On National Trails Day Saturday, June 5 there will be bike rides to a “Grand Opening” celebration on the MetBranch Trail. Trail fans will be converging on the new section of the MetBranch Trail in the area of the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station. WABA and Rails-to-Trails will be sponsoring rides to the event. I will be leading one of these rides from Silver Spring – leaving from the historic Silver Spring Train Station at 10:10 a.m. and following the Interim MetBranch route through Takoma Park. Save the date and watch this blog for more information as June 5 draws near.
A recent rash of road rage incidents is being reported at Washcycle. But trouble can follow cyclists onto off-road trails as well, as shown by this incident a trail user experienced yesterday:
“This afternoon while riding my bike on Sligo Trail near Dallas Ave and Sligo Creek Pkwy, I encountered a couple riding their Vespa-like moped/scooter on the trail. They appeared to be intoxicated and upon me telling them that mopeds weren’t allowed on the trail, the male driver pulled out an (unopened) folding knife and told me to mind my own #*&# business and so forth. All this while I had my two young children with me. The park police say this sounds like a couple they are currently looking for for breaking into cars.”
“The male was white, 50’s, scruffy with not much hair. The female was white, 50’s, red hair, missing some teeth. The moped was black, with no license plate. I would suggest anyone who sees these people to call 911 if possible, and avoid making contact with them.”
Paving of the Metropolitan Branch Trail is nearly complete between Franklin Street and the New York Avenue Metro Station. This a.m. I was able to ride this new section. Having grade-separated crossings of New York Avenue and Florida Avenue makes the trip from Silver Spring feel both faster and safer.
By coincidence, my bike odometer calls it as exactly 10.0 miles from my house to Union Station.
The Metropolitan Branch Trail at the New York Ave. station.
The Georgetown Branch Trail goes through my Woodside neighborhood. The trail is on-road on a quiet street while in Woodside.
But the trail does little to connect Woodside to adjacent neighborhoods across busy highways, or to connect Silver Spring to Bethesda. For that, we are still waiting for the Capital Crescent Trail.
This sign announces the start of the Georgetown Branch Trail in downtown Silver Spring. It also declares this to be the location of the Future Capital Crescent Trail.
The sign gets the spelling of the “FUTURE CAPITOL CRESENT TRAIL” wrong. Twice. But we’re getting used to that – signs with this misspelling are seen at several other places along the trail, including near Rock Creek Park.
But in addition to being misspelled, this sign also has the location of the Future Capital Crescent Trail wrong.
The sign is at the trailhead to the Georgetown Branch on-road trail on Second Avenue at the north side of Colesville Road, shown above. But the Future Capital Crescent Trail will not be on or along any part of Second Avenue.
The Future Capital Crescent Trail will follow alongside the CSX corridor into downtown Silver Spring on the route described here. It will cross Colesville Road between the CSX railroad tracks and the Metro Plaza Building, one block west of Second Avenue. It will be on a new trail bridge on an alignment alongside the CSX/Metro tracks into the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center, seen under construction above.
I like this sign in spite of its inaccuracies. It serves to call two facts to the attention to those who pass by: 1) the Georgetown Branch Trail is no more than a signed on-road route up a busy street in Silver Spring, and 2) Silver Spring is still waiting for the Capital Crescent Trail after all of these years.
The Montgomery County Planning Board approved the final draft of the Purple Line Master Plan at its April 8 meeting. The final draft incorporated all of the changes approved by the Planning Board at its March 4 work session, reported here.
The only issue that received additional Planning Board discussion on April 8 was whether the trail should be switched to the south side of the Purple Line tracks. The Town of Chevy Chase continues to assert the trail will be better if on the south side, and Town Councilmember Pat Burda was invited forward at the meeting to press their case directly to the Planning Board. But Purple Line Project Manager Mike Madden testified that MTA had already done a systematic engineering study of the trade-offs between a north-side and south-side trail and had presented the results showing the trail would fit better on the north side to the community three years ago. M-NCPPC planner Tom Autrey reported to the Planning Board that he and other M-NCPPC planners had walked the trail the previous day with Town representatives, including Pat Burda, and that M-NCPPC planners remained convinced the trail should be on the north side. Planning Board Chair Royce Hanson said he had walked the trail at the Town earlier this week to see the issues for himself. The Planning Board members expressed their respect for the Town’s concerns, but agreed with the overall finding of MTA and M-NCPPC planners the trail should be built on the north side. The final Master Plan draft approved by the Planning Board is available at the M-NCPPC website at Purple Line Functional Plan.
The Master Plan Draft will now be transmitted to the County Council for deliberation and adoption. The Council can make changes to the Plan. The Council will likely hold a public hearing in June. The Council has already approved the Purple Line locally preferred alternative (LPA) by unanimous vote, so it is unlikely the Council will make major changes to the Master Plan before it gives final approval.
The Planning Board made the right decision for the Trail yesterday in spite of all of the noise the Town of Chevy Chase was making. But the Town was given more deference than it deserved during both this and the March work session. Pat Burda was invited to come forward and present the Town’s position at both Planning Board work sessions, and no other Trail stakeholders were given that opportunity even though other stakeholders were present in the room. Other neighborhoods and trail groups would have welcomed the opportunity to address the Planning Board at the work sessions, if they had known they could do so after the public hearing and after the public comment period had closed. M-NCPPC planning staff only walked that small part of the Trail at the Town with Town representatives the day prior to the last work session. What about the rest of the trail, and the other neighborhoods along the Trail? Was the East Bethesda Citizens Association, which is on record in opposition to switching the trail to the south side, given opportunity to also be present at the trail walk so they could show the planners their issues? Were Riviera House residents and other neighbors on the north side of the corridor opposite the Town given equal consideration to show their issues? What trail user groups were given equal consideration to walk the trail with M-NCPPC planners – WABA, CCCT, MoBike??
If the County Council chooses to deliberate on the north-side vs. south-side trail issue, I hope the Council will keep in mind that only a small part of the Trail borders the Town of Chevy Chase. Other neighborhoods are equally important stakeholders. The Town speaks primarily for the town residents and not for trail users. The Town has a right to be heard, but the Town should not be presumed to speak for us and should not be given deference over other stakeholders. The Trail is much larger than the Town.
The excavation for the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center continues, but we can begin to see the shape of things to come. The elevation of the future Metropolitan Branch Trail is starting to emerge, visible near the end of this YouTube video in the area between the orange construction safety fence and the MARC station platform.
The Metropolitan Branch Trail continues to advance in D.C., with good news about the trail bridge to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station reported at WashCycle. The trail remains stalled in Montgomery County, but it can get moving forward again within this year – IF the full Montgomery County Council votes to accept the T&E Committee recommendation during the Capital Budget reconciliation in a few weeks.
WABA has just initiated a “hail Mary” pass to get things going for the MetBranch in Montgomery County. Eric Gilliland, with support from Casey Anderson, Jack Cochrane, and me, has submitted an application to Congressman Chris VanHollen for FY11 federal funding to build the MetBranch. I say “hail Mary” because this is a very long shot, only a small fraction of these kinds of requests for funding are successful. We don’t know what the outcome of this request is yet. But If nothing else, the application effort has resulted in raising awareness of the merits of this Trail within Chris VanHollen’s office.
WABA was successful in getting this letter from MCDOT in strong support of the funding application, see it at a legible scale here (as a pdf). The letter may have come too late to help for federal funding this year, and from the letter MCDOT appears to be unfamiliar with who advocates for cyclists in Montgomery County (I know WABA, MOBIKE, CCCT and MCBAG, but no “Montgomery County Bicyclist Group” that is cited in the letter). But MCDOT does show a clear understanding in the letter that the MetBranch is not just another local neighborhood bike path.
From Director Holmes in the MCDOT letter:
“For several years MCDOT has recognized the need to connect the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, one of the most heavily used mult-use paths in the county, to downtown Silver Spring, as well as, to the existing segments of the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Takoma Park and the District of Columbia. This interstate connection will serve both recreational and transportation functions for bicyclists and pedestrians traveling between and among Montgomery County, the District, and Prince George’s County.”
It is heartening to see MCDOT ‘get it’ that the CCT and MetBranch should connect to form an interstate trail network with a strong transportation function. This is in marked contrast to the near sighted vision “Save the Trail” presents for the CCT – An essential link cut short.
Harry Sanders died on March 10 after a brief battle with cancer. He was a good friend and neighbor. Some of the many tributes to Harry are presented in the blog Maryland Politics Watch. The obituary in the Montgomery Gazette and tribute in the County Council press release describe the big impact he has made for good, most notably as the co-founder of Action Committee for Transit and also of Purple Line NOW!
Both the Montgomery Gazette obituary and the Council press release listed Harry’s management of Silver Spring Trails as among his accomplishments. Harry did so many things for the community, but managing Silver Spring Trails was not one of them. I can understand why the Gazette and the Council are confused on this. Harry and I worked closely together, often testifying at public hearings on the same side on Purple Line issues – he for the transit and I for the trail. Harry referenced my website often and used material from it frequently to make the point that transit and trails are compatible. I used many of Harry’s photos and other source material he found to make the same point for the trail. I take it as a high complement that Harry is perceived as having managed Silver Spring Trails.
Harry was very effective as an advocate because he always tried to find the middle ground, to give respect to everyone’s point of view, and to give all groups and communities something positive as much as possible. As a passionate advocate for the Capital Crescent Trail, I always found Harry willing to listen, and quick to see the much higher benefit to all neighborhoods if both trail and transit could work together to share the Georgetown Branch Corridor. Over the years of working together his passion for transit and mine for the trail merged. We found we were both pushing together, for the combined transit and trail as the best and highest use of the unique opportunity the Georgetown Branch Corridor presents to us.
A recurring comment in the many tributes to Harry is that he is the person most responsible for creating the vision of the Purple Line, and for keeping that vision alive through many discouraging years. There are calls to dedicate the first train to Harry when it runs in a few years. That would be a very fitting tribute. But that alone would miss the other side to Harry’s vision – the Trail.
Without Harry’s early vision, the Georgetown Branch Corridor would not have been purchased by the County in 1988 and the CCT would not exist today. Without Harry’s perseverance in later years when most others had given up, the Purple Line project would not be alive today and the Interim CCT would be condemned to end forever in the obscure industrial park at Stewart Avenue, far from downtown Silver Spring, as it does now. The dream of linking the urban centers of Bethesda and Silver Spring with a direct, first class off-road trail that is so crucial to completing the trail network in lower Montgomery County is impossible to achieve without using parts of the CSX corridor, and that is not realistic without the Purple Line. After all of these years, those who oppose the Purple Line to “Save the Trail” are still unable to offer any realistic plan to complete the CCT into downtown Silver Spring without using rails-with-trails. Only Harry’s vision for transit AND trail makes completion of the trail possible.
I hope to be around to help lead that first bicycle ride down the newly completed CCT at the Purple Line opening ceremony in a few years. When I take that first bicycle ride down that new trail from Bethesda to the Silver Spring Transit Center, I will pay tribute to Harry.
At 10 a.m. today a MCDOT work crew with a truck, wood chipper and chain saws had just cleared a tree that had fallen across the trail near Mile 2.0, and was working its way west cutting bamboo back. A crew member indicated they were aware of the bad patch of bamboo ahead, and intended to get to it. The trail should be much better now.
March 10, 2010:
The County Executive’s proposed CIP budget would delay building the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The Montgomery Gazette reports:
“It makes us look like we aren’t serious,” Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring. “… D.C. probably gets an ‘A’ or ‘A-minus’ for bike-friendliness but if you were grading Montgomery County, we would be about a ‘C-minus.’”
I sometimes think I should give Montgomery County DOT more credit for understanding their responsibility to build and maintain decent facilities for walking and bicycling transportation modes, as well as facilities for motor vehicles and transit. But then we see the County Executive single out the MCDOT bikeways maintenance budget to be completely eliminated during budget reductions. And we see this -
The Interim CCT at the Town of Chevy Chase on March 10
A full five weeks have passed since the end of the February snowstorm. It has been nearly four weeks since MCDOT cleared the snow from all roads. The Interim CCT is probably the most heavily used trail that is maintained by MCDOT. The effort, and cost, to clear away this patch of downed bamboo and snowpack on the Interim CCT would be slight.
When MoCo and MCDOT consider an important trail like this to be important enough to keep open, without prodding and badgering from trail advocates, then I will believe they are serious.
This sign announces the start of the Georgetown Branch Trail in downtown Silver Spring. It also declares this to be the location of the Future Capital Crescent Trail.
