Central US 1 Corridor Sector Plan

For over a year, Prince George's County has been reviewing the 2002  College Park US 1 Corridor Sector Plan with the goal of incorporating Green Infrastructure Plan (and other plan) elements and address issues relating to land use, development, urban design and transportation. The preliminary document has a lot of good improvements for cyclists; but in their Resolution of Adoption, the Planning Board made several big and positive changes. Among the changes proposed were

• Using photo enforcement to protect pedestrians and cyclists
• Adding new engineering methods to the list that may be used, including bicycle boxes, cycletracks, and bicycle pavement markings
• Replacing the proposed bike lanes on Route 1 with proposed cycletracks and remove previously proposed on-street parking to make room for them "The provision of cycle tracks, buffered bike lanes, or on-road bike lanes can be achieved by removing on-road vehicle parking."
  
• Updating Paint Branch Trail connections shown on the maps [remove the trail connections through the Paint Branch Golf Course, add a new connection to the Paint Branch Stream Valley Park Trail from the Mazza Property, and to reflect the new connection across Paint Branch from the proposed North Gate Park.]
• Supporting bikeways alongside the right of way (in addition to the on-road facilities)
  
• Ranking the use of land, outside the roadbed, as: pedestrians, transit, trees, bicyclists, drivers.
• Defining cycletracks and sharrows
• Recommending extending the Paint Branch Trail north along the south side of Cherry Hill Road over the Beltway.

The District Council then narrowed those down to what is listed below (tip Jon). There will be a hearing on their proposed amendments on April 6, 2010 at 7 pm in the PG Council Hearing Room in Upper Marlboro. The full list of amendments are here and they also put an end to the "walkable nodes". Bicycle related ones include:

AMENDMENT THREE: Ensure the preferred cross-section dimensions for US 1 contain bicycle side-paths/buffered bicycle lanes along the entirety of US 1. These dedicated bicycle facilities shall be designed to maximize convenience and safety to encourage use of the bicycle as a true alternate to the automobile. Encourage continuation of side-path/buffered bicycle lane materials across curb cuts whenever possible.

AMENDMENT TEN: Indicate in the sector plan text and on the trails maps that while the need for land reservation for a trail on the northern side of Cherry Hill Road exists, the preferred alignment of the continuation of the Paint Branch Stream Valley Park Trail is along the southern side of Cherry Hill Road, through the northern edge of the Seven Springs property, and across the Capital Beltway on the western side of Cherry Hill Road into the Subregion I Master Plan area.

Comments

[Purple Eagle]

What's the idea behind "removing trail connections through Paint Branch Golf Course"? Sounds like a major step backwards to me.

[washcycle]

That's my fault. It's a little unclear. I think they're just changing the map which had the trail in the wrong place - through the golf course. I don't think it is an actual change in plans. But I could be wrong. After two hours on this I had to go to bed and my head hurt so I probably posted this before it was really done.