Wednesday Morning Commute - Keen

Good morning

• The 11th Street Bridge's east side bike/ped connection to the waterfront should open in mid-Fall, right around the time the new Barney Circle/Southeast Boulevard Project EA wraps up. The later project will include a mutli-use trail from Barney Circle to 11th Street. JDLand adds "(You know what would be keen? If the improvements to VIrginia Avenue that CSX is looking at post-tunnel construction would include bike lanes all the way to Virginia Avenue Park, which could then maybe hook up with some sort of bike path across the north side of the park to 11th Street, where it would then access the Southeast Boulevard trail. Then there'd be a complete bike route from Barney Circle and points north on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail all the way to Southwest, via a one-block jog from Virginia over to I Street SE at 2nd or 3rd or 4th, since I Street will be built between 2nd and New Jersey within a few years. This also might alleviate the issues with the Navy Yard and Yards portions of the Riverwalk not really being open to bikes.)"  
• After a driver nearly hit a cyclist one Tuesday morning and it was reported, Capitol Police stopped the driver. "The bicyclist who had nearly been struck by the vehicle positively identified the suspect. When approaching the suspect, the officer detected an odor of alcohol emanating from the suspect’s breath. The suspect was placed under arrest and taken to police headquarters for processing." 
• Misting stations for bike trails are a great idea. Of course better than that are trees, but I doubt you'll see a lot of trees planted along the MVT, because of a desire to maintain sightlines of the river. 

Comments

[MM]

Kudos to the Capitol Police for stopping the driver...but jeeziss, if I called the cops every time I was "almost" hit by a car, I'd run out of minutes on my phone. Also, is it illegal to "almost" hit someone. I mean, of course the driver probably broke the law in some way, but doesn't a cop have to witness said incident to take action if it's merely a moving violation? Makes me wonder if there's more to the story there, like road rage or something.

[Sam]

I couldn't agree with you more about the trees.

[JD]

Just in case people might think WashCycle is putting words in my mouth :-) , here's the link to the post itself: http://www.jdland.com/dc/index.cfm/3717/11th-Street-Bridge-Demolition-Photos-Phase-2-Green-Light/

[w]

JD, what would be an even more important addition to the bike route you propose is covering the RR tracks just south of the soon-to-be orphan leg of 395 so that there could be access between 11th St and 17th street directly to the river. Something DDOT should negotiate into any deal with CSX

[washcycle]

w, that's an excellent idea.

[Kolohe]

Similarly, you're not going to be able to get too many trees on the W&OD because of the Electric right of way.