’s County) Senator Anthony Muse will introduce the bill in the Senate. We’re glad! We’re also fans of D17 Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr’s new Bicyclist Head Start bill, which would allow a bicyclist to proceed through an intersection when the pedestrian walk signal is illuminated, and we’re all for D26 Delegate Kris Valderrama’s bill creating graduated speed-camera fines on Indian Head Highway/MD 210, which has been the site of 93 traffic fatalities since 2007. That death toll is horrendous and unacceptable. Stiffer penalties for high-speed violations would contribute to a safer roadway.

Click here to view a working document covering WABA’s 2025 Maryland Legislative Agenda and again, please join us Thursday evening, December 5 for a legislative preview, online via Zoom with guest Senator Will Smith.

State finances will be a central General Assembly focus during the 2025 session. The headline of a November 12 Maryland Matters article reads, Five-year state budget projection foresees ‘enormous gap’ not seen in two decades. The subhead is “Budget cuts, taxes among options to close budget deficits that rise into billions of dollars.” We’re doing our best to identify opportunities and influence decision-makers.

WABA Maryland Organizer Seth Grimes presented our transportation priorities on October 24 in Largo, during the Maryland Dept. of Transportations FY25 – FY30 Consolidated Transportation Program tour. (The CTP is the basis for the state’s six-year capital budget for major transportation programs.) WABA’s testimony also calls for inclusion of the Greenbelt East Trail and the Maryland portion of the Fort Lincoln-Anacostia Riverwalk Trail connector, which includes a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge across the Anacostia River, paralleling Route 50, in the CTP. Click here to view a recording of the October 24 program – including Seth’s WABA testimony starting at 1:34:45.

We have other, positive points to share…

WABA honors Councilmember Eric Olson and advocate Dan Behrend at the 2024 WABA Awards

Each year at a WABA Awards celebration event, we recognize the amazing work of neighbors, instructors, advocates, and elected officials across the region who continue to build momentum to create a region where anyone — any age, ability, background, or zip code — can get around safely, comfortably, and with joy.

This year, WABA presented a Public Leadership Award to Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson and a Community Advocate Award to Dan Behrend, at the October 9 WABA Awards program in the District of Columbia. Here’s what WABA Maryland Organizer Seth Grimes had to say when presenting the award to Eric:

We applaud Councilmember Olson’s leadership and dedication to improving the safety, comfort, and inclusivity of biking through the Walkable Urban Streets Act, advancing important road safety projects like the Trolley Trail, and supporting community-led efforts.

Dan Behrend is active with RISE Prince George’s, Bike Maryland, and the Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail in addition to WABA. Here’s our statement about Dan:

Dan brings data analysis, project expertise, and thoughtful advocacy to efforts across Maryland. He’s directly played a role in improving the safety, comfort, and inclusivity of biking by diving into the data to propose improvements to policies and infrastructure projects, engaging youth and other community members as an instructor, helping to lead local (RISE Prince George’s, Greenbelt East Trail) and state campaigns (Bike Maryland), and many more.

It was an honor recognizing Eric and Dan!

WABA Maryland Organizer Seth Grimes presented a Public Leadership Award to Councilmember Eric Olson and a Community Advocate Award to Dan Behrend at the 2024 WABA Awards program — Councilmember Eric Olson

Complete State Roads–Prince George’s County

WABA Advocacy has posted our Complete State Roads–Prince George’s County (CSR-PGC) report. Let’s call this a WABA-internal achievement. The report documents a major part of our Prince George’s County work over the last year or so – covering challenges, policy, resources, projects, and plans – with a forward-looking component that maps out our state-roads strategy for the next year or so.

State roads are our biggest safety and bikeability challenge. They are the most dangerous roads state-wide, including in Prince George’s County, with a disproportionate share of roadway deaths and major injuries. They are also the least friendly routes for bicyclists, pedestrians, and rollers.

What’s the CSR-PGC initiative about? Here’s an excerpt of the report’s executive summary:

Complete Streets are designed for safe use and mobility for people who walk, bike, scoot, or use transit, a mobility device, cars, or trucks. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s (WABA’s) Complete State Roads–Prince George’s County (CSR–PGC) work provides guidance for transforming Prince George’s County’s major state roads into complete streets.

Safety, mobility, equity, transit access, and bicycle-network completeness are key CSR–PGC factors, as are Maryland’s and Prince George’s County’s Vision Zero commitments and availability of federal, state, and local funding for planning, design, and construction.

The CSR-PGC initiative arms officials and community members with information needed to understand and advance critical bicycle-network, road-user safety, and transit-boosting infrastructure improvements aligned with major planned and underway transportation infrastructure work.

We’re fortunate that the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has been welcoming of WABA’s and the community’s input and advocacy. We’ve built strong relationships with SHA executive, policy, and project-delivery staff that should pay off as we advance our state-roads advocacy.

Community + Partnership + Dialogue = Progress

We’ll close this update by mentioning a couple of other activities this quarter.

WABA hosted a Prince George’s–Fort Washington community road-safety and bicycling forum on August 12 at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Livingston Road in Fort Washington. Southern Prince George’s County faces transportation challenges that affect residents, businesses and employees, visitors, and the quality of life. Indian Head Highway/MD 210 is particularly unsafe, southern PGC transit falls short, and the area lacks safe pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure.
WABA hosted a September 16 New Carrollton safety walk in cooperation with the City of New Carrollton, Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson, and local advocates. The community is divided by the Capital Beltway and by MD 450/Annapolis Road, a major state highway with dangerous crossings and sidewalkless stretches. Our aims are to boost walking and bicycling in the area and advance creation of safe streets for all. The safety walk identified challenges and explored solutions, a step toward remaking a major county transportation corridor. We’re grateful that in addition to Councilmember Olson and his staff, we were joined by New Carrollton Mayor Katrina Dodro and Council Chair Briana Urbina and other council members; Delegates Nicole Williams and Ashanti Martinez; the State Highway Administration’s senior safety officer, Joe Moges; and other officials and community members.

The September 16, 2024 New Carrollton safety walk looked at challenges along Annapolis Road/MD 450

We’re continuing to work – as usual collaborating with community and advocacy groups and local officials – to extend the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail along US 1 from Hyattsville to the Washington DC border; to upgrade newly created US 1 College Park bike lanes by adding barriers to protect bicyclists from motor-vehicle traffic; to make Fairmount Heights and Chapel Oaks – especially Addison Road and Sheriff Road – safer and bikeable; helping Bowie organizers win safer streets and bikeways; and as other opportunities arise around Prince George’s County. Please, please, get in touch (if we’re not already talking!) about working together…

Speaking out for bicycling and safer streets

We’d like to hear your thoughts about bicycling, pedestrian, and road-safety programming that the county should fund for the next fiscal year. Please send us a note at advocacy@waba.org and we’ll see what we can add to our advocacy agenda.

Finally, is your WABA membership current? If not, we’d love to have you (re)join. Just visit waba.org/join-2020/. WABA is member supported, and your contribution at any level – WABA membership dues are pay-what-you-can – will help us sustain our work and expand our community impact. Thank you!

More about Complete State Roads: Prince George's County

WABA’s Complete State Roads initiative aims to promote remaking state highways in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties as complete streets, boosting safety and mobility for people who walk, bike, roll, or use transit as well as for drivers and their passengers.

Prince George’s County presents a particularly urgent safety challenge, with 129 road deaths in 2023, including 39 pedestrians and 3 bicyclists, far higher rates than neighboring Montgomery County. WABA has been pursuing safe-streets and bikeways advocacy, including in state-road corridors in the county, for some time. And as part of the Complete State Roads initiative, WABA backed the development of legislation for introduction in the 2024 Maryland legislative session. Follow the link for information on that campaign.

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 Prince George's County Budget

Prince George's County's budgeting process, both for its annual budget and its 6-year capital budget, takes place in the spring. WABA works with grassroots advocates and partner organizations to build support on the County Council for funding individual projects and to ensure that the Department of Public Works and Transportation and the Parks Department have the resources required to grow and maintain the County's active transportation network.

Current priorities include expanding Capital Bikeshare in the county, funding trail development to expand the Capital Trails Network, additional design, engineering, and grant-writing staff at DPWT, and an e-bike purchase rebate program.

More about Complete Streets

Complete Streets are streets designed to accommodate all users, and that prioritize historically underinvested modes of transportation like transit, walking, and biking. An incomplete street might lack adequate sidewalks, low-stress bike infrastructure, or safe and comfortable access to transit.

Effective Complete Streets policies change the way a jurisdiction plans and builds transportation infrastructure—sidewalks, low stress bike infrastructure, and transit should be included in any new or rebuilt street by default, rather than as an add-on when there's space or demand.

While most regional jurisdictions have a Complete Streets policy of some sort, they lack teeth and permit transportation departments to continue to build streets that put cars first and squeeze other modes into the margins.

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.