Julie Palakovich Carr after riding through all the streets in Rockville, MD. Image by Eric Palakovich Carr used with permission.

It’s that time of year when people are thinking about improving their health and are inspired to exercise more. If you are looking for a unique motivation to stick with your workout routine, I suggest setting a goal of riding your bike on every street in your community.

This is a feat that I accomplished in Rockville, where I live and represent in the Maryland House of Delegates. Over the course of 13 months, I rode my bike 324 miles over every block of nearly every street in Rockville.

This originally started as a research project, back when I was serving on the Rockville City Council. We were updating the city’s bikeways master plan with a proposed 40% increase in the lane miles of bike infrastructure. As we debated plans for new bike lanes and shared use paths, it occurred to me that I should bike around the city more to better understand where new bike routes were needed.

I admit that this thought was not original. My friend and fellow City Councilmember Mark Pierzchala has completed four complete circuits of riding his bike on every Rockville street.

In the summer of 2016, I embarked on riding all 31.3 miles of shared use paths, three miles of bike lanes, and 33.5 miles of shared roadways in Rockville. A little more than a year later, I had ridden 285.5 miles to complete the goal. I don’t like trailering a bike and chose to start all of the rides from my house, which resulted in a lot of miles pedaled just to get to places I hadn’t ridden yet.

All of this riding was a great way to see firsthand the safety issues that bicyclists face in every part of my community. Just as importantly, this project motivated me to continue to ride my bike more.

In July 2018, I started riding every block of every street in Rockville, building off of my previously cycled routes. This was a more ambitious project, as there are 156 miles of city maintained roads, plus several county and state roads.

To track where I rode, I used the MapMyRide app and then transferred the data to a paper map of the city, where I highlighted the corresponding street segments with a marker.

Over the course of biking 609 total miles in Rockville, I learned a few lessons.

An image from the MapMyRides App, which tracked exactly which streets and paths I took.

We need bike infrastructure

The first lesson is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever ridden a bike as an adult, but it needs saying nonetheless: the presence of bike infrastructure makes a big difference in how enjoyable and safe it is to ride your bike. It should be self evident that a protected bike lane or shared use path is far preferable to riding in mixed traffic, but I’ve heard other elected officials express doubts about spending money on bike lanes. For anyone who undertakes riding their bike for dozens or hundreds of miles, any doubts soon evaporate.

A part of Southlawn Lane, in Rockville, with no bike lanes. Image by the author.

Not all roads are bike-friendly

It’s not possible to bike every road, even in bike-friendly places. Rockville has earned a bronze rating from the League of American Bicyclists, a national organization dedicated to making roads safer, and more bike-friendly, but I still had to skip a few roads for safety reasons.

For instance, I didn’t feel safe riding on a few roads in the industrial area in northeast Rockville that are used heavily by big trucks. There were also certain places where I didn’t feel comfortable riding in mixed traffic, in spite of the sharrows, those little directional signs painted on the pavement.

Rockville Pike is a prime example. Although I’ve seen bicyclists ride in the right-hand lane on this road—especially after signs were installed a few years ago stating that they may do so—the large volume of traffic and fast vehicle speeds made me feel unsafe. In that instance, I opted to ride on the sidewalk, as is allowed by local law.

Riding down Southlawn Lane, in Rockville, where some areas have no bike lanes. Image by the author.

Maintaining bike infrastructure is also vital

Creating bike infrastructure is important, but maintaining it is just as important. A shared use path isn’t very useable if there is vegetation protruding several feet onto the path or if there is mud or loose gravel on the pavement or if tree roots have pushed the pavement up in unsafe humps.

During this project, I had an accident in Rock Creek Park, where my bike skidded out on a muddy patch and I badly injured my left knee. I was on crutches for almost two months while my knee recovered. Thankfully, Rockville does a pretty good job of responding to complaints about these types of issues, but I wish that the City and other jurisdictions would more proactively inspect their shared use paths for safety issues. One idea would be to have volunteers ride bikes or walk on each and every paths twice a year and to report back any issues.

Bicycling helped me build a deeper connection with other neighborhoods

Riding every street in your community is a great opportunity to get familiar with other neighborhoods and to spot new parks and restaurants to explore. As an elected official, I especially felt useful while I was riding around the city, spotting broken crosswalk call buttons and missing street signs and reporting them for repairs. It was an opportunity to do some proactive constituent service while being out and about town.

These rides were also an opportunity to look for places that could be improved in the future with new bike improvements. For instance, I have several intersections in mind where bike boxes would be a great addition.

I sincerely hope that others will embark on a similar goal of biking every street where they live. And bonus points for any elected officials that start the journey.

Next up on my biking agenda: riding all of the bike lanes and paths in Gaithersburg.