Crossroads Cycle Tracks

PG and Montgomery Counties have been studying the Crossroads region where New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard meet up for several years now. Now there are some details coming out that the area could include cycle tracks.

Along with the Purple Line, the plans also aim to redevelop the five major shopping centers in the Crossroads into mixed-use residential and retail high-rises and increasing the "walkability" of the area with broad pedestrian promenades and a buffered bike lane along University Boulevard.

Takoma Park City Planner Ilona Blanchard said the plan's language on the proposed buffered bike lane along University Boulevard is too confusing and needs to be clarified.

Both counties have their own sector plan for the region.

MoCo's Plan calls for designing New Hampshire Avenue with service lanes on the outside so that it can serve as a mutli-way boulevard that adds bike lanes within the proposed service lanes (in the Sector Plan they show a photo of a cycle track as they describe this). It also calls for directional buffered bike lanes along University Avenue. These bike lanes would have a 2 foot buffer and look like the bike lanes WABA wants on K Street (higher than the street, lower than the sidewalk) with trees between the bike lanes and the sidewalk. it also calls for class 2 bike lanes on Carroll Avenue, and making Sligo Creek Parkway a signed shared roadway. On the latter it calls for adding at least a 4 foot shoulder on each side of the roadway where one doesn't already exist.

Finally, it also suggest extending the Long Branch Trail south a few blocks from Carroll Avenue to Jackson Avenue if WSSC needs access for sewer line work (the "if" is because of possible environmental damage). The trails network drawing shows the trail extended all the way to Sligo Creek with trails radiating NE away from Long Branch

The PG County plan calls for a transit center at the crossroads intersection and

Bicycle hub facilities at the transit center that serve transit riders who walk and bike to work, school, and other places can be incorporated into the transit center. Bicycle hub facilities could include enclosed bicycle storage lockers and parking facilities, retail services, and information about transit options.

Like MoCo's, PG's plan also calls for buffered bike lanes (6' wide with 2' buffers) on New Hampshire and University Boulevard as well as bike lanes on Riggs Road up to Keokee Street

The plan envisions using Merrimac Street/14th Avenue/Kanawha Street as an alternative route for slow moving traffic that would includes bike lanes.

But in general the PG Plan is lighter on specifics than the MoCo plan. (the PG County plan has introduced a new term to me though - a Texas Doughnut "A Texas Doughnut is a building or group of buildings, often multifamily residential, that wraps around or encircles a multistory parking garage." Lovely. They would like to encourage them).

Still I'm not sure what the confusion is that Blanchard talked about, but that quote is from 4 months ago so perhaps it has been straightened out since. I can't say I'm too familiar with the area. I've ridden Sligo Creek and the Northwest Branch as well as Piney Branch Road but never in the crossroads region. Still it sounds like an improvement to me.

Takoma Park supports clearer language advocating a buffered bike lane along University Boulevard and consensus among various plans.

Comments

[Drew]

Thanks for the summary. I just moved in near the Crossroads, and it definitely could use bike lanes or paths of some kind. Pedestrians and motor vehicles clog the sidewalks and roads around here, so biking is difficult. There's no bikeable shoulder on either University or New Hampshire in the vicinity of the intersection, so unless you like mingling with six lanes of traffic, you're left with the sidewalk or, where they exist, access roads, resulting in a lot of braking and weaving. If I'm going somewhere on my bike, I usually avoid the Crossroads intersection and take neighborhood streets instead.