Another stretch of Northeast Baltimore’s Harford Road is going on a “diet.”

An earlier “road diet,” which includes things like reducing the number of car travel lanes, improving intersections to make them safer for pedestrians and adding bike lanes, led to a reduction in crashes on Harford Road from Erdman Avenue to near the county line, Baltimore transportation officials told community members last week.

Thanks to that success, they plan to extend the layout another mile south of Erdman Avenue to the intersection with the Alameda and St. Lo Drive.

The project is slated for construction next summer around the same time as similar changes come to a 2-mile segment of Washington Street. Together, they will create a seamless separated bike lane from the Inner Harbor to Lake Montebello and points farther north along Harford Road — a rare win for Baltimore bike commuters who have long complained about disconnected infrastructure.

At a community meeting Thursday night, nearby residents mostly supported the project, but some criticized the plans as taking too much space away from cars. Others thought the road diet wasn’t going far enough.

Transportation officials are proposing converting the rightmost lane of northbound Harford Road between the Alameda and Erdman Avenue — currently a parking lane along the fairway of Clifton Park Golf Course’s first hole — into a bike lane.

Cyclists could worry less about encroaching cars, but more about golf balls hooked off the tee box.

A combination of concrete “pills” and flexposts would delineate the lane. Several bike commuters present Thursday questioned why the department wasn’t pursuing a seamless curb that would not just separate the lane, but better protect those using it from cars.

Vehicles have flattened many of the flexposts on the Harford Road bridge over Herring Run, a “pretty blatant advertisement that they don’t keep drivers out,” said Tevis Tsai, who lives in Parkville and bikes Harford Road often.

The short answer — the project doesn’t have budget for that, planners said. And the pills — essentially curb-height concrete barriers spaced a few feet apart — work significantly better than flexposts alone, which the department views as “a big step forward,” said Clea Baumhofer, Baltimore’s chief of traffic engineering.

One of two current car travel lanes will be maintained, while the other will get transformed into either a parking lane or a dedicated bus lane. Transportation officials polled the community members present on which they preferred.

The project also will create bus “bulbs,” enlarged curb areas that give riders more space to stand and wait, provide level boarding access for wheelchair users, and keep buses in the travel lane when making stops.

The road’s southbound side will see no changes, save for the bus improvements and tweaks at some intersections to shorten the distance that pedestrians have to cross.

Some present, including Mark Washington, worried the changes give “priority to people who pass through the neighborhood and not those who live here,” creating more congestion that negatively impacts residents.

The comment, which received some nods and light applause from others present, reflected a sentiment some in Baltimore feel that projects like this are primarily meant to add bike lanes to roads, not to create safer streets for everyone. Another person present said the existing Harford Road changes have “created hell for cars.”

“Nobody is opposed to bikers or bike flow up and down Harford Road, but the people who live here need to be considered,” said Washington, who is a leader for the Coldstream Homestead Montebello neighborhood association.

Safety is the “trade-off” that came with increased congestion or travel times along Harford Road, Baumhofer said.

The transportation department has not responded to emailed follow-up questions regarding specific crash and congestion data.

At the meeting, transportation officials said that between July 2024 and this past July, there were 47 crashes in the stretch of road slated for changes, predominantly at intersections.

Others present shared stories of getting struck by vehicles while biking and said more of their neighbors would hop on two wheels if it were safer.

Some pushed transportation planners to extend the changes even farther south to 25th Street, saying it would create a safer environment for children attending the REACH! Partnership School.

Another short answer — there’s no budget for that.

But the budget they do have allows the city to forge ahead with the proposed changes much faster than similar past projects. It’s slated for completion by next fall.

“I’m thinking, ‘Hey, I’ll be alive for that!’ Well, hopefully alive if I keep biking down Harford [Road],” Tsai said.

Planners will spend the coming weeks finalizing the design and present it to the community Dec. 16.