Rock Creek trail to P Street Ramp?

[scoot]

Sightlines of the crosswalk aren’t great for drivers entering that ramp from the north. Nor for drivers coming down the hill trying to catch RCP southbound. And those downhill drivers sometimes block the crosswalk.

But the ramp itself is fine. I’ve ridden it many times to connect between the RCP trail and the neighborhood.

[secstate]

It’s a pretty wide road. As long as you stick to the right, cars should be able to get by you w/o much stress for either party.

[DCAKen]

It’s an extremely wide road at the ramp, with each lane over 15′ wide. A few years ago, the city painted some preliminary lines delineating separate pedestrian/bike lanes, but the Park Service put a stop to that. Eventually, when the project to rebuild the trail north of P Street, separated paths will be added on each side of the road. See this page for more detailed plans.

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[Rooster]

Hey, I’m new here and I thought it was fascinating that I happened across your post, because I was just there the other day thinking the same thing when Google directed me down that same ramp; and this was before I was even aware of this forum lol!

I’m sure by this time you’ve already met with your friend, but I wanted to mention for future reference that there’s a small trail just behind the wooden guard rail of the on ramp leading down the hill onto RC Trail. It seems to have been carved by cyclists who were in our same predicament lol (bless em.) Honestly, it may be a bit sketchy depending on what kinda bike you’re on, but for me, it definitely beat riding directly down the ramp lol.

I hope this is beneficial to you, or possibly someone else in the future.

– Rooster

[arlcxrider]

Going down from P St, the ramp can be a little bit of a white-knuckle experience if you’re on it during the evening rush contraflow period. Essentially you’re playing chicken with oncoming northbound traffic coming off the Parkway. Drivers aren’t expecting cyclists. My (very unpopular among drivers in NW DC) opinion is they should do away with the reversible lanes on the RCP, but it’ll probably never happen.

[DCAKen]

@Rooster 196776 wrote:

Hey, I’m new here and I thought it was fascinating that I happened across your post, because I was just there the other day thinking the same thing when Google directed me down that same ramp; and this was before I was even aware of this forum lol!

I’m sure by this time you’ve already met with your friend, but I wanted to mention for future reference that there’s a small trail just behind the wooden guard rail of the on ramp leading down the hill onto RC Trail. It seems to have been carved by cyclists who were in our same predicament lol (bless em.) Honestly, it may be a bit sketchy depending on what kinda bike you’re on, but for me, it definitely beat riding directly down the ramp lol.

I hope this is beneficial to you, or possibly someone else in the future.

– Rooster

One bad side effect from this desire trail is that the runoff after a rain storm leaves a layer of mud, gravel, and sand on the paved trail. USPS is very lax at cleaning the trail, so that debris stay there for far too long.

[scoot]

@arlcxrider 196778 wrote:

Going down from P St, the ramp can be a little bit of a white-knuckle experience if you’re on it during the evening rush contraflow period. Essentially you’re playing chicken with oncoming northbound traffic coming off the Parkway. Drivers aren’t expecting cyclists.

Great point.

[Author]

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