As you drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, can you imagine seeing bike commuters or recreational cyclists pedaling in a dedicated lane alongside you? This could be a reality when the new Bay Crossing, currently being studied, is eventually built. A new petition, uniting more than four dozen cycling advocate groups nationwide, urges planners to include a bike path in the design.
Plans to rebuild the Bay Bridge have been in the works since 2017, when Governor Larry Hogan ordered the first phase of a Bay Crossing study. Now in Tier 2 of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study, transportation leaders have settled on replacing both existing spans with two new, wider ones. A bike path along one of the new spans is among the features being considered, and many cyclists have raised their voices in support.
56 national, regional, and local organizations signed the petition, addressed on June 11 to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). In it, they request a shared-use path for bikers and pedestrians. As the MDTA described in a December open house, it would be a paved, two-way path, protected from traffic by a physical barrier. It could also double as an extra lane for emergency and maintenance vehicles, which the current bridge lacks.
“When we get these once in 50-75 year opportunities when a bridge is being built, to get bike and pedestrian facilities, we have to seize those opportunities.” says Jon Korin, president of Bike Advocates for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County (BikeAAA), one of the signing organizations. “This is a once in a multigenerational chance.”
The path would connect two local bike trails on opposite sides of the bridge: the Cross Island Trail on Kent Island and the Broadneck Trail currently under construction on the Anne Arundel side. Soon, these two trails will be “staring at each other across the Chesapeake Bay,” says Korin. The rare opportunity to connect them presents a compelling case for building the trail.
It would also connect national routes: the East Coast Greenway, 9/11 Memorial, and American Discovery Trails all intersect on the B&A trail in Anne Arundel County, which will eventually meet with the Broadneck trail. The Bay crossing is a missing link on the American Discovery Trail, whose website currently advises cyclists to ask “a taxi or a friendly motorist to carry you across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.”
“Shared use paths are important because they provide a safe place to bike, walk, run, or scoot and their separation from motor vehicle traffic is particularly important on high-speed roads like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge,” says Ken McLeod, policy director for the League of American Bicyclists, which also signed the petition. Across the country, many bridges of similar length have shared-use paths: the recently-rebuilt Tappan Zee (now Cuomo) bridge has a 3.6-mile path with 6 viewpoints and a traffic barricade. Other examples include the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pensacola Bay Bridge, the Oakland Bay Bridge, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac.
Comments on a 2023 MDTA survey indicated public support for a bike path, but some respondents raised safety concerns, worrying that pedestrian access would increase suicide risk and proximity to traffic might cause accidents. Jon Korin agrees, but says that safety precautions should be built into the new design anyway. “All of these issues have been dealt with elsewhere,” he says, citing other bridges that have implemented suicide netting and traffic barriers. Additionally, the added width of the bike path could facilitate crisis response by providing access for emergency vehicles.
Korin thinks that the path will have environmental benefits, too. “The more you can personally connect people to the Bay, to the water, the more they care about it, and the more they will support initiatives to improve it,” he says. “Driving over it is one thing, but taking it in from a bike seat, or on foot—that’s a deeply personal way of experiencing the Bay, and it’ll make a difference in terms of building grassroots support.”
The petition writers agree that a bike path will encourage people to love the Bay: “We see this as a once in a lifetime opportunity, to not only improve the quality of life for everyone in the iconic Chesapeake Bay region, but to make the area a world-class destination as many other bridge paths have done.”
