Last week the Montgomery County Council approved the Lyttonsville Sector Plan, which sets up a framework for how to reorient and rebuild the area once the Purple Line and Capital Crescent Trail are built through it.
Bicycle Facility map
The Planning Board draft is not much different from the working draft I wrote about 16 months ago, but there are some things relevant to cycling which I don't think I mentioned, or have changed. It also keeps the new language about the Talbot Avenue Bridge. As a refresher, here's a list of all the proposed bicycle facilities
Another presentation has this rendering of 16th Street with its separated bicycle lane.
In addition to all of these facilities, they call for new and better bike parking, Capital Bikeshare stations, and better intersections. They also want the whole area to be a Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area (BPPA).
Part of the Greater Lyttonsville Sector Plan area was designated as a Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area (BPPA) through the 2013 Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan. The area currently designated as a BPPA is west of 16th Street, east of Rosemary Hills Drive and the Spring Center shopping center on 16th Street. The BPPA should be expanded to include the entire Sector Plan area to support the future Purple Line stations and anticipated increase in pedestrian activity within the area.
The plan also calls for a greener Lyttonsville and much of that will benefit cyclists too.
For example, they want the Capital Crescent Trail to be a linear green space and they plan to get there through regulatory requirements for public and common space along the Trail for expanded activity areas, stormwater management and planting buffers. Furthermorehe plan calls for prioritizing street tree planting along connecting streets with bicycle lanes.
Daylighting streams will also create more and greener trails. A section of Donnybrook Stream is currently piped underground parallel to the existing Georgetown Branch trail, and they suggest daylighting it as a public amenity adjacent to the Capital Crescent Trail. They would also like to daylight a long section of Fenwick Branch and build a shaded hard surface park trail connecting to a planned natural surface trail on parkland south of East-West Highway. That trail could be continued to the DC boundary, and from there perhaps to the Rock Creek Park Trail.
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