Wicomico County Bike Lanes - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. - It is National Bike Safety Month and Maryland Senator Ben Cardin is pushing for more funding to add bike lanes across the nation. "I think it's a critical need," Buzz Carragher knows the demand for more bike path and lanes in Wicomico County is ever increasing.

As the owner of Salisbury Cycle and Fitness, he repairs bicycles on a regular basis that have fallen victim to motor vehicle crashes. "The fork is bent, the wheels are trashed, its wrecked and because the cars pushing into the cyclists right of way." The bike lane on Riverside Drive in Salisbury is one of few in Wicomico County, but it's only about three feet wide. Carragher says "if we had roadway paths for cyclist then it would be a separation between the cyclist and the car and we wouldn't have this many accidents."

Matt Drew is the founder of http://www.bike-sby.org/ and his organization has worked with the city of Salisbury to apply for a $25,000 grant with the state to build a 17 mile bike lane through the city. Drew says "were experiencing a lack of funding for existing roadways to accommodate the increase in car traffic, so one positive way to get more people down the road is to create more bike lanes."

We contacted Wicomico County and the state of Maryland and they could not give us an exact number of bike lanes for the county. State officials expect to reach a decision on the grant by July.