Christmas Wish List (CWL) 2005-07 Review

The past three years have featured a regular December feature I call the Christmas Wish List. Before getting into this year's list - which will again take a unique turn - let's look at the progress from the previous three years.

For anything skipped there is no status.

Updates from one and two years ago.

2005

1. Mt. Vernon trail expansion - A setback. Unfortunately, this was left out of the Park Service's EA. Boo!

2. WB&A to ATTS connection - Found out the Glenn Dale-Seabrook-Lanham and Vicinity Sector Plan and Sectional Map Amendment includes plans to build a sidepath from the southern end of the WB&A along highway 704. If it went far enough it could connect to the Marvin Gaye Park trail and then to the Anacostia Riverwalk. 

3. Suitland Parkway Trail rehab and extention - DDOT, at least, is looking at rehabing it's portion of the trail. I'll know more abou this on Tuesday.

4. Four Mile Run Shirlington Connector - If all goes according to plan, this should open in March of 2009. Hooray!

9. New York Ave Met branch Trail - opened in 2005, it's sat basically useless since. But on July 22nd of this year a 12-month contract was signed to finish this section to Franklin Street. So this should open by the end of July 2009. But there was a hold up with PEPCO and their land and so construction north to R Street won't start until the spring. Still I've heard it is to be finished in 2009. Hooray!

10 - Connecting to the 14th Street Bridges - Work began in January on the Humpback bridge that will create a new crossing under the GW Parkway, but in October the Arlington BAC reported that the Pentagon Area Bike and Pedestrian Access plan showed the proposed trail underneath the new Humpback Bridge will end abruptly and not connect to anything. The North Tract crossing, meanwhile, is back on track. The park was renamed Long Bridge Park and the Park Service began work on the EA.

11- Improve Rock Creek Park Trail - The MUP was repaved this spring from Virginia Ave to P Street, but the larger work languishes in NPS/DDOT purgatory. The EA for the redesigned trail was to come out in July last I heard, but if it did, I missed it.

2006

10 - WB&A extension to DC and BWI - This is a little different than what was mentioned in 2005, but it still benefits from the same Glenn Dale-Seabrook-Lanham and Vicinity Sector Plan and Sectional Map Amendment. At least for going south. Plans to cross the Patuxent were listed as high priority in Maryland's Trails Strategic Implementation Plan (even if they did call it the BW&A instead of the WB&A). Also I noted that at some point the trail was extended south of Patuxent Road along Brager's Road, but I'm unsure how far south it goes right now.

11 - Dupont Circle Bike Station - Though not necesarily a setback, an art group has its gaze set on the same space I covet. This is just like in high school when Billy Shepherd and I both wanted to date Violet Rassmussen. Let's hope the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground doesn't play quarterback like Billy did or this could end just as badly. On the upside, work began on the Union Station bike station, which means DDOT may be willing to look for a second location.

2007 - Bridges

1. Wilson - While both spans of the bridge are open and have been since the summer, the opening of the bike trail between Alexandria and National Harbor has slipped to NET Spring of 2009. A trail from Route 1 south of the Capital Beltway to the Washington Street deck reportedly opened this Fall (I haven't seen it yet) and a trail from Telegraph Road at Huntington Avenue, passing over the Beltway to connect with Eisenhower Avenuewill open late in 2009. Hooray!

4. 14th - The EIS process has continued all year and will conclude in 2009. Sadly, I have not been able to make it to any of the meetings or know much about it. Anyone have any status? A new 14th street bridge with better bike access was included in the non-official new plan for the National Mall.

Comments

[w]

Why not physically separated from the road , dedicated bike lanes with bollards protecting the cyclists from traffic - on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue for it's entire length? This is, after all, one of the most visible and famous streets in the world, and it would show that our country is really & finally serious about including cycling and making it safe and accessable for EVERYONE. If this can be done in other countries, why is it seemingly impossible to accomplish here in the wealthiest country on Earth?

[washcycle]

You're still not really that protected from traffic unless you have grade separated intersections. And if there is one thing DC doesn't need anymore of its Bollards (I swear some day that will be a DC sports mascot). But I'd like to see DC try a cycle track. I'm not sure Penn's symbolic value makes it the right street to try (what if it's a flop? that's a high profile flop).

It's not impossible here. It's just not something people (on average) are interested in. They are interested in going places in their car.

[w]

not me- I have no car.

It doesn't have to be bollards- other cities use grade separations or chains; indeed there are many options- only a total unwillingness to try it out and a lack of courage by the planners who seem to be all about pleasing the car-driving suburbanite commuters. Yes- the intersections should also be adapted to give cyclists first go at crossing- and why this cannot be done or is untenable is a freaking mystery to me. new York has done this- why can't we do it here? And our streets are far wider than in NYC, Berlin, even Peking or Copenhagen.Yet they all have managed to do this. Doing a bikeway like this will truly make cycling safer for the people who wish to bike- other than those who are dare devil road kamikazees riding with the car traffic. There is a sound reason why the segway companies do not take their tourists into DC's streets- MOST SANE PEOPLE DO NOT WISH TO CYCLE IN ROADS WITH CARS. PERIOD.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Purple Eagle]

I contacted MNCPPC a couple of months ago to see if I could get an update on the status of the WB&A. Much to my surprise, I received a reply that actually had useful information:

"I contacted . . . Ribera Development today, who informed me that Anne Arundel County's approval of the site plans for the final trail alignment is imminent. Additionally, the final plans for the 2,056-unit age-restricted residential community should be approved within about six months. [the developer] estimates that the construction of the road and trail infrastructure will begin in about a year, followed by the construction of the golf course and the homes. The trail extension to the Patuxent River will take about one year to complete.

The construction of the trail extension will begin at the terminus of the existing WB&A alignment on the Anne Arundel County side (it currently ends in the middle of a field off of Conway Road), and will meander through a scenic forested natural area at the western end of the proposed development, avoiding the steepest slopes and wetlands as it winds down to the Patuxent River floodplain. Since the new trail will not utilize the former railroad alignment, there should be no right-of-way issues, and the trail will cross realigned Conway Road beyond the most developed portion of the new Two Rivers development. The length of this portion of the trail on the Anne Arundel County side of the river will be about 1.5 miles.

(the contact was made in September)

[Froggie]

I'd just like to see the bike connection between Route 1/Huntington and the Washington St Deck open up. It was *SUPPOSED* to open up back in early fall/autumn. But it isn't.

[Froggie]

Forgot to add. One for my personal wish list:

- A bike path under the Beltway and along Cameron Run, running from the Holmes Run trail at Eisenhower Ave eastward to at least Telegraph/Huntington, if not all the way to Route 1/Fort Hunt Rd. Would provide another means of crossing north of the Beltway (for those of us who live south of it), without having to slog through the stop-every-block of Old Town Alexandria.