Howard County, MD Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

Howard County Code § 21.101(b-1) defines a bike lane as any portion of a roadway or shoulder that has been designated, by a traffic control device, for single-directional bicycle flow and for preferential or exclusive bicyclist use. That definition matters because § 21.221(a) lists 20 specific places where an individual may not stop, stand, or park, and item (20), added in 2020, puts a marked bike lane on that list alongside driveways, intersections, sidewalks, crosswalks, and tow-away zones. The prohibition applies unless stopping is necessary to avoid conflicting traffic or is required by a Police Officer or another traffic control device, so a brief stop to yield to oncoming traffic is treated differently than parking or standing in the lane.

Because bike lane parking is one of the specific violations listed in § 21.221(b), the Howard County Police Department can impound the vehicle outright rather than issue only a citation, the same enforcement tool available for driveway blocking, sidewalk parking, and tow-away zone violations. The County's traffic code otherwise treats a violation of this subtitle as a Class D civil offense under § 21.213, distinct from the criminal misdemeanor track that caps fines at $100 for other stopping and parking violations. Separately, Howard County marks bike-and-chevron shared-lane markings, called sharrows, on part of Main Street in historic Ellicott City under § 21.403A, a narrower infrastructure measure distinct from the exclusive bike lanes covered by the parking ban.