TheWashCycle

Bike Trails in Keller, TX

I'm in Keller, TX for Thanksgiving and I've checked out a few of their bike trails.  You have to give them credit for making the effort, but most of these trails exist for recreational purposes. [Of course, here in car crazy Texas what kind of person would use a bike for transportation?]  The trails are short, they end suddenly and they meander. Of note is the Cottonbelt trail which runs beside the Cotton Belt rail line without problem and without a fence. Somehow they make it work here, while CSX looks at running a trail along side an operating rail line as crazy talk.

Metropolitan Branch Trail Do-Over

Maryland DPWT held their do-over workshop on the Metropolitan Branch Trail alignment. The workshop dealt only with the alignment from the west side of Georgia Avenue to the corner of King Street and Fenton Street. As previously mentioned here, DPWT held a workshop in March where option 1 below was strongly preferred, but sighting high costs they developed two new options (4 and 5) which were presented at the new workshop. The options briefly are:

Option #1: This option takes the trail south from a new bridge over Georgia Avenue (MD 97) to the area between Selim Road and the railroad to a proposed tunnel under Burlington Avenue (MD 410). Selim Road would be narrowed to provide for the trail, and the intersection of Selim Road and Philadelphia Avenue would be realigned. The trail would continue south along the railroad, turning east and then south on Fenton Street (with an at-grade crossing of King Street) to connect with the existing trail.

Option #2: same as option 1 until Selim road when it turns east to reach Philadelphia Avenue. Selim Road would be realigned to intersect Philadelphia Avenue to the east of the current intersection. The public parking lot at the corner of Selim Road and Philadelphia Avenue would be modified. The trail follows the south side of Philadelphia Avenue, crossing Old Philadelphia Avenue at-grade. The trail then follows the north side of Old Philadelphia Avenue to reach the west side of Fenton Street. The trail has an at-grade crossing of Burlington Avenue (MD 410) at the signalized intersection with Fenton Street and continues south along the west side of Fenton Street with an at-grade crossing of King Street to connect with the existing trail.

Option #3: Same as option 2 but running along the North side of Philadelphia Avenue.

Option #4: Same as option 1, but along Selim Road, the trail makes an at-grade crossing at 903 Selim Road and it is proposed to acquire the properties in order to continue through the existing building and the building at 906 Philadelphia Avenue to reach Old Philadelphia Avenue. The trail follows the north side of Old Philadelphia Avenue to reach the west side of Fenton Street and continues south along the west side of Fenton Street with an at grade crossing of King Street to connect with the existing trail.

Option #5: This option utilizes the existing pedestrian walkway on the Georgia Avenue bridge instead of a new bridge and then the same as option 2.

Choosing any option besides 1 relegates bike commuters (and this trail is being pushed as a transportation project more than a recreation one) to second class status. In addition Option 5 assumes that cyclists will get off their bikes and walk them across the narrow walkway, and I've never seen cyclists do that at any of the other locations (the humpback bridge or crossing the GW parkway for example) where walking ones bike is required. Simply put, transportation officials would never ask people driving their car to suffer these kind of inconveniences and car commuters would never put up with it. Hopefully they'll still chose option 1.

Whitehurst Freeway II

The third and final open house on the Whitehurst Freeway was on Monday night, and the city is either trying to present every possible option or overwhelm people with choices. Here's what's of interest. One category on the massive charts comparing the options (considering cost, effects on traffic, environmental concerns etc...) considered the impact on bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Best, by the cities ranking, were the two tunnel options - also the most expensive. Worst was an option that pushed K street about two blocks further upstream, obliterating the trail-head of the CCT - the Park Service has already ixnayed this one I was told.

Though none of the drawings showed it, most assumed that cyclists would stop using K street and would instead ride a trail that would pass through the Waterfront Park and busy Waterfront area. That's unlikely, since there are too many pedestrians.

Some designs included bus only lanes along K street that might actually be bike and bus only lanes, like the new ones downtown.

The most interesting designs had pedestrian ramps from the canal to either a new sidewalk on the North side of the present day freeway or under the freeway to a platform built above the waterfront parking lots to create an elevated park.

Much to my surprise I'm now open to the idea that traffic in Georgetown would be better without the freeway, mostly because it would relieve M street and improve traffic trying to bypass Georgetown.  But they need a K Street that provides for cyclists and any connections to K street (via the Key Bridge or up to Canal) need to have an area for bikes.

MacArthur Boulevard Bikeway

MacArthur Boulevard, like Rock Creek Parkway, is a road that frustrates drivers. Cyclists love it, but when drivers get stuck behind a cyclist they get angry. They wonder why the cyclist is in front of them instead of using that "perfectly good" bike path. WABA at one point considered the MacArthur Boulevard Bikeway Improvement Project as one of it's top priorities, but it no longer shows up as one. Neither the Phase I report, nor the project status can be found on the Montgomery County DPWT Bikeways site. So what happened to it? The WABA preferred alternative included rebuilding the bikeway and adding bike lanes along the road. Which seems like a good idea. Another good idea, to run a path along the abandoned Glen Echo Trolley line, was tabled in a County Council meeting in January of 2005 where they 

Agreed that a provision not be added to the Master Plan to convert the former Glen Echo trolley right-of-way to a shared use path between Glen Echo Park and the Capital Crescent Trail through Brookmont and to revisit the issue in the future.

So it seems no changes are planned for one of the areas most popular bike routes and cyclists and drivers can continue to frustrate one another.

Should the Whitehurst Freeway Go?

The District Department of Transportation is in the process of holding three public open houses where city officials are discussing the preliminary results of their studies on possible replacements (or not) of the Whitehurst Freeway. The last of these is on on Monday:

-- Open House 3 - Monday, November 21, 2005, St. Mary Armenian Church, 4125 Fessenden Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

There are several options which include (1) doing nothing, (2) removing it and connecting K Street to Canal Street, (3) removing it and connecting K Street to Canal Street and the Key Bridge (4) removing it and replacing it with a tunnel under K Street. DCist has a thorough analysis of the project and it's history.

This project could impact cycling in the district in many ways.

Pros: A rebuilt K Street might be made safer and/or nicer*. A ramp to Key Bridge could make for a more direct connection from the CCT and Rock Creek Park to the Key Bridge. Pushing 34th Street over the canal could make for a better connection from the CCT to M Street.

Cons: A connection from K street to Canal goes directly over the CCT trail head. A rebuilt K street will have more traffic and might be less safe and/or nice. Pushing 34th Street over the canal will remove a pedestrian bridge over the canal.

I personally like K Street the way it is and am unconvinced anyone but wealthy landowners in Georgetown will benefit from this. And I don't even drive on the Whitehurst. K Street, aka Water Street,  is a relatively safe street to bike on now so I'd hate to see that change. Also, Kevin Costner climbed off of the Whitehurst Freeway and into the Georgetown Metro (I know) in the movie No Way Out. Do you want Kevin Costner to die?

* They don't have to tear down Whitehurst to improve K street

Bike Lane Lines

This photo shows the soon to be painted bike lanes along 4th St. SE (on Capitol Hill). Besides being clearly in the door zone, these future bike lanes are interesting for something else. Right down the middle is a line cut into the asphalt. What is this line, you ask? It's where the contractor painted the lane line in the wrong place - for a normal one way street, not a street with a bike lane. Actually it isn't paint at all - it's thermoplastic pavement marking, and it can't be removed with paint thinner. It has to be ground out, leaving the nice trench you see here. The same thing was done on Rhode Island Avenue in College Park to make room for the College Park Trolley Line trail, but that wasn't due to an error. So why not make the contractor fix the surface - or pay a fine? Got me.

Converted cyclist turns to the road less-traveled

As traffic gets worse, more people will take up bike commuting.

Bicycle parking on the Mall

The National Park Service is in the process of adding bike parking around the Washington Monument - last week I saw where they had marked the spots for their installation. Reportedly, some will be of the inverted U variety and some the bollard style. If you've ever tried to park your bike on the mall, then you've probably found yourself trying to lock it to one of the park benches and that can be a frustrating endeavor (they should get some like the one pictured below).

In general NPS plans to add more parking all around the mall, but hasn't any hard plans - not even with the Lincoln Memorial Circle Project (Which promises safer pedestrian and cyclist crossings via 2 New Traffic Signals and to move the bicycle path on the south side to provide for safer sight-lines).

In addition to permanent parking, the mall needs some sort of temporary parking that NPS can move (or rent) for special events. Whether it's Screen on the Green or the 4th of July celebration/security demonstration, it's always hard to find parking. Maybe that can be part of the 3rd century mall.

  

Bike Lanes in the "Door Zone"

It might seem like a surprise but members of the Montgomery Bicycle Advocates (MoBike) attended a public meeting about placing bike lanes on Norfolk Avenue in Bethesda to protest the bike lanes as unsafe. It's not that they were against bike lanes, just those bike lanes. What's wrong with them? If you read the title of this post you know that the problem is that the bike lanes are in the "door zone."

The "Door Zone" is the 4 feet along the side of a parked car where an opening door can hit and seriously injure a cyclist.

There is no doubt that biking in the door zone is unsafe and even deadly. Placing bike lanes in the door zone, as is done all over the area and aggressively in DC, seems to be inherently unsafe.  AASHTO guidelines call for at least 8' for parking and 5' for the bike lane, but according to a UNC study there needs to be at least 14' from the curb to make it safe - which is what MoBike was asking for.  I've seen bike lanes in Ireland that leave a marked gap of 3' for the door zone but never here.

Normally, I'd rather ride in a bike lane than not (and even better a bike path), since I feel it better protects me from traffic, but does it create a false sense of security with regards to being doored? Are you safer in a bike lane that's in the door zone - aka a "suicide lane" -  then mixing it up in traffic? Comments are open.

 

Google Pedometer

Though it's meant for walking, this site is great for figuring out distances. Just plot out your course and it tells you how far it is. It doesn't take into account hills though.