Hello,
I was recently made aware of current plans for design of sections of the Multi-Use path that will be constructed as part of the Transform I-66 project. It is good that Virginia is improving travel choices for citizens, so thank you.
I watched this video prepared by Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling (FABB):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nl...ature=youtu.be
The video shows the trail being inside the sound wall. This is an extraordinarily poor design decision for a long host of reasons:
- People on bikes and people on foot are not noisy
- There is no way to plow the trail. With the sound wall on one side and the barrier on the other, the snow cannot be pushed anywhere
- VDOT plows are likely to plow the snow onto the trail, rendering it useless (this already happens. It happened to me while I was riding. See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJKzW2JRGos
- For debris, there would need to be some sort of custom trail cleaning vehicle that would need to be out there at least weekly. It would either have to be pretty small or it would block the entire trail (with no way to go around, see below)
- Undoubtedly stuff that falls off cars (mattresses, abandoned tires, etc.) will get thrown onto the trail, because that's the obvious way to get it out of the road.
- In the cases of the trail being blocked (car crash involving a vehicle encroaching on the trail or something) there appears to be no way to go around. Trail users are essentially trapped in the trail by the soundwall
- Providing convenient connections to nearby streets and neighborhoods is either impossible or will require numerous breaks in the soundwall.
- The actual user experience will be highly unpleasant, close to high-speed, noisy traffic and the concomitant air pollutants. This will reduce the likelihood of people actually using the trail and therefore reducing the effect of including this multi-modal option in the Transform I-66 project.
The Custis Trail in Arlington is almost entirely outside the sound wall. Although not perfect, many people use this trail for both transportation and recreation who almost certainly would not if it were inside the sound wall next to the expressway. In fact, the least pleasant part of the trail is the section under the parking deck, where the trail is essentially adjacent to the roadway. I know of people who avoid this section of the trail, and just this section, preferring to use parallel surface streets instead.
It seems that the design engineers did not give due consideration to either user experience nor to trail maintenance issues for the Transform I-66 Multi-Use Path. I strongly support revisiting this design. As depicted in the FABB video, it is awful.
If the Transform I-66 project is to achieve its greatest success, then the choices offered to travelers of all modes should be optimized as much as possible. If the choice of walking or biking is made as convenient and pleasant as possible, then more people will choose that option, improving travel experience for everyone. The current design completely misses the mark on that count.
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