Capitol Trails Coalition Network map

Last month, the Rails-to-Trails Coalition presented to the Capital Trails Coalition a map of all the existing and proposed trails that meet the criteria to be included in the Capital Trails Network.

Capital Trails Network

This is not a map of all the regional trails, since some do not meet the criteria, and it's not meant to be a navigation tool for cyclists, but rather a tool for planners and advocates. It shows a system that while extensive, still needs a lot of work to reach its potential (and one could argue that a far more ambitious map would be needed to reach the region's full potential. 

In order to be included, a trail needs to be

• off-road (but can include short on-road sections)
• 10-12 feet wide (some sections can be narrower as can some older trails)
• meet AASHTO standards (older trails are grandfathered in)
• designed for non-motorized use,
• paved (crushed stone and boardwalks are acceptable where appropriate)
• directly connected to the overall system
• serve both transportation and recreation
• Unbuilt trails need to have the ROW identified and capable of being built in 25 years 

Information used to create this map was pulled from planning documents within the DOTs, Parks and Planning departments of all the regional governments. Altogether there are more than 400 miles of existing trails in the WAMPA+Fairfax area with another 285 miles planned. 

The map will never really be finished, since they will be constantly updating it, but the next parts of the effort will be to create a single layer digital overlay for the network, create benchmarks, determine the cost of the remaining network and set priorities. 

Comments

[Ren]

Rails to Trails just made it back into my CFC bucket. And I was trying to explain to some Montgomery County friends over the weekend how much I thought their county was a little behind the times. This map kind of nails it.

[Beltsville]

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. You talk about MoCo lagging whereas I see PG County lagging even further. At least in terms of what's actually built. This map really nails home how much potential PG County has to be awesome for cycling, and just how much it's completely missed that bar by. I would absolutely LOVE to see even half these trails built. It does bring me great hope.

[Purple Eagle]

Do they have a map or table/data somewhere that describes the orange "planned" trails in any more detail? Some of them I can pick out but others are routes I don't recognize.

[Washcycle]

I don't know of a public list, but there must be a list.

[drumz]

Kind of surprised Fairfax's Cross County Trail doesn't appear to be on here. Either as actual or on the aspirational list.

[happy rider]

I'm a little skeptical about the existing trails in southern Fairfax County, where I live. I see one trail that that starts in Fairfax City and goes south, then southeast, and it looks like it corresponds to 123 (Ox Road). But south of that trail, and south of the planned trail to Clifton, there is an existing trail that more or less heads east, and seems to connect to another trail. What is this trail? Surely it's not the Fairfax County Parkway, which is a terrible example of a bike trail. I went to the Capital Trails Coalition website, but there was no information there except two press releases from 2016. I also went to rails-to-trails website and couldn't find any information on this project. Other than the W&OD and the Mount Vernon Trail, Fairfax County has nothing.

[Ampersand]

Happy rider - you piqued my curiosity so I checked it out. The line I think you're talking about is definitely the Fairfax County Parkway trail, and it is shown connecting to Beulah St (which runs south to Telegraph, etc). I've actually done that once (had the brilliant idea of biking from DC to Burke Lake, HAHA), so it is "possible" but yeah, there are some not-great parts. Maybe they've fixed up some of the connections in the intervening years, but somehow I doubt it.

[happy rider]

@Ampersand - I live 1/4 mile north of the parkway and and about 3 miles west of Beuluh Street, and used to bike commute on that stretch of the parkway. I've also ridden all over on the parkway since it was built in the 90s. Yes, it's possible to use it, but as I said, it's a very poor trail. What's even worse is the trail on the part of the parkway from Rolling Road to Route 1.

[DE]

I guess a poor trail still counts as a trail. Without counting poor trails, we'd have about 10 miles total on that map.

I use the Custis every day and am grateful for it, but it's still a poor trail. The MVT is poor except where it's been redone in the last few years. The CCT is too narrow for capacity and now has a big gap in it. I hear the Anacostia system is nice.

The Cross County Trail is really more for hiking/running and linking to mountain biking trails, although they have paved a few segments in the last few years. You couldn't really do all that much of it with a road or commuter bike. Are there plans to pave the entirety of it?

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

DE

Its definitely possible to do the gravel parts of the GCCCT on a hybrid, but I think it makes sense to exclude a largely gravel trail from a bike trails map.

For wide trails, in addition to the entire length of the W&OD, and the newly done parts of the MVT, I would add several parts of of the 4MRT - the part just east of Shirlington, and the newly done part by the sewage plant.

[DE]

Portions are certainly ridable with any bike. But I'm thinking that, for instance, the portion south of Route 7 is not something you'd want to recommend for anyone not using a mountain bike, although I've done it on a gravel bike.

[Upcamogie]

TPB's 2014 bike ped plan has a map of the planned 2040 network (as of January 2015)-- you can see it here https://gis.mwcog.org/webmaps/tpb/bikeped/bikepedplan/?&section=20

The plan will be updated next year as part of the overall TPB long range plan. the idea is to have all projects in the database mapped (last time projects had to meet certain criteria)