Metropolitan Branch Fail

Despite the good news out of Montgomery County there is still much about the future of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) to worry about. Not that it won't be built, I believe it will; but that it will be less than what it could be, should be or was promised to be. I'm talking specifically about the New York Avenue to Franklin Street section - arguable the signature section of the trail.

As originally designed this section - built on old railroad right of way that consisted of sidelings and the Eckington rail yard - was to be a park-like facility with a trail running down the middle. A picture of what it would look like even graced the cover of the concept plan (at right). It shows a trail passing directly through a green space with waysides and an open air cafe opening up to the trail and park. This is not what will be built.

Despite the stated objective of "providing a visually attractive setting for the trail in the open space between CSX tracks and current development," what is instead planned is a trail shoehorned in between office buildings and sprawling parking lots. Due to a Z-shaped turn, it won't even provide a direct route as originally designed.

Let's move south to north starting from the NY Ave metro station trail. A building is to be built on the triangle between NY Ave, Florida Ave and the trail. When I talked with DDOT they had no idea what this building would look like. Will it open up to the trail? Will there be a green buffer? Will it just be a big brick wall? They didn't know. Why isn't building a structure that integrates the trail a requirement?

Next the trail will pass between the PEPCO facility and the tracks, through the "Capital Commerce Center." As originally planned there would be a connection here between Harry Thomas Way and the trail (see below, right hand side), but not any more. Then the trail was to bend to the west with a connection to R St. But now the trail instead follows the connection to R St and then turns more than 90 degrees to continue north on the west side of the property (see this for a map of what it will look like). This requires a user to make two greater than 90 degree turns (the Z-turn I mentioned). Besides being dangerous it's slow. This was to be a "bicycle beltway." I've never seen a 95 degree turn on the beltway. And what will go where the trail was supposed to? A parking lot (not sure how cars will get to it, but I suspect they would cross the trail).

The plan calls for waysides, green space, art gardens and performance space. It talks about place making. But I fear this project will become a 12 foot wide strip of asphalt surrounded by whatever developers decide will make the most money. I'm not anti-growth, but it's too bad that an opportunity to create a green space in the center of the city is being squandered for the growth machine.

Option 1 Chosen for Met Branch

From the Silver Springs Trails website:

The Montgomery County Council Transportation and Environment (T&E) Committee finished its review of the DPWT Phase I Metropolitan Branch Trail conceptual design. The Committee voted 2-0 (Floreen and Leventhal for, Perez absent) to direct DPWT to carry the MetBranch Trail Option 1 into Phase II facility design. The Option 1 alignment will follow closely along the CSX right-of-way from the Silver Spring Transit Center to the Takoma Campus of Montgomery College and will have a trail bridge over Georgia Avenue and a trail underpass under East-West Highway.

This is good news. This is the trail (in Maryland - more about DC next week) that cyclists wanted.  Phase II takes about 18 months. Funding could begin in the FY09 budget.

Also, when I was out on the MBT last week, I saw the construction of a fence going on along Fenton Street (see photo). I'm not sure what the purpose of it is. Is it a safety feature? Even if it is, I don't like it. Why block the view from the trail and of the trail. One goal of trail development is place-making. Fences do not make places. They divide people. This is unfortunate.

Ten for Tuesday - I'd rather get a lower price than free stuff.

1. The 11th Street Bridge EIS is still in it's public comment period. About 20 feet will be set aside for bikes/peds. Right now there's about 6 feet on the southbound side and 4 on the northbound (the north side involves carrying your bike up/down stairs). The new bridge plans include either a 14 ft northbound - 6 ft southbound mix or a 12ft/8ft mix. It seems that capacity increases immensely at 12 feet and drops at 10 feet. So why not add 2 feet for a 12ft/10ft mix?

2. This Wednesday

the Transportation and the Environment Committee of the Montgomery County Council will review the recommendations and give design guidance to the Department of Public Works and Transportation on their preferred option [for the Met Branch Trail].

WABA wants you to support Option 1.

3. The Marvin Gaye Park Trail groundbreaking is this Saturday.

Kick-off Parade: 10:30 am

Beginning at Watts Branch Recreation Center

6201 Banks St., NE

 

Groundbreaking Ceremony: 12:00 noon

Heritage Green

(Corner of Division Ave. NE and Foote St. NE)

 

For more information, please call Washington Parks and People at (202) 462-7275.

4. The 2006 Itz fair is this Thursday.

Zipcar, North America’s largest Carsharing company is bringing together public and private transportation organizations from around Metro Washington D.C. for the second annual ITZ! Innovation In Transportation Fair on June 22nd from 3-8 PM on 8th St. between D and E Streets, NW. From the GM Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle to GEM electric cars to displays from local transportation leaders, the event will provide local businesses and residents with a fun and exciting opportunity to learn more about cost-effective, viable transportation alternatives, and experience first-hand the newest and most innovative ways to get around.

• Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA) and Capitol Hill Bikes will have bikes at the event to promote bicycling as an alternative way to get around town.

5. Bush went on a bike ride with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"He's very fast," Anders Fogh Rasmussen observed afterward. "I consider myself a skilled mountain biker, but it was challenging."

And it was covered here too.

6. Bicycling magazine's website gets an upgrade, including a new Mountain Bike section.

7. Former Virginia Lt. Governor Don Beyer - now a car dealer - is offering a free bike, free dogwood tree and 2 tickets to "An Inconvenient Truth" to anyone who buys a new car.

"Simply a car, a tree and a bike don't add up to zero . . . but at least it's moving in the right direction," Beyer said.

Of course the deal is good on an SUV too and not everyone is impressed.

Christopher C. Horner, senior fellow and counsel to the Cooler Heads Coalition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says: "If only we all drove Volvos, apparently. Somehow, I don't think Don Beyer has seen the movie."

8. Britain is in the middle of a cycling boom.

The growth has been led by London, where the July 7 bomb attacks generated a 20 per cent increase in cycling as commuters abandoned the Tube.

That "spike" has turned out to be a temporary blip, with most returning to public transport. But it has been replaced by a steady growth after investment in cycling increased from £5.5m in 2000 to £24m in 2006-07. The projected budget for 2009-2010 is £30m, by which time there will be 560 miles of dedicated cycle paths across the capital, compared to 310 miles currently.

9. The Lincoln Memorial traffic project that has created so many detours for cyclists is almost complete.

Once $5 million in improvements to the grounds are complete, park service officials say, it will be easier for people to get to the memorial on foot or by bicycle or bus.

10. Yoram Kaufman's obituary ran in the Post recently

He was seriously injured May 26 when he was struck by an automobile while riding his bicycle near the Goddard center's campus in Greenbelt. He died one day before his 58th birthday.

The American Meteorological Society selected Dr. Kaufman to receive its prestigious Verner E. Suomi Award for achievement in atmospheric sciences days before his fatal accident. He did not learn of the award before his death.

Planning Board Recommends Met Branch Trail Option 1

I was prepared for the Montgomery County Planning Board to go with the "modified" Option 5 recommended by DPWT or possibly the cheaper "regular" Option 5, but I'm pleased to say that they recommended Option 1 which includes the bridge over Georgia Avenue and the tunnel under East-West Highway.

There was some concern early on about impacts the trail will have on Shepherd's Table (at Progress Place) - a community center for people in need - but the point was made that those impacts are more likely to be caused by the Ripley Place development than the trail.

Wendy Perdue started asking questions about the existing bridge (pictured) and made the point that the bridge could move so few bikes that "if it is heavily used, it will be unused" and that people would bike some other way - or not at all.

Then Meredith Wellington spoke passionately about how we need to think big. We need to think about the future and how things will look in the future. (had I gone, I listened live online, this would have been my point. Was any celebrated structure or public space in the world the "cheapest option"?) She pointed out that the county was spending hundreds of millions redeveloping downtown Silver Spring and that private investors were putting in even more. So we shouldn't cheap out on something this important. Not if we want it to be like the Capitol Crescent Trail. We shouldn't build interim because interim is 20 years.

She asked DPWT the Planning Board Staff questions about the tunnel and they said some people were concerned about security issues. Wellington pointed out that if the trail were built right, it would be packed and no one would dare mug someone there. Someone pointed out that the same concerns were raised about the tunnel under Wisconsin on the CCT.

The board asked DPWT the Planning Board Staff if money were not an option which would they chose and, without hesitation, they said Option 1. The board then decided to unanimously recommend Option 1.

One of the other members, not sure who, then asked about expanding the existing pedestrian bridge from 6 feet wide to 12 feet and he was told that the bridge is eligible for historic designation. Since it's only eligible (and since historic structures can be modified) then DPWT should study this option as it may be cheaper than the $2 million bridge planned - and the money saved could be used to build the tunnel. The only other reason DPWT had for not expanding the existing bridge was that CSX may not allow the expansion (Oh CSX, how you trouble us).

All in all though it was a very positive development.

Addendum: The County Council will be considering the proposal some time in late June. I've heard they're not expected to approve Option 1.

Ten for Tuesday - Total Recall

1. NBC 4 is all over the bicycle gear recalls - both Schwinn bicycle child carriers and Trek helmets.

2. The Ride of Silence is tomorrow.

On May 17 at 7:00 PM, the Ride of Silence will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn't aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

There are rides in Maryland (including Frederick) and Virginia, but oddly, not DC.

3. Met Branch Trail through Silver Spring to be debated on Thursday.

On May 18th (at 2:00 pm) the Montgomery County Planning Board will debate the routing of the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Silver Spring. This segment of the trail will connect an existing part of the trail at Montgomery County College with the future Silver Spring Transit Center. Your input is needed to ensure the best trail possible.

4. Soldier Ride 2006 on it's way to Camp Lejeune.

an effort to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization that assists servicemembers injured in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the world.

5. The 20th annual Chesapeake Bay Asthma Bike Tour is scheduled for the weekend of June 3-4.

6. While the Met Branch founders, the Millennium Trail officially opened.

After the opening ceremony near the Fallsgrove Clubhouse at 400 Casey Lane, the festivities moved to a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of the bike⁄pedestrian bridge that will cross Interstate 270 along Route 28. The last link in the 45-mile network, the $4.2 million bridge project was awarded [recently].

7. Bike lane partially removed for "safety"

But the new road configuration is ‘‘anything but” safe, according to Rockville resident Tim Coulson. ‘‘Now, the biker has to shift in and out from bike lane to road, from bike lane to road,” he said. ‘‘It confuses the drivers, it confuses the cyclists, it confuses everybody.”

8. What I always suspected about education majors is true...

Jenna Schultz, a freshman education major, does not need to think at all.

“I’m glad I don’t have a license,” she said. “I’ll bike!”

9. CapTrack hasn't been updated since January (at least none of the bikeways projects). This is disappointing. It has no real value if it isn't updated regularly (at least quarterly).

10. It's good to be the President.

For the second year in a row, the president got a fancy mountain bike from John Burke, president of Trek Bicycle Corp. in Waterloo, Wisc., this one worth $5,474. Last year's model was worth nearly $3,000 less. The president, who is an avid biker, also received a $1,700 indoor cycling trainer from Saris Cycling Group President Chris Fortune and $515 in cycling shoes from Trek Nike Cycling Division.

Let's just hope he didn't get a Trek Helmet.

Met Branch Trail: DPWT recommends no bridge no tunnel

While it appears that things are going well with the District's portion of the Metropolitan Branch Trail, the news is not so good in Maryland. As covered so well at the Silverspringtrails.org website,

Montgomery County DPWT has released the report describing the results of their Phase I design study for the 0.6 mile section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail between the Silver Spring Transit Center and Montgomery College at Takoma Park. The report recommendations go against the public input from two public workshops that strongly support "Option 1" with a new trail bridge over Georgia Avenue and a trail tunnel under East-West Highway. A decisive Planning Board review is tentatively scheduled for May 18.

Instead they're recommending Option 5, the "no bridge, no tunnel" option that would create an at-grade crossing at East-West highway and force cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes across the narrow pedestrian walkway over Georgia Avenue. I hate to just copy and paste, but the sie has it covered so well:

The chief reason DPWT gives for favoring Option 5 over Option 1 is cost. Yet DPWT does not give any cost estimates in the Phase I report, and that information will not be developed until the Phase II study. Therefore DPWT is asking the Planning Board and the public to make a decision now to abandon the preferred Option I because of cost, even though the cost information needed for an informed decision will not be available until the next phase of the study.

We should urge the Planning Board to consider another approach - to take Option 1 into the Phase II study, and to develop a phased construction plan if the Phase II study affirms the costs are too high to build the entire Option 1 immediately. This approach will develop the cost information essential for an informed decision, and will also provide options to spread the cost out over time if necessary.

A very logical phasing of Option 1 construction would be:
1) Build the trail Option 1 from the Silver Spring Transit Center south to Georgia Ave., INCLUDING THE NEW TRAIL BRIDGE OVER GEORGIA AVENUE.
2) IF cost and right-of-way issues make the tunnel under East-West Highway too difficult to build now, then complete the trail connection on an alignment similar to Option 5, but WITH AN ON ROAD BIKE ROUTE DOWN PHILADELPHIA AVENUE.
3) Complete Option 1 when funding becomes available and/or when opportunities occur with redevelopment in Fenton Village.

Steps 1) and 2) above would create a much better trail than the Option 5 trail, even if funds never become available to complete the third step. The trail would include a good bridge over Georgia Avenue, and would not waste scarce trail resources building a totally disfunctional "sidepath from hell" down Philadelphia Avenue.

DCist discussed the Met Branch Trail today as part of it's transit on Earth Day items, but they seem unaware of the construction going on north of New York Avenue and fail to mention the battle being fought in Silver Spring.

Metropolitan Branch Trail Photos

I mentioned earlier that construction on the Metropolitan Branch Trail north of the New York Avenue Metro station had begun and the other day I got out and took some photos of the construction.  In addition to work north, I noticed that asphault has been put down south of the station all the way to L St NE, where it runs behind the parking lot across from the bus station (it's possible this work was done a long time ago, but I never remember seeing it before). Eventually a staircase and/or a ramp will connect this part of the trail - at the level of the railroad tracks - with L Street about 11 feet below.

I must warn you that I'm not much of a photographer. The first photo is of the portion that was opened (and promptly closed) in December 2004.

The next shot is of the construction looking north from the New York Avenue Bridge. The green line I drew in constitutes the west edge of the trail.

The last photo is of the trail south of the station.

Met Branch Trail Update

The Met Branch Trail continues to plod along at its nearly glacial pace. It appears that construction on the  Pepco Substation north of the New York Avenue Metro Station has begun. If you recall, this construction is necessary for the trail to be extended north to R Street. Eric Gilliland of WABA reported that the city still has some land acquisition issues to work out, but hope to break ground in March.

In Maryland the news is not so good. Because of a lengthy redesign of the Maryland options, the report may not make it to the County Council until fall of this year, causing greater delays in the project. In addition the first explanation for why the bridge and tunnel option (option 1) is so expensive was given.

DPWT staff now estimates that Option 1 would cost up to $21M, while the lowest cost Option 5 would cost up to $9.5M. These estimates are about 4 times as high as the cost of comparable trail projects built recently in the area. A principal cost driver is the need to use a small amount of CSX/WMATA r.o.w. to build the trail alongside Selim Road and to build the trail tunnel under Burlington Avenue. A DPWT survey for this project shows that the CSX/WMATA r.o.w. boundary is several feet closer to Selim Road than had been assumed in the earlier M-NCPPC study - a small difference with big consequences for cost. While the amount of r.o.w. needed is very small, use of any CSX/WMATA r.o.w. at all forces the project to comply with expensive safety and separation requirements there for facilities built near operating railroads.

So that does not bode well for building a quality trail in the Georgia Avenue/Burlington Avenue area - unless the county can come up with $21 million, which is unlikely.

On the good news side is this report about the Silver Spring Transit Center receiving additional federal money. It doesn't specifically mention money for bicycles, but since budget problems were causing the county to trim bicycle facilities, including connections with the Met Branch and Green Trails, it can only help

Connecting Towns with Bike Ways

The town of Kensington wants to connect its east and west sides with a pedestrian underpass under Connecticut Avenue.

‘‘One of the problems that we have in Kensington is that it’s very difficult to get from one side to another, whether you’re on foot or a bike or a car or whatever,” said Town Councilman Al Carr said. ‘‘It might be possible to connect the two sides of traffic [with] a pedestrian pathway and a bike way"

Lots of places are finding that their car-friendly designed cities are difficult to get around in by foot.

The bridge they plan to use for this is the Connecticut Avenue bridge over the Metropolitan Branch of the old B&O railroad (now CSX) - the same line the Met Branch Trail runs alongside. It's a good idea, but why stop there. With all of the low hanging fruit as regards to rails to trails opportunities already plucked (think CCT and W&OD), now's the time to look at "rails with trails."

Just north of this point, the rail line crosses Rock Creek Park and Beach Drive (and the Rock Creek Trail). Just south of it, it meets up with the Kensington Parkway. A small railside trail from one to the other would provide a shortcut for bike commuters using Rock Creek, a direct way to get to the Kensington MARC station, and a nice detour for weekend cyclists looking for a bite to eat.