22 Mile Trail Parallel to I-66 — Helpful Video and Input Needed

Dasgeh, *Their* idea of a compromise is that the trail even exists. 😡

Um, forgive the splash of anger. This won’t be the case for the entire trail. But there are sections where there *is* neighborhood opposition. Still, inside the sound wall and next to high speed traffic is a most unappetizing idea.

From the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/biking-advocates-worry-i-66-expansion-project-puts-a-bike-trail-too-close-to-traffic/2017/07/09/9e21d216-6266-11e7-84a1-a26b75ad39fe_story.html?utm_term=.c461d6e8b86f

@Judd 162573 wrote:

I have made the mistake of reading the comments section. It’s good to know that lots of people who see me on a bike wish I were dead, just for the simple fact that I am riding a bike.

And that, sadly, is our collective reality these days. Too many now feel they can be as nasty & ugly as they wanna be without fear of consequence.

@Steve O 162588 wrote:

When I looked at them, most of the comments that were getting “likes” were on the good guys’ side. The trolls were few and their comments not popular.

I wish I had facebook so I could like all of Crickey’s posts.

So it’s illegal, but I’m thinking of doing a Bobco style, “Let’s ride the future I-66 Trail” bike ride.

@Judd 162623 wrote:

So it’s illegal, but I’m thinking of doing a Bobco style, “Let’s ride the future I-66 Trail” bike ride.

There are less painful ways to kill yourself.

Letter in the Post today

Regarding the July 10 Metro article “Biking advocates worry trail too close to traffic”:
My 2-year-old son took some of his first steps on the path behind my townhome, under the canopy of trees that surround my yard. We will lose this wooded space in the Interstate 66 expansion. I hope the cyclists will appreciate their new bike lane and not push to have one that further disrupts my home and my neighbors’ right to peace, quiet and privacy.
This is a wonderful neighborhood for children to grow up in. Let’s keep it that way.
Jackie Tortora, Vienna

I put this in the on-line comments:

Ms. Tortora – The people who ride bikes and walk, and your neighbors and friends who might use this trail, are not asking for any additional trees or anything else to be destroyed. The total enormous width of I-66 will not change. No additional trees or space will be appropriated. All these people are asking is that the sound wall be moved a little farther away from your house and the trail placed on the side of the wall where you and your neighbors and children and dogs can use it. Perhaps the people who may someday buy your house will use this new trail to take their young child out for a walk, something that is unimaginable if the trail were inside the sound wall adjacent to 10 lanes of highway traffic.

It’s pretty hard (impossible?) to overcome the cognitive dissonance that focuses on the noise and disruption of pedestrians and cyclists on a MUP and completely disregards the cars on the roads on both sides of the house–because the cars are “normal” and the pedestrians and cyclists are “not normal”. If a sensible trail is installed on the correct side of the sound wall, it will become normal and thus a dead issue. The only way forward has nothing to do with convincing the residents that opposing a trail as a nuisance is silly, and everything to do with convincing the politicians that the level of constituent annoyance over the stupid trail design exceeds the level of annoyance from fixing it.

But reading the tea leaves, I’d say VDOT doesn’t care, and we’re going to get a crappy trail. Don’t want to hold up progress.