As part of its "Bike me out to the Ballgame" tailgate party this weekend, WABA is going to be celebrating the opening of the newest section of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. A trail that will eventually connect from Bladensburg to the Potomac along both sides of the river. It's an ambitious goal and will provide many needed connections.
I've long been annoyed with the way this project has been going. Not just that its WAY behind schedule, but that DC seems unwilling to find a way through Langston Golf Course ("Golf and bikes don't mix," I was told. Really the CCT, the Paint Branch trail and dozens of others I've seen somehow pull it off), the Arboretum ("We're a research institute and bikes would interfere with that"), or the area between the PEPCO plant and Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens where the trail is being forced to move around everything else. Furthermore, in the Yards area, cyclists are being pushed away from the river.
But worse than that is the substandard design and execution of the sections we are getting. The section being opened Sunday has an inexplicably curvy route and poor if not awful drainage. Despite DDOT's own Design and Engineering Manual calls for crowning of bike trails (with a minimum grade) for drainage and call for minimum design speed of 20 mph (along with some reference to adequate sightlines). They aren't even designing and building the trail to their own standards. They would never build a road this way. So while we should thank them for trying to make a positive difference, we need to hold their feet to the fire. Future sections must be better built.
I'm not sure if any DDOT personnel are going to be there on Sunday, but I will and I plan to approach them about this if they are. I made and will print up some fliers to hand to them. You can download one here (Download art_handout.doc ). If you go, print some out and hand them to them as well. (If they say they already have one, make them take it anyway - they need to see how many people will not be satisfied with whatever they give us). Then go to the game and have a good time.
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