More Walkable, Bikeable Ritchie Highway Corridor Is Target Of Plan Seeking Feedback

BROOKLYN PARK, MD - Residents want to make Brooklyn Park more walkable and bikeable. 

The Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works is developing a plan to make the town safer to navigate for pedestrians, bikers and public transportation riders.

The comment period for the draft plan is open for about two more weeks. Public Works will then finalize a plan and decide its next steps.

Residents currently point to Ritchie Highway as a barrier splitting the neighborhood in half. This is challenging for walkers to Brooklyn Park's three elementary schools and one middle school.

Students within 1.5 miles of Brooklyn Park Middle School must walk or find their own ride to class. Parents worry about their children crossing the busy Ritchie Highway, also known as Maryland Route 2. 

The longest distance between controlled pedestrian crossings on Route 2 in Brooklyn Park is 3,816 feet. That's nearly three-quarters of a mile through an urban environment. Officials want there to be a pedestrian crossing every 650 feet.

The 5-foot-wide sidewalks also pin pedestrians close to the six-lane Ritchie Highway, which carries 22,000 cars daily.

Residents also reported speeding on side streets and poor bikeability.

At community meetings, attendees ranked these as their five highest priorities for improving Brooklyn Park's roadways.

1. Reduce cut-through traffic and aggressive driving on residential
   streets.
2. Add sidewalks on both sides of residential streets. 
3. Enhance bus stops with shelters, benches, signs, bike racks, or
   trash cans.
4. Widen and repair sidewalks on Ritchie Highway.
5. Add safe ways to cross Ritchie Highway between signalized
   intersections.

Other ideas include installing traffic-calming devices, reallocating travel lanes, converting some side streets to two-way, extending Cedar Hill Boulevard and adding traffic signals.

Transit riders are asking for new connections along Church Street and Belle Grove Road.

Bikers want to build the Baybrook Connector, a shared-used path on Belle Grove Road. This would connect Brooklyn Park to the Patapsco Light RailLink station and the MedStar Harbor Hospital. It would also feed into the Baltimore Greenway and Anne Arundel Trail Networks.

Comments on the draft plan will be accepted through Aug. 27. The draft is posted here.

Residents can contact Adam Greenstein to share their thoughts at (443) 569-9587 or adam.greenstein@aacounty.org.

Comment cards and a hard copy of the plan are available at the Brooklyn Park Library, located at 1 E. 11th Ave.

More details on the project are available on this webpage.

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