Making the Anacostia Metro more bike friendly

A study conducted as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Greening America's Capitals program recommends making the Anacostia Metro station area more environmentally friendly. As part of that effort, they want to better connect it to the area trails and add bikeshare.

The District has developed a plan for a regional bicycle network in the site area. A portion of the network is already in place along Suitland Parkway south of the site. The goal is to provide a continuous bicycle path along Suitland Parkway to the Anacostia River Park at Poplar Point and the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge across the Anacostia River. District planners envision the Anacostia station site including a link to that path along the southwest side of the station.

While a trail along the unused rail line to Blue Plains isn't on this map, the do mention it in the report. I know that CSX told Gabe Klein that they might activate it again and that they aren't really able to sell it, but I can't imagine that they will. And in the meantime, perhaps a rail trail could landbank it.

Although the site has excellent vehicular access, many of the roads in the site area lack adequate pedestrian and bicycle paths. While MLK Avenue has adequate sidewalks, Howard Road and Firth Sterling Avenue have incomplete, narrow, and/or deteriorated sidewalks, which make them less appealing to pedestrians. Suitland Parkway is a limited-access highway with no sidewalks. An existing bicycle path, separated from traffic along the eastern side of Suitland Parkway, ends less than half a mile from the Metro station. Howard Road is a designated bicycle route, but it does not have a bike lane, and there is substantial automobile and bus traffic on the road.

Adjoining the Firth Sterling Avenue right of way is a CSX rail line that is not currently used by the railroad and is in disrepair. Its right of way might be available for a bike path if the District and CSX can reach agreement.

One of the key parts of this project involves extending the Suitland Parkway Trail, following the alignment of the parkway under the MLK Bridge and ascending the embankment to reach the station at a new entry point. That would be coupled with improvements to crosswalks in the station area would be needed for safe passage of bikes and pedestrians across the bus loop. There would also be a path along the SE side of Firth Sterling.

Another element is the creation of Shannon Place, a park across the street from the Metro Station that will include the bike-share station.

The District has also developed a plan for a regional bicycle
network in the site area. A portion of the network is already in
place along Suitland Parkway south of the site. The goal is to
provide a continuous bicycle path along Suitland Parkway to
the Anacostia River Park at Poplar Point and the new Frederick
Douglass Memorial Bridge across the Anacostia River (see
Appendix B). District planners envision the Anacostia station
site including a link to that path along the southwest side of
the station.

Comments

[Kolohe]

Thanks for the link. Though I'm not optimistic on anything other than a small portion of it being implemented due to DDOT and WMATA funding priorities.

(I'm definitely not counting on a Suitland parkway trail that has even basic routine maintenance - i.e. no tree branches on the trail for weeks on end. Much less what would be of decent personal benefit, a trail extension out to the Suitland Metro station)

[IMGoph]

Agreed with Kolohe. The agencies involved need to extend the trail out of the city, as well as make good connections in the city.

When they dedicate money and time to actually maintaining what's there, that's when we'll know they're serious about this.

[washcycle]

Jim Sebastian has told me that DDOT is ready to improve the trail, but only after PG County begins work to extend it to someplace useful.

[IMGoph]

And when I talked to NPS people on bike-to-work day, they said they have no plans to extend the trail because they've not heard anything from PG County, and are somewhat unsure about jurisdictional control.

I'll be dead before there's a solid way to bike to the Suitland Federal Center. Each group that might have some control over what to do passes the buck to the other groups. Sad, but there's no one there to actually drive progress.