Department of Recreation and Parks 
Bicycling for Transportation

Bicycling in Rockville

Why Bicycle?
While bicycling is often seen as primarily a recreational activity, The Millennium Trail, the Rock Creek Trail, and many other neighborhood bikeways in the Rockville area provide great opportunities to bicycle for both recreation and transportation.  Traveling to destinations by bicycle instead of by car has many benefits:

• Creating cleaner air
  
• Conserving energy
  
• Creating safer streets
  
• Reducing traffic noise
  
• Serving as a low-cost form of transportation
  
• Taking up less space on roadways and in parking lots
  
• Providing an excellent form of exercise

Bicycling for Transportation
According to the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS), bicycling produces multiple potential benefits, both for the individual and their community, and there is a great potential to increase the number of trips taken by bicycle.  Approximately 69 percent of all daily trips are less than five miles, 50 percent are less than three miles, and 25 percent are less than one mile (NPTS 1995); well within the range of an average cyclist.  Rockville’s compact scale, traditional development pattern and activity-filled downtown make bicycling an attractive travel option.

By taking advantage of the opportunity to convert short automobile trips to bicycle trips, the City can reap enormous benefits in terms of improving the physical health of residents, reducing the negative environmental impacts of auto emissions, and lowering traffic congestion.  A National Bicycle and Pedestrian Clearinghouse technical brief (1995) notes that the American public saves from 3 to 14 cents for every automobile kilometer (5 to 22 cents per mile) displaced by walking and bicycling due to reduced pollution, oil import costs and costs due to congestion, such as lost wages and lost time on the job.

It is important to recognize that only 20 percent of all trips are taken between home and work.  The remaining 80 percent are trips to school, for recreation and errands (NPTS 1995). The potential for increasing the use of bicycles for these types of trips may be even greater than for commuting, since these trips tend to be shorter distances and can be done in casual clothing.

Bicycling and walking are environmentally clean modes of transportation, requiring no fossil fuels.  Errands around town often consist of several short trips within a few blocks of each other, requiring an automobile to be turned on and off, emitting excess exhaust.  Bicycle trips produce no air pollution, reduce road congestion, and often take less time, especially if convenient bike parking is provided. 

Biking to the store, school or work also provides a time-efficient way of attaining the United States Surgeon General’s recommended daily allowance of physical exercise.  By taking a 15-minute ride to work or school and then riding home each weekday, a Rockville resident will get 30 minutes of exercise five days per week.  Children and adults who take this simple action will experience less heart disease, diabetes, and fewer problems with obesity.  In addition to the health benefits, personal benefits may include improved productivity, self-image, greater sense of independence, and improved social relationships (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1996).

Accommodating Bicyclists in Town Center
Bicycling is being integrated with all modes of the City’s transportation system.  It is being encouraged in Rockville’s Town Center, which continues to develop into a daytime, evening, and weekend activity center with a mix of land uses and activities.  With new bicycle lanes, bike routes, and bicycle parking being planned, City residents and visitors to Town Center will be able to bike comfortably to reach offices, cafes, restaurants, the movie theater, and other destinations.

Improving Bicycle Access to Activity Destinations
By improving its bikeway network, Rockville is making it easier for all residents to make trips to all parts of the City by bicycle.  New facilities are making it safer and more comfortable to ride, and they are helping to reduce the amount of time it takes to bicycle between destinations in the City.  The map below estimates how long it takes to bicycle to the Rockville Town Center using the existing bicycle network, assuming that people can ride faster on bikeways with shared-use paths, bike lanes, and signed bike routes than on roadways with no special bike accommodations (each ring is a 5-minute interval).  One of the reasons that the travel times are longer for the eastern half of the City is the lack of east-west connectivity across the MD 355 and CSX/Metrorail corridor.  Bikeway improvements will equalize and expand the rings of this map so that it is more convenient in terms of time and comfort to reach Town Center from all parts of Rockville.