Text Box: LADIES OF GLEN ECHO You are invited to a Ladies Night at Holly Shimizu’s 6101 Bryn Mawr Ave. Tuesday, June 20, 8:00 p.m. Please RSVP 301-229-3011 Text Box: NEW PLAN PROPOSED FOR MACARTHUR BLVD. BIKE PATH By Diana Hudson-Taylor A MacArthur Blvd. Bikeway Improvement meeting held by the Montgomery County Dept of Public Works and Transportation at Bannockburn Elementary School on May 23 described a new plan, labeled #4, which was created as an alternative to the former Plans 2 and 3. The new plan covers a 2.5 mile bikeway from Oberlin Ave. to the Interstate 495 overpass. It would narrow each automobile lane to 10-feet and create a three-foot paved shoulder on each side, demarked with striped painting for speed/commuter bicycling. A five-foot green space would separate the current pedestrian/bicycle path from the road. This plan was created by a team of 19 individuals from various federal, state of Maryland and Montgomery County agencies, and contractors, according to Senior Engineer Tom Cupples and Project Manager Yasmin Esmaili In December, 2006, the director of the department, Arthur Holmes, will propose to county executive Douglas Duncan that he forward Plan 4 to the County Council for approval. This would start the final stage of planning (money has already been set aside for this planning if this project is approved). Comments are encouraged, the officials said, and can be sent to the above mentioned people at the Montgomery County Dept. of Public Works and Transportation, division of Capital Development, and to County Councilman Howard Dennis. Ms. Esmaili can be reached at 240-777-7226. During the meeting, a number of comments were made repeatedly. They included: 1) the priority of this section of MacArthur Blvd. ignores the most dangerous section of the bikeway from Oberlin to the DC line; 2) if cars do not stay in an 11-foot-wide lane now, what reason is there to believe they would stay out of the bicycle lane when the car lane is reduced to 10 feet?; and 3) it does not point to the need for county police to enforce the current vehicle law on MacArthur Blvd.