It's been widely reported, and if you read this blog you probably already know it, but the National Park service has decided not to close Beach Drive during regular hours as proposed.
The original proposal was to close three sections of Beach Drive, but Eric Gilliland of WABA said:
After the release of the draft General Management Plan a few years ago, many neighborhood groups and local politicians came out against the trial closure. Even Mayor Anthony Williams, who is a big supporter of bicycling and an original supporter of the test, backed away.
So the proposal was scaled back to the one section, which still leaves Ross Drive open to commuters. But even that was rejected.
The Park Service plan has a mixed bag of initiatives. They plan to lower speed limits - which is of little value since they don't enforce the ones they have.
winding roads means it could be difficult to monitor speeds. Park Police Captain Jeanne O'Toole says the Park Service is also considering laser and radar to help enforce lower speeds.
They plan to install either speed tables or speed bumps. This is a terrible idea. It will reduce the facility of the road for cyclists and roller bladers when the road is closed, and when the road is open, cyclists will avoid it anyway. By adding speed bumps, they're trying to take a poorly designed road and make it better by making it worse. There are better ways to calm traffic than speed bumps, such as roundabouts and visual cues. Though roundabouts do have issues for cyclists.
As previously mentioned here, there are plans to rebuild the trail from Georgetown north to
the Zoo entrance to make it less...awful, and money has been secured to study installing a parallel bike trail along some segments of Beach Drive but, again quoting Eric Gilliland
it is my understanding that this has already been examined and deemed unfeasible due to the narrow right of way and the impact of construction on the gorge.
In general I think this is bad news. It's a shame the Park Service has decided to run a transportation facility instead of a park.
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