College Park Streets Closing April 19 for Route 1 Rampage Cycling Race

Cars still parked on Knox Road, College Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue or Yale Avenue in Old Town at 5:00 a.m. on April 19 will be towed. That is the sharpest practical warning in College Park's street closure plan for the Route 1 Rampage, a collegiate cycling race organized by the University of Maryland Cycling Team that will lock down the heart of Old Town for nine and a half hours.

The closures run from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and cover the 4500 to 4600 blocks of College Avenue, the 7400 block of Rhode Island Avenue, the 4500 to 4600 blocks of Knox Road, and the 7400 block of Yale Avenue. Driving and parking along those stretches will be prohibited for the full window, with driveway access cut back to alternate routes connecting to Baltimore Avenue.

Zone 6 permit holders have a specific deadline: move vehicles to the City Garage at 4509 Knox Road by 6:00 p.m. Saturday, April 18. The city's advisory, posted March 30, is explicit that cars remaining on the course after 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning face towing.

Pedestrians won't be shut out entirely, but they will need patience. Crossing the course on foot will only be permitted when no cyclists are present, which, over more than nine hours of active racing, means unpredictable waits at cross-streets throughout Old Town.

The Route 1 Rampage draws collegiate riders from across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and is a returning fixture in College Park's spring calendar. The UMD Cycling Team's annual home event brings student athletes, fans and volunteers into Old Town, generating foot traffic for restaurants and shops along the course even as vehicle access to those same blocks disappears for the day. Business owners and residents who depend on street-level parking or weekend deliveries along College Avenue and Knox Road face a nearly full-day gap in car access.

The city's public notice does not detail how emergency vehicles will navigate the closure zone during race hours, a question with real stakes in a neighborhood where several Old Town blocks have limited alternate access. The traffic control plan outlines coordination between city traffic staff, police and race organizers, but emergency routing specifics were not addressed in the public advisory. City Manager Kenny Young's office did not respond to questions about emergency response protocols before publication.

The April 19 closure arrives two months after College Park earned its first-ever Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community designation from the League of American Bicyclists. Mayor Fazlul Kabir has made cycling infrastructure a stated city priority, and the Route 1 Rampage fits squarely within that agenda. Residents can access the traffic control map and last-minute updates through the city's CivicAlerts page and official social media channels.