I agree with most of what Richard says on Urban Space but not that he doesn't save money by biking everywhere. Here was my comment:
Even if you get all of your repairs done at the shop, it's still cheaper to bike than drive or metro. The GAO estimates the operating cost of a bicycle at $0.05/mile. The average car operating cost is $0.26/mile. Shady Grove to Franconia-Springfield is about 25 miles and will cost you at least $0.09/mile and no one rides it that far.
This is the sixth project on my 12-item Christmas
wish list for DC biking projects.
#6 A bike trail running the length of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway
Cost:Unknown, but expensive
Status: Not even a twinkle in anyone's eye
Probability: extremely low
As pointed out earlier, there are three major parkways in the DC area. Both the Suitland and George Washington parkway have bike trails associated with them, and both of them have made it onto the wishlist already. The BW parkway is oddly left out of bicycle plans.
Running about 30 miles from the Anacostia to just south of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the BW could be improved to include a bicycle connection between the two major cities it's named for, (with an offshoot to the BWI trail to boot). The BW could be made more into a linear park and less into a highway. Admittedly, it is less suited to being a bikeway than the GW because the river along the GW limits grade crossings, but it's hard to find a better candidate for the next great bike trail in the area.
This is the fifth project on my 12-item Christmas
wish list for DC biking projects.
#5 Connecting the North Bethesda Trail to the CCT
Cost:Unknown
Status: #6 Priority of MCBAG, DPWT working on Trail improvements this winter, plans approved
Probability: high
With work beginning this past November on part of the North Bethesda Trail between 270 and 495 along Fleming Road, and improvements (albeit controversial) being planned for Norfolk Road, not much is needed to complete the 2.1 mile connection between the North Bethesda Trail and the Capitol Crescent Trail - arguably the regions premiere trail.
Bike lanes are planned for Exeter, Norfolk Avenue and Woodmont Avenue with a bikeway through Battery Lane Park, and a shared use "North Bethesda Trail-NIH Connector" path from Battery Lane to the end of the North Bethesda Trail along Ceder Lane. In fact, the only hold up seems to be NIH which plans on building a security fence that will thwart the trail. WABA and the county have tried to intercede, but I'm not sure how that's going.
Addendum: Since I wrote this, I've ridden up here again. Here's what I know. NIH built their fence and a trail along the south side of the fence. So you can get from Norfolk to the NBT on trail and sidewalk, but it ain't pretty. They still need to improve the connection from NBT to NIH and add some signs guiding you from one to the other.
This is the fourth project on my 12-item Christmas
wish list for DC biking projects.
#4 Extending the W&OD (or Four Mile Run) trail under 395
Cost:Unknown
Status: Part of the 2001 Alexandria Bike Plan and 2003 Northern Virginia Bikeway and Trail Network Study. Reportedly, ROW acquisition is complete and project is funded, but being held up by gas line construction.
Probability: High
This is one of those common sense projects that I just can't believe hasn't been done yet. If you ride the W&OD or the parallel Four Mile Run trail heading east, the W&OD ends at I-395 and the Four Mile Run trail takes a convoluted detour through Shirlington. Meanwhile the actual Four Mile Run passes directly under I-395 through spacious culverts. Directing the trail along Four mile run, past the Exxon, under I-395 and then along Four Mile Run to the Wayne Anderson/Four Mile Run Trail along S. Glebe Road seems like a rather simple and inexpensive way to connect the trails across what was identified by citizen groups as a major barricade.
Construction was suppose to begin in 2002 and again in the first half of 2005, but still nothing has been done. The only possible explanation for the hold up is the construction of a natural gas line to supply WMATA buses that's being built in the same area. Plans to run the W&OD trail along the remainder of the old railroad right of way all the way through Del Ray were shot down years ago:
W&OD right of way between Raymond and Jeff Davis Highway. Rejected by city staff for bike plan due to neighborhood resistance. Jefferson Park in favor, Del Ray deferred to Randolph Street residents who are concerned about opening the trail with the current state of commercial properties to the north.
This is the third project on my 12-item Christmas
wish list for DC biking projects. (photo courtesy of www.cyclemas.org)
#3 Extending and rehabilitating the Suitland Parkway Trail
Cost: ~$4Million
Status: Preliminary Feasibility Study done in 1994, but would need to be
redone.
Probability: Medium
If you've ever tried to bike the Suitland Parkway Trail then I have to ask,
really? It's not that the trail itself is so bad (though it is right up on the
road and in less than ideal physical shape). It's just that the trail doesn't
go anywhere. It dead-ends at the DC border and because it has steep embankments,
it's hard to get to/from the trail.
Still a small extension from the DC border to the Naylor Road Metro station
would make this trail a viable tool for commuters, and a better recreational
trail. DDOT has said it will rebuild its portion if Maryland builds it (though
not sure if that means build it to Naylor Road or all the way to Andrews Air
Force Base as proposed in 1994 - that's the $4million project).
Here is the status as of July 19th, 2005
The Suitland Parkway is a unit of National Capital Parks East, in Maryland. It is one of three scenic parkways in the national capital region, the other two being the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the Mount Vernon Parkway. It was designed as a scenic limited-access roadway during World War Two and opened in 1944. It runs southeastward from Anacostia in the District of Columbia to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
In 1994 the NPS did a preliminary design study. It identified substantial physical obstacles due to slope of the embankments, relatively narrow ROW, sensitive forest and wetlands. There are also some security concerns in the vicinity of Andrews Air Force Base, and the original route going past the front gate may no longer be viable. No funding has been identified for this project since the preliminary feasibility study was done some years ago.
The National Coalition to Save Our Mall presented plans to expand the mall to include East Potomac Park as part of their Third Century Mall project. So basically, their plan to Save the Mall is to expand it.
East Potomac Park is really the only place in DC one can go for a good training ride. It's flat, there's little traffic and it's close to the urban core of the city. The plans do call for making bike trails and planners claim it would give cyclists a place to ride now that they've been "crowded out by museum".
Personally, I don't have trouble biking in or around the mall. And I don't see how taking away one of the best biking areas in the city will help cyclists. And I don't see how doubling the size of the mall "saves" it.
If they're really interested in saving the mall, then they should work on making it a 24 hour part of the city. When the sun goes down, the mall is dead. I'd like to see a "Tavern on the Mall" type bar/restaurant somewhere near there. And outdoor cafes. A place for residents as well as tourists.
From BeyondDC:
While it’s true that the more cultural uses you plop in one location the more efficiently that location handles them, it does so at the expense of urban diversity as that location becomes ever more isolated from the rest of the living city. On the other hand, if you use cultural nodes as civic components in mixed-use neighborhoods, you enhance the experience for all.
Someone should read Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
This is the second project on my 12 item Christmas wish list for DC biking projects.
#2 Connecting the WB&A trail to the Anacostia Trail system
Cost: Unknown
Status: Mentioned in Metropolitan Washington Greenways Report 2000
Probability: Low
Comments: The WB&A trail is one of my local favorites (the bridge over the ConRail line is amazing), but right now it doesn't connect to anything. In the far distant future there are plans to complete it and connect it to the B&A trail, but right now the two pieces of the WB&A aren't even connected (though they should be by the end of 2006). Using neighborhood streets or the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the WB&A could be connected to the Anacostia Tributary Trail System at the Northeast Branch Trail. Right now the American Discovery Trail has a route to get from one to the other, but it isn't very appealing or well marked. A sign alerting riders of a connector route, a map at each trail showing how to get to the other, and simple trail-blazes is a minimum. Building an off road trail (and the land is there to do so) would be preferable. Alternatively, connecting the trail to New Carrolton Metro could give the trail a better role for commuters.
