I just read and agree with the recent editorial about cycling safety. Another aspect is DelDOT needs to either maintain existing shoulders or perhaps remove them if they are not willing to maintain them or able to fund their maintenance.
If the state does not properly maintain shoulders, it may be safer to not have them. When there are shoulders, they need to be sufficiently wide enough (at least 4-5 feet) and maintained properly because drivers are less likely to expect a cyclist in the road and are not expecting a cyclist to have to exit the shoulder into the roadway because the shoulder is not passable. With no shoulders, drivers see the cyclist in the road and are forced to get over or slow down until they can (presumably).
DelDOT typically does not actively add shoulders to a roadway through the Capital Transportation Program (CTP) that mostly focuses on intersections. Often, DelDOT relies on development to occur and developers to add shoulders and shared-use paths to a roadway. Perhaps DelDOT should have an aspect of the CTP, similar to their safety program, that is dedicated to identifying roadways that need cycling facilities, adding shoulders (preferably separated cycling facilities on roads posted with 45 mph or higher speed zones), and then also maintaining the cycling facilities that already exist or are added.
DJ Hughes
Milton
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