Maryland Vulnerable Road User Survey

Hosted by Maryland SHA

The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration seeks feedback to improve safety for people walking, cycling or rolling, via an online survey and virtual meeting series. The public feedback they gather will be used to update the state’s plan to improve safety for these travelers.

The online survey, conducted by the State Highway Administration’s Office of Traffic and Safety, is available here and is open through midnight August 7, 2025.

The survey allows participants to use a digital map to provide feedback on their experience walking, biking and rolling on routes that have been identified through the analysis as corridors of interest and suggest enhanced biking and walking infrastructure that could help make Maryland’s roads safer for all users.

The State Highway Administration also is hosting five virtual public meetings this summer where residents can ask questions and provide additional feedback on areas of interest. All meetings will be held 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. via Microsoft Teams, and will focus on specific geographic areas as follows:

Tuesday, July 8 – Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Kent, Caroline and Talbot counties. The link to join the meeting is here, with a call-in option at: +1 667-262-2962, passcode 56292696#
Tuesday, July 15 – Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The link to join the meeting is here, with a call-in option at: +1 667-262-2962, passcode 577377009#
Wednesday, July 16 – Baltimore and Harford counties and Baltimore City. The link to join the meeting is here, with a call-in option at: +1 667-262-2962, passcode 800335017#
Tuesday, July 22 – Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. The link to join the meeting is here, with a call-in option at: +1 667-262-2962, passcode 132987841#
Wednesday, July 23 – Howard, Carroll, Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties. The link to join the meeting is here, with a call-in option at: +1 667-262-2962, passcode 526650253#

Maryland’s first VRU Assessment was completed in November 2023 and is being updated this year in conjunction with federal requirements. After this year, the assessment will be updated every five years.

The VRU Assessment reinforces the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Serious About Safety initiative, an enhanced, department-wide program to drive safety goals and save lives, as well as the Complete Streets policy that prioritizes safe, reliable, equitable and sustainable travel across all modes to make roads safer and connect Marylanders to jobs, education and economic opportunity.

For a list of all major State Highway Administration projects, go to Project Portal, or visit the homepage at roads.maryland.gov. For a look at real-time traffic conditions, go to md511.maryland.gov.

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 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.