Baltimore’s transportation department plans to add or improve 17 miles of dedicated bike lanes across the city over the next three years.

The total mileage will include new bike lanes, additional segments of the ongoing Greenway Trails Network and conversion of temporary markers — think plastic flex-posts and paint — of some existing bike lanes into permanent infrastructure, a process known as “hardening.”

There are approximately 290 miles of roadway and park trails with designations for bikes across Baltimore today, but only a tiny fraction of them are on city streets and considered “all ages,” which means separated from car traffic by a barrier like a concrete curb or row of car parking. The additional 17 miles will roughly double the city’s total of all-ages bike lanes.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott plans to announce the goal Monday morning during Bike to Work Week, an annual nationwide effort to promote sustainable transportation.

Advertise with us

To the average biker, getting around Baltimore can feel daunting. Separated bike lanes across town end abruptly at busy intersections. Accommodations for bike use can be simply asphalt paint or road signs telling drivers to watch for cyclists.

Mismanagement and pockets of community opposition have derailed Baltimore’s bike plans for years. But as the availability and popularity of scooters and electric bikes steadily increases, transportation officials want to connect the city’s largely isolated bike lanes into a safe, contiguous network.

In a statement about the city’s expansion plans, Veronica McBeth, director of Baltimore’s transportation department, said “cycling offers residents a healthy and sustainable way to travel while benefiting both themselves and the community.”

The city’s most recent master plan, last updated in 2017, recommended building 77 additional miles of lanes separated from car traffic over the following five years, but the city only built about 23% of that amount by 2023.

A complete list of the specific projects that will make up the new 17-mile goal has yet to be finalized, but will likely include a handful of projects slated to begin construction this year.

Advertise with us

The transportation department plans to break ground on a new 2-mile bike lane on Washington Street from Clifton Park to Fells Point later this year. Officials are also nearing construction for an extension of the Harford Road bike lane. Once completed, those projects will create a continuous separated bike lane from the Inner Harbor northeast to the Baltimore County line.

Other plans to reconfigure additional sections of Central Avenue, fill in a northern and central section of the Greenway Trail and add bike lanes to a section of Roland Avenue in Hampden should be shovel-ready in less than three years, according to the Streets of Baltimore website.

The “hardening” of some bike lanes means riders might soon see the plastic flex-posts on Maryland Avenue or Monument Street swapped for concrete markers.

Critics of bike lanes have blasted them as a sign of gentrification, little-used obstructions that slow car traffic, and an imposition on communities that don’t want them. But advocates point to polling data that shows support for more of them, and highlights how they improve mobility access for people in wheelchairs or riding other devices.

Two-wheelers also appear to be getting more popular as car ownership gets more expensive. Year-over-year ridership on rented vehicles like Lime and Spin scooters nearly doubled last year, according to city figures. A pilot program to provide vouchers to city residents for purchasing electric bikes drew thousands of applications.

As part of Bike to Work Week locally, there will be a slate of group rides and other events across the region.