OC Today-Dispatch DECEMBER 12, 2025
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No more bus lane big pain? It’s just an idea, state highway officials said at workshop Monday, but proposal to move buses over to create bike lanes on Coastal Highway has led to numerous public objections. — PAGE 3
BRIAN SHANE/OC TODAY-DISPATCH
MERRY PARADE Ocean City Elementary School first-grader Ruby Raynor waves to onlookers during last Saturday’s Ocean City Christmas Parade. See page 30 for more photos from the parade and results.
Coastal bays get ‘B’ on report card Program’s annual survey of conditions in five inland bodies of water results in highest score An egret finds lunch in a bay tributary. yet for environmental health. — PAGE 13
STEWART DOBSON/OC TODAY-DISPATCH
Bridge light switch gets OK Bridge lighting goes vertical, to be paid for out of special event revenue. — PAGE 18
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PAGE 3
SHA pitches idea to convert bus lane into new bike path Repurposing among several concepts presented during public workshop this week By Bethany Hooper Associate Editor (Dec. 12, 2025) Concerns about a proposal to convert the Coastal Highway shared bus lane into a dedicated bike lane dominated discussions at a State Highway Administration workshop in Ocean City Monday. With maps and poster boards spread around the convention center room, representatives of the State Highway Administration (SHA) made their pitch this week for several proposed improvements along the Coastal Highway corridor between 15th and 67th streets. Among them was a proposal to create a dedicated bike lane in what is currently the shared bus lane. The goal of that proposal, according to SHA Deputy Chief Engineer Raymond Moravec, is to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety along the corridor. From 2018 to 2023, the agency recorded 49 crashes involving pedestrians, 38 crashes involving bicyclists and four fatalities along the portion of Coastal Highway being studied. “The point of today is really what you are seeing here – to get public input and feedback, from ‘Hey, this is great’ to ‘What were you thinking?’” he said in an interview Monday. “It doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. We are early in the design phase.” While SHA representatives this week sought public comment on several proposed improvements – which include reducing the speed limit, adjusting traffic signals and lighting and extending the median barrier – numerous community members, including bus drivers with the city’s transportation department, came out Monday to share their questions and concerns about the bus lane repurposing. As proposed, buses would be moved into the slow lane of Coastal Highway to make room for a dedicated bike lane. Buses would then pick up riders from a “floating” bus stop located between the slow lane and the dedicated bike lane. “Now the problem you are going to have is like being behind a school bus for 145 blocks,” Steve Kaeufer, a seasonal bus driver, said following Monday’s workshop. “When that bus stops, everything behind it, for blocks, is going to stop. Then he’s going to go two blocks and stop again … Nothing is going to move in that lane.” Kaeufer said he has a unique perspective, as he’s been a lifelong resident of Ocean City who has biked in town. As a bicyclist, he said he never
feared the buses, but the cars coming on and off of Coastal Highway. He said the plan presented by SHA this week did not solve that problem. “Most of your bicycle-vehicle collisions are from cars entering and exiting Coastal Highway, not necessarily at intersections but coming in and out of parking lots at businesses,” he said. “That’s not going to change … I think it may even worsen the effect because now there’s something dividing them, and they won’t see as easily.” “I think what I saw in there was better than what I walked in expecting to see,” he added. “But I still don’t think it’s going to work.” Lori Batts, a veteran bus driver with the Town of Ocean City, said she also had concerns about moving the buses into what she believed to be the busiest lane on Coastal Highway. She expressed her desire for SHA to consider other, low-impact solutions – such as improved bike signage, additional lighting and educational programming for bike and scooter users – before repurposing the shared bus lane. “I don’t see how moving us into the slow lane of traffic is going to benefit Ocean City or anything else …,” she said. Batts also shared her frustration that SHA representatives had presented their proposal before talking to bus drivers or taking time to understand bus operations. She argued the plan as presented could potentially increase the number of accidents along Coastal Highway, as it could cause more interactions between cars and bikes. “You’re solving a problem we don’t have,” she said. “What you are going to do is cause more problems.” But for resident Palmer Gillis, an avid bike rider, he said he was happy to see a proposal for a dedicated bike lane. If the plan moves forward, he said Ocean City “could have all the ingredients” to encourage bicycle use. “Personally, I think that if there are better pathways and better access for bicycles, that we would reduce vehicular traffic and have more pedestrian and scooter and bicycle, multi-model type transportation,” he said during this week’s workshop. Gillis noted that his travels to various cities and countries have shown him just how a dedicated bike lane could be achieved in Ocean City. He also pointed to the uptick in bike and scooter use, and the bike and pedestrian issues that have appeared along Coastal Highway in recent years. “If we don’t address this in the next five years, we’re going to have a bigger problem,” he said. Overall, Gillis said he supported plans that improve bicycle access. He See PUBLIC Page 6
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