Memorial Circle Transportation Plan and Environmental Assessment – Open House

[dasgeh]

FWIW, my comments:
Overarching comments:
• When planning facilities for people on bikes, National Park Service (NPS) should envision an 8-year-old girl enjoying a bike ride with her family, or a dad pulling his kids behind his bike in a trailer or toting his kids on a cargo bike. If you design facilities that are safe enough for those people, and if you design facilities that they can navigate on their bikes, then you will have designed facilities that work for all people on bikes.
o For these cyclists, unsignalized grade crossings, especially where there are multiple lanes and high speeds, are not safe enough. Similarly, bicycle infrastructure that is separated from motor vehicle infrastructure must include protection more than just paint, i.e. protected bike lanes are needed, not “traditional” bike lanes.
o For these cyclists, steep paths are not easy to negotiate.
o For these cyclists, tight turns are problematic: particularly for a parent with a trailer, a trail-a-bike or a cargo bike, the distance between wheels, and therefore the turning radius of their bike are larger.
o These cyclists need more lateral width to safely navigate: a child may be less able to ride in a narrow straight line, and a trailer or cargo bike is likely wider than a traditional bike.
• National Park Police should be involved in planning, and should ensure that the rules of the road are enforced, especially against those with the most power to harm others: motorists. Roads should be designed with
• NPS should plan for ongoing maintenance of the transportation system, not just for people driving, but for people biking and walking as well. This maintenance should include clearing snow and ice, filling spot-problems, like pot-holes, as well as appropriate repaving.
• NPS should widen the trails in this area, and should consider separate facilities for people walking and people biking, especially along the highly popular Mount Vernon Trail. At the very least, NPS should follow nationally recognized NACTO standards to widen the trail to 12 feet.
• Any plan for Memorial Circle should be considered in conjunction with the plan to rehabilitate Memorial Bridge. In particular, Memorial Bridge should include multimodal facilities, including protected bike lanes. NPS should consider protected bike lanes running in the center of the bridge, which could separate and run along the outside of the grassy portion of Memorial Circle. Such a design, if adequately protected on either side from motor vehicle traffic, would allow cyclists a safe passage through Memorial Circle, where they could connect with the various trails in the low-traffic-volume area South of Memorial Circle.
Low Impact Improvements:
• Put in signals, such as RRFBs or HAWK Signals at any grade crossings of the GW Parkway, as recommended in document 771 and others
• Install an additional crossing south of Memorial Circle, as recommended in document 771 and others
• Add signage near the Lincoln Memorial to aid in wayfinding for people on bikes and walking
Long term improvements:
• Any plan must eliminate unsignalized grade crossings for the trails (unfortunately all plans seem to leave some grade crossings)
• Any plan must widen the Mount Vernon Trail under the Memorial Bridge.
• Any plan must include accommodations for trail along 110 East of Memorial Drive.
• Plan 783 seems particularly promising, as it consolidates motor vehicle traffic onto the South side of Columbia Island, and preserves most of the island as park land. However, as written, this plan requires people biking and walking to cross a number of roads at-grade. Those should be made into tunnels or signalized. If that is not possible, NPS must ensure that motor vehicle speeds are reduced as much as possible.
• Any plan must decrease maximum vehicle speeds. Note that 775 seems like it would increase vehicle speeds, without removing grade crossings, thereby making people who walk and bike much less safe.

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