The already-narrow sidewalk on the Humpback bridge on the Mt. Vernon Trail has been narrowed even further since last fall, forcing bikers and peds to within inches of oncoming, speeding traffic. Now that it's getting warmer and bike traffic is increasing, passing other bikes is near impossible. Even after you dismount, you've got to carry your bike and hold it out over the little plastic traffic cones into the Parkway and oncoming cars to let another bike pass.

I know the project will eventually improve conditions dramatically, which is great -- but it seems like the Mt. Vernon Trail is getting the short end of the stick here compared to the autos. Can we narrow or (gasp) take away a lane from the cars to spread the pain a little bit to accommodate construction?

The NPS website still says the project will be done in "spring 2010," which seems crazily optimistic to me, but I could be wrong. Anyone know the status of the project? How much longer are we going to have to deal with a dangerously narrow bike lane?