State officials say they will spend the summer months testing a proposal to convert Ocean City’s bus lane into a dedicated bike path.
At the start of the summer tourist season, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) will launch a project that converts the shared bus lane along on northbound Philadelphia Avenue between 17th and 26th streets into a dedicated bike pathway.
District 1 Engineer Mark Crampton said the agency will be installing flex posts and temporary “floating” bus stops in the area as it studies proposed improvements along the corridor.
“It’s one of those things where you look and see how it goes,” he told the OC Today-Dispatch. “That’s really going to drive what [the project] looks like.”
SHA representatives held a public workshop in December to make their pitch for several proposed improvements on the stretch of MD 528 (Philadelphia Avenue/Coastal Highway) between 15th and 67th streets. Among them was a proposal to create a dedicated bike path in what is currently a shared bus lane.
From the outset, the agency has made it clear the goal of the project would be to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety along the roadway. From 2018 to 2023, the agency recorded 49 crashes involving pedestrians, 38 crashes involving bicyclists and four fatalities along the portions of MD 528 being studied.
“At the meeting, at least the comments I heard were positive, in the sense that people didn’t feel it was going to be too intrusive,” Crampton said. “There was some fear of the unknown. You will always have that. How is this going to work?”