Mass Transit priority for high speed car access not bike/ped

by B' Spokes
Monday, March 23 2009 @ 08:58 PM GMT

From the Gazette about the Shady Grove Metro Station and bike path in Rockville:
...
Johnston said the county\'s Department of Transportation felt there was a need to build the path based on \"worn pathways\" they had seen in the area and community suggestions.

\"We always want to make it easy for people to get to transit centers and this seemed like a very good investment in order to do that,\" he said.

The project had originally included a 200-foot spur that would provide a connection from the path to the Metro station, but Johnston said the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) asked that that part of the project not be built.

Angela Gates, a spokeswoman for WMATA, said in an e-mail message to The Gazette Tuesday morning that Metro decided against the spur for safety reasons.

\"Ultimately, Metro directed the county not to include the crossings because the north-south arterial section of the access road is high-volume with moderate, then accelerating speed,\" she wrote. \"It would be unsafe and inefficient to have a bike path crossing and speed humps across the arterial. Pedestrians and bicyclists can use the existing crossing of the east-west section of the access road.\"

Gates wrote that Metro would consider a bike path crossing of the access road \"if and when Shady Grove Metrorail station facilities are transformed into a transit-oriented development with a grid network of roadways.\" [Baltimore Spokes translation: We\'ll hang onto the old school of thought of not accommodating bike/peds as long as we can and not make it any easier for them.]
...

Gazette Story: <a href="http://www.gazette.net/stories/03112009/aspenew214521_32478.shtml">http://www.gazette.net/stories/03112009/aspenew214521_32478.shtml</a>;

Shady Grove Access Path Plan: <a href="http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/omb/FY08/ciprec/pdf/500600.pdf">http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/omb/FY08/ciprec/pdf/500600.pdf</a>;

Google map showing current access point into a parking lot: <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=39.120726,-77.161011&spn=0.00159,0.002414&t=h&z=19&msid=116280672157870197546.000465d2bee03f7fba2b1">http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=39.120726,-77.161011&spn=0.00159,0.002414&t=h&z=19&msid=116280672157870197546.000465d2bee03f7fba2b1</a>;