Fixing Route 193 (College Park, Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt)

Our Community Forums Commuters Fixing Route 193 (College Park, Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt)

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  • #914382
    Greenbelt
    Participant

    Options and Opinions on Fixing the Route 193 Corridor in College Park, Berwyn Heights and Greenbelt

    There are so many problems with bike infrastructure along state roads in the College Park-to-Greenbelt area that it’s hard to know where to start.

    Over the last 50 years, the state of Maryland has widened our local arterial roads on the design model of mini-highways, complete with on-ramps and partial cloverleafs, slip lanes, double (and triple) turn lanes, and limited sidewalks and no bike tracks. This design is ugly, encourages speeding and lane weaving, discourages roadside businesses, and makes the roads dangerous to ride on, disgusting to walk beside, and difficult to just get across. Even in a car! (Try crossing Route 1 in front of Proteus to get to the College Park Diner sometime. Actually don’t — it’s too dangerous!)

    Widening roads for the highest possible speeds and “throughput” makes traffic light cycles far too long, which, in turn, makes drivers more impatient and further encourages speeding and whiplash driving: hitting the gas to “make” the next light and slamming on the brakes (or not!) when it turns red. The irony is that all the road widening and highway-ization have not only divided our communities, discouraged biking, walking and transit, and hurt business, but it also sucks more than ever to drive places! When everyone is forced to drive everywhere, because any other way of getting around is either unavailable, unsafe or unpleasant, the roads clog up even more! It’s as if the road builders’ goal was to make everybody as angry, frustrated, and antisocial as possible.

    What can we do about this?

    Well, despite the infrastructure problems, some people are voting with their feet (and their pedals). They’re moving closer to Metro and considering access to bike commuting routes in their housing decisions. Younger (and older!) people are moving back from the distant sprawl burbs to closer-in locations — places where you can actually think about taking the bus, the train, your bike, or a walk when you move around.

    Some state and local officials are gradually realizing that facilitating greenfield sprawl development at the expense of already-built communities is foolish and wasteful.

    In addition to great road riding in the Beltsville farms, our area has some wonderful bike trails and routes, which can be connected together with a little creativity. It’s a great ride from College Park to DC, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, Bowie, even Baltimore if you know the tricks. The Anacostia Trails Heritage Area does a great job advocating for improvements to our existing trails, including better connections to the surrounding neighborhoods and transit stops.

    But there is so much more that could be done, mostly very inexpensively, at least compared with highway projects.

    Here are two ideas where local voices could help make a big difference in our communities:

    1. Help in the design and implementation of better north-south bike connectivity and safety on the bike trails through North College Park and Berwyn Heights/Greenbelt.

    A. First, we need to get a better signalization, and better road markings to get north and south on Rhode Island Ave across Greenbelt Road (Route 430) and University Blvd (Route 193). The State Highway Administration is currently in the planning mode for a redo of these intersections, so community input has a chance to be helpful.

    Here is a map of the intersection project area from SHA:
    193-Rhode-Island-Widening-2.jpg

    B. Second, we need to build a safe bike path through from the Indian Creek Trail and Lake Artemesia to Cherrywood Lane in Greenbelt.

    Options include:

    A continuation of the Indian Creek Trail under 193 (if possible) to Branchville Ave through the Greenbelt Metro South core (aka the Bridge to Nowhere development) property to the intersection of Cherrywood and Breezewood Lanes. Ideally, there would be a two-way cycletrack or sidepath on the west side of Cherrywood Lane from Breezewood up to the new roundabout at Greenbelt Metro Drive.

    and/or

    A rebuild of the parking lot behind Chipotle and Chef’s Secret to include a through bike track from Branchville Ave (the industrial road by PG scrap that goes under the Bridge to Nowhere) to Cherrywood. This option should ideally cross behind the bus stop and connect to a two-way cycletrack or sidepath on the west side of Cherrywood Lane up to Greenbelt Metro Drive.

    2. Encourage the State Highway Administration to rebuild our arterial roads — including Route 1, Route 193 (and the Greenbelt Road spur to Route 1), Route 201 — for all users, with better bike lanes and sidepaths, bus stops, crosswalks, sidewalks, and landscaping — not just more high-speed traffic lanes.

    Fifteen or so years ago, the State Highway Administration developed a Greenbelt Road Boulevard Plan (OK, maybe boulevard is an overstatement, but still…). However, these plans were essentially lost from view until October 2013, when an intrepid engineer dug them out of archive. The plans call essentially for minor, but very helpful, landscape and streetscape improvements along 193 from Route 1 to Soil Conservation Service road. The concept plans are hard to read, but I think they envisioned trees, median features (including pedestrian havens?), and bike lanes! The bike lanes appear to be non-protected 6 foot lanes on the sides, which may not be ideal on roads designed for speeds up to 50mph!

    However, having a plan implies a starting place, and perhaps these plans could be updated for the latest bike and pedestrian standards. There are plenty of places where lane narrowing or lane diets could be added (the road is vastly overbuilt in most places) to accommodate protected bike lanes instead of painted side lanes.

    SHA is said to have this project on their long-term list, and apparently there may even be a funding setup in place!

    So we need to get to work. Over the next several weeks, I’ll try to provide information on how to contact representatives and state and county executives to help get this project back and track and updated for modern “complete streets” and/or “green streets” designs.

    SHA plans from 2003:
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Concept Plans ID 199-8965 di01cn_DGN – 5 of 9 – 11×17
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Concept Plans ID 199-8965 di01cn_DGN – 4 of 9 – 11×17
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Concept Plans ID 199-8965 di01cn_DGN – 3 of 9 – 11×17
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Concept Plans ID 199-8965 di01cn_DGN – 1 of 9 – 11×17
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Concept Plans ID 199-8965 di01cn_DGN – 2 of 9 – 11×17
    Consultant’s Memo:
    PG3282184 – 2003-0127 – MD 193 Greenbelt – RKnK Proj Summary On-Hold memorandum – 199-89-6_05

    Here are some general resources:
    Greenbelt Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan (5 years in the making and still a DRAFT) 2013.
    Route 1 Sector Plan.
    College Park’s Route 1 Transportation Study (2006).

    -Jeff

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  • #984430
    Greenbelt
    Participant

    Follow up…

    Here are some event links where residents can ask public officials to pay more attention to making complete streets a reality in the northern sections of the Route 1 and Anacostia Trails areas:

    1. County Executive Rushern Baker’s next “listening session”
    Wednesday November 6, 2013
    Eleanor Roosevelt High School
    7601 Hanover Pkwy
    Greenbelt, MD 20770
    7 – 9 p.m.
    Here is the link to register to speak

    2. State delegate Alonzo Washington town hall at Greenbelt Middle School, Thursday November 7th, 7-8:30pm

    3. Maryland bike friendly communities meeting.

    Event Details
    Bike Maryland invites you to join us for a free Bicycle Friendly Community and Business Workshop at the Hyattsville Branch Library on Tuesday, October 29th from 6:30pm – 8:30pm. The purpose of this event is to provide information about the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly Community and Bicycle Friendly Business Programs, and to help make the community a safer place to ride for transportation and recreation. Ultimately, we hope to provide communities and businesses with the tools they need to earn a Bicycle Friendly Community or Business award from the League of American Bicyclists.

    The first half of the workshop will provide information on how to become a Bicycle Friendly Community or Business and highlight some of the perks of doing so with through brief presentations from representatives in Maryland’s Bicycle Friendly Communities and Businesses. The workshop will conclude with an interactive brainstorming session, allowing attendees to explore and discuss the development and implementation of a Bike Friendly Community Action Plan for Hyattsville.

    This Bike Friendly Community and Business Workshop was made possible thanks to a grant from the Potomac Pedalers.

    Bicycle Friendly Community Workshop Tentative Agenda

    6:30pm – Welcome
    6:45pm – Bicycle Friendly Community and Business Presentation
    7:30pm – Break
    7:40pm – Economic Benefits of a Bicycle Friendly Community
    7:55pm – The Role of a Bicycle Advisory Committee
    8:10pm – Open Discussion/Brainstorming Session
    8:25pm – Closing Remarks

    Please direct any questions to Bike Maryland’s Bicycle Friendly Maryland Program Coordinator, Katie Lupo (KatieLupo@bikemd.org).

    #984453
    Terpfan
    Participant

    May be worth passing along to the UMD’s SGA or officials as well as the alumni association. I obviously don’t live there, but I have biked to a few football games. Admittingly, all but one time I took the bike on Metro because I was worried I would get myself lost and not make it in time. Needless to say, I would not ride down Rt 1. I definitely feel like there is a ton they could and should do in that corner of Prince George’s. Of course I also think the University should have some free air and basic tools accessible by their different bike parking places, but that’s a different story.

    #984454
    Greenbelt
    Participant

    @Terpfan 67586 wrote:

    May be worth passing along to the UMD’s SGA or officials as well as the alumni association. I obviously don’t live there, but I have biked to a few football games. Admittingly, all but one time I took the bike on Metro because I was worried I would get myself lost and not make it in time. Needless to say, I would not ride down Rt 1. I definitely feel like there is a ton they could and should do in that corner of Prince George’s. Of course I also think the University should have some free air and basic tools accessible by their different bike parking places, but that’s a different story.

    I think the University is starting to get it. They have helped push for bike share, and helped get funding for Route 1 reconstruction to include a bike track (not sure the details yet). And the on-campus bike stations are getting better — there are some tools now I think.

    Next step is to focus on secure, covered bike parking for dorm residents. They’ve all those parking lots, but crummy bike parking throughout the campus.

    #984456
    mstone
    Participant

    Yeah, they’re finally getting it, that’s why they’re pushing for purple line stations. They didn’t want a metro station and it’s taken 50 years to get a second chance at a useful transit connection.

    #985206
    Terpfan
    Participant

    @Greenbelt 67587 wrote:

    I think the University is starting to get it. They have helped push for bike share, and helped get funding for Route 1 reconstruction to include a bike track (not sure the details yet). And the on-campus bike stations are getting better — there are some tools now I think.

    Next step is to focus on secure, covered bike parking for dorm residents. They’ve all those parking lots, but crummy bike parking throughout the campus.

    They definitely have many many many more racks then when I was a student there way back when. I used the rack by the Comcast Center for two weekend’s ago during the game. It was pretty handy although I could tell older bikes that had been left there had stuff taken off them. Some covered storage would definitely go a long way for them. Riding back there, I was also reminded of how nice it is that they have that slight MUP (no idea how far it runs) going back along the creek.

    That’s great on tools too. I didn’t know that although next time maybe I’ll scout around a little before I joint my friend’s tailgate.

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