I wrote in my last Planning Board buried in testimony blog entry about the dispute between Pam Browning, of Save the Trail petition, and Casey Anderson, for WABA, on the value of Pam Browning’s petition. Mier Wolf, President of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Coalition, also testified for “Save the Trail” during the January 8 Purple Line public hearing.
Mier Wolf is profiled by Dan Reed at Just Up the Pike as the former Mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase responsible for having the Town hire an “independent” Purple Line consultant. Action Committee for Transit reports that “In the space of 12 months, the town has paid New York transportation consultant Sam Schwartz PLLC $374,000 to promote its anti-light rail efforts.”
Mier Wolf testified against the Purple Line light rail. Among his assertions:
“…Our feeling is if the trees go and a narrow trail is put next to the transit on the Capital Crescent Trail, you create a bicycle raceway. You eliminate the walkers, the joggers, the 500,000 uses you have of the Trail each year…”
Why does Mr. Wolf think anyone is planning on putting a narrow trail next to transit? The trail will be at least 10′ wide, wider than it is in places on the Interim CCT at Mier’s Town now. And why would Mr. Wolf think having a narrow trail will make cyclists go faster?
Where is the evidence that paving the trail will convert it into a “bicycling raceway” that would eliminate all walkers and joggers? The CCT is paved nearby at the Bethesda Trailhead, and the CCCT survey shows that uses there by walkers and joggers is more than twice that of walkers and joggers on the gravel interim CCT. Walkers and joggers together outnumber the cyclists on the paved trail there by a wide margin.
Where is the evidence that losing shade and having transit vehicle activity nearby on a part of the Trail will preferentially drive away all walkers and joggers? The W&OD Trail has many sections that are not in shade and some parts are under high voltage power lines. The W&OD runs along roadways in places. An American Trails survey shows that the W&OD not only has very high trail use overall, but also has the same ratio of cyclists, walkers and joggers as the CCT traffic survey found at survey locations away from the Bethesda urban center, at Brookeway and at the Georgetown Trailhead. The W&OD is convincing proof that a shared use trail can succeed very well without being entirely under a full tree canopy.
Meir Wolf is far from the first in to express concern that paving the Trail in Chevy Chase will bring more cyclists. One can see from the transcript of the Town’s June 2007 public meeting on the Purple Line that many of the residents want the Interim CCT to stay just as it is – and fear that if it is paved and made wider it will no longer be the quiet neighborhood trail they know. Deborah Vollmer, a Vice President of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Coalition, is especially candid in her testimony that more trail traffic would disturb the tranquility of her walk to her Yoga classes.
Does “Save the Trail” mean save the trail exactly as it is – not paved, narrow, pinched between fences at the Country Club so that the trail best continues to serve as a local park for the Town of Chevy Chase?
The Save the Trail website of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Coalition lists the Columbia Country Club as a member. This website and Pam Browning’s SavetheTrailPetition website show no interest whatsoever in paving or completing the trail, or about stopping the severe encroachment on the trail by the Country Club. I have predicted in a previous blog post that Chevy Chase will actively oppose any efforts to pave the trail.
We can all understand the desire of local residents to keep a trail quite and to discourage purposeful cyclists from outside the community from crowding “their” trail. But they wrap themselves in a “Save the Trail” banner, asserting they are only “Demanding a better Purple Line”, to obscure their NIMBY agenda to keep out more trail users as well as to keep out transit.
[...] Concerns for pedestrian safety, opposition to asphalt, fears of increased crime, concerns about losing the “natural” setting – we’ve heard this all before from residents opposed to proposed trails adjacent to other neighborhoods, including the Capital Crescent Trail. The pedestrian safety issue was recently raised by Meir Wolf of the Town of Chevy Chase at another Planning Board Hearing, see A bicycling Raceway?. [...]