There are a couple of recent articles in the Gazette about bicycle projects in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties.
In MoCo, there are plans to upgrade bike/ped facilities along Seven Locks Road and Montrose Road and MacArthur Boulevard. The Seven Locks Road project
is just in the early study stage now. [It] is looking at adding pedestrian and cyclist facilities along a 3.25-mile stretch of Seven Locks Road between Montrose Road and Bradley Boulevard.
A possible design for the project could include an 8-foot wide shared-use path, an on-road bike lane, 12-foot travel lanes and a 5-foot wide sidewalk.
I've never biked the road, (though I have been on Bradley - which is great since it used to a streetcar line), so I don't know what's needed, but I disagree with this guy in principle
‘‘I don’t think there’s a sidewalk necessary at all,” he said. ‘‘The shoulders are wide enough. I feel comfortable walking there. There is a much greater need for traffic improvements than pedestrian and bike improvements.”
I think shoulders are just fine for bikes, if well-maintained, but pedestrians need sidewalks.
MacArthur Avenue is one of the regions most biked roads, and one I've written about before (here in a post on the bikeway project when it was stalled and here about the preliminary design phase) . The concept plan presented for community input
calls for widening MacArthur Boulevard to 26 feet [from 22] — two 10-foot lanes and two 3-foot paved shoulders — to accommodate both cars and cyclists.
‘‘This project will provide consistent on-road bicycle facility throughout the limits, and a continuous off-road bicycle⁄pedestrian facility throughout the limits as well,” Department of Public Works and Transportation spokesman Tom Pogue wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. ‘‘This accommodates the needs of experienced, on-road cyclists as well as recreational, off-road cyclists and pedestrians for the entire length of the project.”
The final design for this won't even begin until 2010 though.
In PG County there are plans for 93 miles of trails. This article bothers me because it starts out talking about a decline in bike/ped commuting. But later we learn that these trips only declined as a percentage of total trips. We're never told the actual number of bike/ped commuters. This is a job for statastic.
The article, despite the title, is really about the trouble that PG county is having attracting cyclists. I kind of feel like the county isn't trying. If you look at their Bicycle and Trail Advisory Group site, it hasn't been updated since 2004. I don't think the county has a bicycle coordinator. They have some of the most active volunteer groups, in College Park and Oxon Hill, but the county government lacks the commitment of Alexandria, DC and MoCo.
Anyway...the article only mentions three projects and that was just in passing.
the highlights include the College Park Trail and the path along the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Prince George’s County has dozens of projects on the books that could improve connectivity, and 18 of those are considered major. They include the Suitland Parkway Trail, which connects the county to the Anacostia Waterfront, and the College Park Trail, which connects north and south College Park and provides an alternative to crowded and dangerous Route 1.
Technically it's the "College Park Trolley Trail" and the Wilson bridge will not have a "path" but a bike/ped lane.
Kudos on the blog ... chock full of interesting info. Lance at RAGBRAI? Who knew? Thanks for doing your part for bike advocacy in the DC-area. Heard about your blog in the WABA newsletter and thought I'd check it out.
Posted by: Rob | July 08, 2006 at 08:09 PM