Originally Posted by
NoRacer
US 50 and 301 are prohibited for bicycles - See Map 1 here:
http://www.mdot.maryland.gov/Plannin...ycle_Maps.html
Map 1 shows prohibited areas as:
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US 50 from Washington, D.C. line east to MD 3
US 50/301 from MD 3 to the US 50/US 301 split near Queenstown
US 301 from MD 544 to MD 291
US 301 from MD 290 to MD 299
You can ride US 50 from Queenstown on the Eastern Shore to Ocean City, but there's much quieter routes that I can point you to.
There are also better routes going east from D.C. I have one, somewhere, where I did a ride starting in D.C. (with the DC Randonneurs) to Annapolis to visit the Velo Orange bike shop, then ride back to D.C. I believe that ride had lots of trails while in D.C., then switched to roads for the remainder of the route.
Naw, wrong part of US 301. See my map here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...,1.146698&z=10
It's the north-south part in PG County, Robert Crain Highway, not the 50-301. I know that the basic rule-of-thumb is that we're prohibited on all freeways. Thanks for the maps, though; these will be useful.
That said, I was specifically trying to get to Point B on my map (so I spent, like, a week planning the route; I guess I didn't consider hills and high traffic very well), and just chose to barrel out to Annapolis as a bonus and an essentially free bus ride back to Baltimore; yay for monthly college passes. That and enjoy Southern Maryland away from all the development and freeway tangle.
I would like to go down to Southern Maryland again to rack up some miles; the flat highways down there are attractive to me, reminiscent of the fact that I only had highways (and no freeways
) to work with on the three lower counties of the Eastern Shore. And I got along rather well with them back then.
Also, to Maxine: This isn't my first time cycling on the Western Shore; I've been living in Baltimore for two and a half years now. Granted, I haven't had much opportunities to ride around since college and work are so prominent. And I think some of the worst experiences I've had don't even involve leaving the city. D: