TheWashCycle

Capital Crescent Surface Trail takes a step towards final approval

The Montgomery County Planning Board approved the plan for phase 1 of the Capital Crescent Surface Trail (CCST) last week, bringing it closer to construction which is expected to start in 2019. 

The CCST will connect the current northern end of the CCT mainline to Georgetown with the to-be-built section along the Purple Line at Elm Street Local Park. The tunnel that the trail used to go through has been closed and will be taken up by the Purple Line. The CCT will eventually run in a new tunnel built just for the trail. 

Phase 1 of the CCTSR will get the trail from the trailhead to 47th Street and phase 2 

will include a bikeway along 47th Street on the west side of Elm Street Local Park, providing a connection to the CCT Mainline and CCT Tunnel at the eastern portal. However, the 47th Street segment of the project has not yet been advanced to 30 percent design due to continuing discussions with the Department of Parks and the Town of Chevy Chase and uncertainty about the location of the eastern portal of the CCT Tunnel.

The CCST will be a protected bike lane all the way to Elm Street Park. It will start on the south side of Bethesda Avenue and then cross to the north side at the Woodmont Intersection.  A diagonal crossing for cyclists will be provided across the intersection of Bethesda Avenue and Woodmont Avenue with a protected traffic signal phase. There will also be some PBL along Woodmont. This call all be seen in the image at the top. 

At Wisconsin Avenue, the trail will pass through a redesigned Artery Plaza to allow for a seamless connection to the interim separated lanes on the south side of Willow Lane. The Willow lane bike lanes are interim due to limited right of way and anticipated future development. 

This crossing (of Wisconsin) will require removal of the artwork, “Artery Plaza Sunwork”. The crossing will permit cyclists to cross Wisconsin Avenue within a protected phase of the traffic signal cycle.

The plaza path will cut the bikeway directly across it.

The planning staff recommended approval with some comments, such as "create additional queuing space to accommodate bicyclists
queuing at the northeast corner [of Woodmont and Bethesda], such as creating more space for bicyclists to queue at the diagonal crossing."

If work starts in 2019, I don't know when it will be completed or when phase 2 would start or end, but the trail from Elm Street Park to Betheda is to be completed in 2022. The tunnel is TBD.

Sometimes, things work out just as predicted

I was looking at google streetview for one thing, and saw something that made me laugh. What I saw was this at 8th and D.

People may not recall, but there used to be bike parking at this spot and in 2014 DDOT removed it at the request of the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association to preserve the view shed. Then-DDOT Director Matthew T. Brown claimed they were able to find "places to make up for the lost bicycle parking nearby".

What made me laugh was that this comment has stuck in my head ever since then. 

You're going to lose it to a delivery truck whose driver will totally ignore whatever signage you put up. 

Which is, at least in this shot (and this one), exactly what happened. 

Meanwhile, there's still a shortage of bike parking in that area. For example, we clearly need a rack in front of Teaism. 

2018 DC Tweed Ride - 10th Anniversary

The 10th annual DC Tweed Ride is this upcoming weekend.

The ride is Sunday, November 4th and will start at a secret location to be disclosed to those who register for the ride. Meet at the designated spot around 11:00 AM and we'll depart at 12:00 noon. 

After the ride, we'll gather at Roofers Union for our annual Jazz Age Jam. A strong DC Tweed Ride tradition for the past 9 years, this event brings together Tweed Ride enthusiasts and jazz age music lovers across the DC region. The party will be going strong from 5:30 to 9:00 PM, featuring the Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers band, the Fidgety Feet dancers, great food, cash bar, and as usual, the most stylish dandies and dames on this side of the Atlantic!

Register here. 

Alexandria drops the pedestrian and bicycle bridge from Potomac Yard Metro

New, cheaper design

In an effort to cut $380 million in costs, Alexandria announced last May that they were scaling back the design of the Potomac Yard Metro station, without consulting the public which became something of a scandal. Among the items cut were the pedestrian and bicycle bridge. 

In April, city officials announced that bids received for the project had significantly exceeded its initial budget of $268 million, and said changes to the design were necessary to bring down the cost. Even with the scaled-back design, the project is estimated to cost $52 million more than the initial budget.

The old design had the bridge on the south side and the question at the time was whether or not to keep it open 24/7 or not.

Old design

The new station design, as seen at the top, has no separate pedestrian and cyclist bridge. This despite being adjacent to the Potomac Yard Trail and a short distance (though unreachable) from the Mt. Vernon Trail. 

The station will continue to have entrances from both sides of the rail tracks and allow pedestrians and bicycles to cross without entering faregates (although I'm not sure if that is 24/7 access or not). On the west side, they'll either use a ramp, an elevator, an escalator or stairs to get up to the bridge (that they're now calling a pedestrian/bicycle bridge), then cross over, where they can then find their way to the ground and a nice cycletrack (for some reason) to take them to the Potomac Greens neighborhood, but that's a definite step down in service. 

East side/Potomac Greens entrance with a cycletrack up to the door.

On the east side, there are options for either a ramp to a spot near the trail or farther in a tower with an elevator and stairs. Obviously the ramp is better for cyclists. 

Construction of the station, once slated to open in 2016, has been delayed multiple times in recent years, frustrating residents and city officials. Metro now says construction will begin in the spring and the station will open in early 2022.

Alexandria is expected to hold public hearings on the design changes this fall and address plans to improve access from the south to the station’s north entrance.

 

The next meeting of the Potomac Yard Metrorail Improvement Group is next Monday, scheduled for Monday, October 29 from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Charles Houston Recreation Center, Preschool Room (901 Wythe Street).

Is the 14th Street Bridge Detour "Safe Accommodation"?

Last month, NPS announced that they were going to improve the 14th Street Bridge Connector Path that connects East Basin Drive to the 14th Street Bridge sidepath. 

 The project will widen and improve the trail surface, correct a dangerous slope along the path and improve the crosswalks and crosswalk markings across East Basin Drive.  At the same time, a two-way cycle track will be installed in one lane of East Basin Drive where it passes the Jefferson Memorial, providing a dedicated and protected route for cyclists. 

Unfortunately it required them to close the existing connector and detour the trail onto the adjacent stairs and for 6 days to close it entirely. 

The improvements to the 14th Street Bridge connector are a cooperative effort of the National Park Service, the District Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The $275,000 project being funded primarily from a Transportation Alternatives Program grant from FHWA.

I'm not sure how much DDOT is involved in this. I heard about it years ago when NPS presented it to the BAC. At the time there was no mention of a detour. At the September BAC meeting I seem to recall it came up and we were told that the support for the highway sign that lands in the middle of the trail would not be removed as part of this project, which we asked for back when NPS presented. 

The detour started on 9/24 and supposed to last 10 weeks. When I went out there I was able to use the side of the stairs like a runnel, but I guess that others had trouble with that because about a month afterwards NPS installed a metal runnel for cyclists to use. It'd be nice to know if this was an afterthought, a reaction to complaints or something they'd always planned but weren't able to coordinate well. 

There aren't a lot of good options here as I see it. The stairs, even with the runnel, represent an inconvenient detour to some and impossible barrier to others - and of course the full closure is a barrier to all. NPS obviously couldn't figure out a way to keep the trail open in the gap where the trail normally goes - and I don't know enough about their space requirements to second guess that.

That leaves two options:

a) build a temporary protected bike lane on the bridge outside of the current trail, similar to what was done on the Custis recently;

b) or build a shorter one that somehow gets to the trail before crossing the bridge. 

The temporary PBL would either remove a traffic lane or narrow all the lanes and move them to the left using the 5' shoulder that's there now. Shifting and narrowing would mean temporarily re-striping the whole bridge. And both options would mean building ~3000 feet of barrier and connector trails at each end. 

The other option is a little more crazy and might not even work. That would be to build one connector trail east of the construction site and use the shoulder on the ramp to get around the construction; and then somehow transition back to the trail before the railing starts. Lots of problems with that. One is that the shoulder narrows to about 1 foot wide before getting past the construction site. Then there's the matter of the concrete barrier between the road and the landing at the top of the stairs. So they'd need to either remove some/all of the guardrail further down the ramp and then build a narrow, temporary trail along the guardrail and the barrier OR build a pair of ramps to lift the trail over the guardrail. And that only works if the construction has the space to spare (since the temporary trail is inside their zone). Otherwise, they'd need to extend the bypass all the way to the landing and then get over the concrete barrier (or remove a section of it) which would require removing some of a lane of 395 or narrowing it anyway.

It's tempting to look at the Custis bypass and think that this is the same situation, but there are more than a few ways those projects differed. The Custis bypass didn't take a lane of interstate, for starters. It was about half as long in distance and the closure time was a little longer. And perhaps most importantly there wasn't an option (the stairs in this case) that served 90% of trail users readily available. All of this is to say that it cost less, caused less disruption for others and had more benefits. That doesn't mean that the temporary bypass on I-395 isn't worth it, just that the numbers aren't as favorable. In the case of the Custis it made sense, but for another Custis trail closure this year - something like that didn't.

I don't have any of the information I'd need in order to say that one option is better than the other. Here are some things I'd need to know:

1. How much would each option cost and would there even be money for it?
2. What effect would closing a lane or narrowing the lanes have on traffic?
3. Would narrowing lanes violate safety requirements?
4. Would it even be possible to take the lane - especially through the ramp from the bridge to the GW Parkway - safely?
5. Could space be made available on the south west edge of the construction for a bypass?
6. How long would it take to construct/remove a bypass?
7. How many trail users are impacted and what is the nature of that impact? (Some are inconvenienced, others take a different route and for some this trail is effectively closed)

When I eyeball it, I think NPS probably landed on the best of several bad options, but like I said - I don't know. Sometimes to repair Metro it has to be closed. Sometimes to repair a road it has to be closed and sometimes to repair a trail it has to be closed. 

 

 

It would have been nice if they had put out a closure plan and asked for comments. And then maybe we could have asked NPS all of these questions at some kind of public forum. If that had happened someone might have pointed out that a runnel would be nice (It wasn't until halfway through the project that it was installed. I had no problem using the concrete edge of the staircase, but I'm guessing others did, hence the runnel. It's possible that even with a public meeting no one would have thought of the runnel until after the detour was in effect, but we'll never know). 

Which brings us to the question of Safe Accommodation. The Bicycle Safety Amendment Act of 2013 requires construction projects to obtain permits from DDOT for projects that block sidewalks, bike lanes, or other pedestrian or bicycle paths to provide safe accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists. I'm actually not sure if that applies to NPS. DC adopted regulations for that in 2014.  Those regulations can be found here. 

Specifically, (emphasis mine)

The term “safe accommodation” means a safe and convenient route for pedestrians and bicyclists that ensures an accommodation through or around a work zone that is equal to the accommodation that was provided to pedestrians and bicyclists before the blockage of the sidewalk, bicycle lane, or other public bicycle path.

And when ticking down the options - which seem more applicable to bike lanes - these are the two that seem relevant.

(3)       Closing the adjacent motor vehicle travel lane to provide space for a bicycle lane; provided that a minimum of one (1) motor vehicle travel lane shall remain in the same direction of travel;

(5)       As a last resort, detouring bicyclists onto an adjacent roadway, in which case the detour route shall replicate, as closely as practicable, the level of safety found on the bicycle route being blocked.

The Custis trail option does meet the requirements of (3) assuming it could be done safely, and I suppose one could argue that the stairs are not as safe as the old trail. In addition, the regulations require that blocking a pedestrian path complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and I would not be surprised if this doesn't.

And there doesn't appear to be any waiver process. So either this law doesn't apply to NPS, DC never gave them a public right-of-way occupancy permit or they gave them one even though they aren't in compliance with the law. 

So I'm in the position of thinking that NPS probably got the best solution, though I'm not sure of it and that it might be violating the law. Which is all kind of wishy-washy.

But there's one more issue and that's the timing. I'd love to know why this had to be done at a time when it overlapped the Memorial Bridge closure. But I don't, because again - there was no public meeting for this.

That's where I am. I don't know if this was the right detour or if the timing was necessary, but I'm certain there should have been some public vetting of this beforehand

Addendum: I forgot one other idea. Do two projects. First replace the stairs with a ramp. Then fix the trail and make the ramp the detour. A ramp where the stairs are would be better anyway in my opinion. But, of course, that would require a lot more money. 

Hyattsville planning to close gap between NW branch Trail and RIA Trolley Trail

This month, the Hyattsville Planning Committee held a public meeting on the extension of the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail. The Maryland State Highway Administration is planning to extend the trail from its current endpoint near Farragut Street to 41st Place and the Northwest Branch Trail. The RIA Trolley Trail project is one of five priority projects in the Commission’s Purple Line funding program.

At the meeting, representatives of the State Highway Administration said it will be accepting comments on a 30% design of the extension through November, according to Assistant City Administrator Jim Chandler. 

In addition to getting the design right, some land has to be acquired.

One issue is that additional right-of-way acquisition is required to create adequate stormwater management. The subject property is owned by CSX. SHA will coordinate the acquisition of parcels. The City and/or M-NCPPC will be required to secure any ROW necessary to complete the project. 

M-NCPPC Deputy Director for Administration & Development Darin Conforti has confirmed with the Director that M-NCPPC’s acquisition team is prepared to fund the acquisition of the parcels necessary to support stormwater management for the construction of the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley

The current plan is to build a 10' wide trail along the NB side of Route 1 from Charles Armentrout to Farragut, which will require a road diet on Route 1.  They'll also resurface Charles Armentrout Dr. to increase separation between vehicular traffic and the Nortwest Branch Trail. And in addition they'll build an ADA-compliant sidewalk on the SB side of Route 1 from the NW Branch Trail to Braxton Place.

 

 

The bus stop closest to the NW Branch Trail will be removed, but the two farther down will remain and a bus turnout carved out of the grass buffer

The project design is tentatively scheduled to be completed in mid-2019. Construction funding may be requested by the City of Hyattsville once design is complete, depending on the design timeline, the construction would be funded in either FY2020 or FY2021.

I'm not sure how you comment, but here's some contact info they gave.

 

US 1 from Chapman Avenue to Farragut Street Bicycle Retrofit
(Rhode Island Trolley Trail)
Kidus Debasu- MDOT SHA
Project Manager
Phone: 410-545-8824
Email: [email protected]

 

In other Trolley Trail news, it has new markers and wayfinding (since the summer).

 

Designed by D.C.-based sculptor Charles Bergen, the red-and-yellow markers prominently feature a circular design evocative of the trolley roundhouse which has also been used in inlaid designs on the nearly four-mile path.

 

The markers, which have been placed in Hyattsville, Riverdale Park and College Park, are accompanied by informational kiosks which include a large regional map as well as information on connecting trails and nearby shops and restaurants.

But wait, there's more. College Park recently got a $120,000 state grant to study replacing the current bike lanes with protected bike lanes on Rhode Island Avenue north of the trolley trail and extending the trail north by two blocks. 

The City initiated a project in order to make bike lanes on both sides of Rhode Island Ave from MD 193 to the Hollywood Shopping Center safer.

The preferred alternative would narrow the travel lanes by 2 feet, and use that to make buffers with "vertical separation" that looks like flexposts and curbstops. It would create 5' bike lanes with 2' buffers and 10' travel lanes. This would be from Blackfoot north to the Shopping Center. There would be paint at conflict zones, and no vertical separation around bus stops. 

 

And it would extend the trail as a sidepath along the west side of RI Avenue for two blocks. Those two blocks would also have bike lanes. On the blocks between University and Blackfoot, the plan calls for extending/improving the trolley trail and adding bike lanes.

 

 

The whole thing would cost a little more than a million dollars. 

 

 

 All of this should make it easier to bike on the corridor. 

 

Visualize 2045 includes planned projects and aspirational ones

The transportation planning officially approved Visualize 2045, the federally mandated, long-range transportation plan for the National Capital Region, on Oct 17th.  

For the first time, in addition to projects that the region’s transportation agencies expect to be able to afford between now and 2045, the plan includes aspirational projects, programs, and policies that go beyond financial constraints. Though the focus of the financially constrained element (those items they expect to be able to afford) is on regionally significant road and transit projects, Visualize 2045 also highlights bicycle and pedestrian projects, freight planning, and other transportation programs aimed at reducing congestion and improving air quality.

The aspirational initiatives are:

1. Bring jobs and housing closer together
2. Expand bus rapid transit regionwide
3. Move more people on Metrorail
4. Increase telecommuting and other options for commuting
5. Expand the express highway network
6. Improve walk and bike access to transit
7. Complete the National Capital Trail -  a circumferential route around the core of the region

With the glaring exception of 5, this is the framework of a partial Vision Zero plan. Because as I've mentioned getting people to drive less is the best way to reduce road deaths. 

Here are some highlights from the report. 

They talk about CaBi.

Capital Bikeshare has grown from 1,100 bikes at 114 stations in the District of Columbia and Arlington County, to over 4,300 bikes at 500 stations in five jurisdictions today. Over this time, the number of annual trips taken on the system has more than doubled
from 1.5 million per year to over 3.7 million.

Listed under the CLRP for highway projects in DC

Lane Reductions/Reconfigurations for Bicycle Lanes, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024

And under transit projects is this:

DC Dedicated Bicycle Lane Network, 2019, 2024 ($800k)

DDOT is proposing adding six new segments to its existing bicycle path network. The following projects will remove one or more traffic lanes to allow for separated bicycle lanes.

• Pennsylvania Ave. SE from 2nd St./Independence Ave. to Barney Circle (1.3 miles) - This project will connect the Anacostia River Trail with bicycle lanes through Capitol Hill to the downtown core. In addition, it will provide cyclist access to bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave west of the Capitol, and to the Metropolitan Branch Trail. It will reduce off-peak lane capacity from 6 to 4 lanes between 2nd and 14th Streets. During peak hours the existing 6 lanes will be utilized. Between 14th Street and Barney Circle, rush hour lane capacity will be reduced from 8 lanes to 6 lanes; the 6 lane off-peak capacity would be unchanged. 
• 17th St. NW from New Hampshire Ave. to K St. (<1 mile) -  Install two-way protected bike lane on 17th Street NW. This would replace the existing southbound-only conventional bike lane currently in place between New Hampshire Avenue NW and Massachusetts Avenue NW, and continue south to K Street NW. This project is intended to increase bicycle accessibility on a busy corridor for bicycling, and to provide an alternative facility to the congested 15th Street NW protected bike lane.
• K St. from 7th St. NW to 1st St. NE (<1 mile) - Install bike lanes (protected in places) along K Street NW/NE. This bikeway would connect Downtown, NoMa, and the Mt Vernon Triangle. 
• K St. from 1st St. NE to Florida Ave. NE (<1 mile) - Road diet to remove peak hour parking restrictions and provide full time parking along project limits. Peak hour restrictions are directional, 3 to 2 lane. Bicycle lanes will be provided between 1st St NE and 6th St NE. Reduction of one eastbound portal under rail (between 1st and 2nd Sts) to a provide two-way cycle track is currently under consideration with some opposition. 
• Irving St. from Warder St. NW to Michigan Ave. NE (1 mile) - Install protected bike lanes on Irving Street NE/NW. This bikeway would connect through McMillan-Old Soldier’s Home to Brookland. 
• New York Ave. NE from Florida Ave. to Bladensburg Rd. (2.3 miles) -The New York Avenue Streetscape and Trail Project is a 30% design plan to install streetscape improvements including lighting, new sidewalk connections, landscaping, traffic signals and signage and a raised cycletrack along New York Avenue NE from Florida Avenue NE to Bladensburg Road NE. 

Elsewhere

Walking and biking are forecast to increase at much higher rates than any other mode of travel

Also mentioned:

Backlick Run Multi-use trail Phase 1, From Booth Park Base Ball field to Van Dorn St. 

Addendum: This has been covered in both the Washington Post and the Times.

Another idea: creating a “beltway” for bicycles by adding more than 20 miles to a network of trails dubbed the National Capital Trail. As a bonus, the trail would connect bike commuters to dozens of rail stations.

The plan has seven main goals, five of which aim to reduce car trips and increase people’s access to buses, bike trails and pedestrian paths. A key provision calls for completing the so-called “bicycle beltway” — the National Capital Trail — 60 miles of interconnected biking and walking pathways that will encircle the central portion of the greater Washington area.

“Currently, 21 miles of the trail have not yet been constructed and three miles need to be upgraded,” the Visualize 2045 plan states.

Behold: the final Design of W&OD Trail Bridge over Lee

A couple of weeks ago, VDOT unveiled the final design for the W&OD Trail bridge over Lee Highway and the primary changes from the last design are they settled on the 3-girder design without the barrier with lights in the center, the coal trestle interpretive area has been moved at the request of NOVA Parks and the piers are different. You can see the 3-girder version, with the barrier in the middle, of the bridge below and the new one above. I kind of liked the barrier and the lighting looks better, but the new version might be safer. 

The V-shaped Piers used to be "closed" but now they're open. I have no opinion on that. The new version is on top and the old one beneath.

The historical marker is now under the bridge instead of next to it, accessible by a separate path. 

Work is planned to begin early next year and finish the bridge in Summer of 2020, with landscaping and the full project to be completed in 2021. During construction the trail will be realigned, sometimes detoured and a few times at night closed for 20 minutes. The realignment doesn't look too bad, though occasionally, when overhead work is underway, trail users will have to use 19th and Westmoreland before coming back up Lee on the sidewalk to the trail.

Memorial Circle Safety Improvement project seems to have hit a dead-end

 

Not so much anymore

The partial closure of Arlington Memorial Bridge had me thinking about NPS's project to reduce conflicts at Memorial Circle. Though there was a meeting in 2015, it seems that's where it ended unfortunately. Which is too bad because Memorial Circle has so much room for improvement. 

The really frustrating thing is that NPS has the bones of a pretty good plan, and they've had it for a long time. It was in their 1990 Paved Trails plan. Back they they planned to grade separate most of the trail crossing with an underpass. And extend a trail north from the circle to the Roosevelt Bridge. And that new trail - between the Parkway and Arlington Blvd - would connect to the MVT two more times on the north side of Columbia Island. Another trail would connect to the LBJ grove. They were also going to realign the lane of Washington Blvd that goes under the bridge. None of that happened. 

Memorial Circle from the 1990 Paved Trails Plan

Still, back in 2014 they announced they were going back to the drawing board.

The National Park Service (NPS) is starting a Transportation Plan and Environmental Assessment (plan/EA) for the Memorial Circle area of the George Washington Memorial Parkway (the park). The purpose of the plan is to reduce conflicts between trail, walkway, and roadway users and to increase overall visitor safety, while maintaining the memorial character of the area and improving mobility for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles.

They held a design charrette in February of 2015 to discuss possible concepts and then posted those drawings in March. And then....nothing. They were supposed to perform and Alternatives Refinement and then an Analysis of Environmental Impacts of
Alternatives in the latter part of 2015. In early 2016 there was to be a Public Review of the Plan/Environmental Assessment and then an NPS decision by the end of the year. None of that happen. The project has just been able to linger in no man's land ever since. There isn't even a project schedule or a map. Making matters worse, the paved trails plan doesn't include any suggestions because it just cites the Memorial Circle plan that NPS was to be working on. 

So I guess this is where we are. That 1990 plan looks better and better. 

Capital Crescent Trail plaza ribbon cutting Nov 3

Montgomery Parks, Montgomery County, The Montgomery Parks Foundation and the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail (CCCT) will name a new park plaza on the Capital Crescent Trail after the late Neal Potter, former Montgomery County Executive and six-term member of the County Council on November 3, 2018 at 10 a.m.

The public is welcome to attend! 

The plaza is located at River Road on the Capital Crescent Trail, in the open space adjacent to the bridge.

Potter is known as one of the architects of the modern Montgomery County for his leadership in tax policy, land-use planning, and transportation. The "Neal Potter Plaza at the Capital Crescent Trail" will also honor the late David Burwell, co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the late Lee Wick Dennison, an avid trail user whose generous donation to the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail helped support the construction of the plaza.

A path leading from River Road to the plaza serves as a new entrance to the Capital Crescent Trail. The plaza will feature benches, two stone sitting walls, a pergola, trees, lawn areas, bike racks and a repair station.  A three-panel kiosk will be installed with information about Potter, Burwell and Dennison as well as a map and historic photographs.

Sidenote:

For the first time ever, I noticed that their are railroad tracks embedded in Landy Lane next to the CCT.