Arlington “Bicycle Element” Calls for Widened Bike Trails


Comments At Arlington County Board Meeting, April 23, 2019.

Several organizations have recommended widening bike trails in County parks to handle a growing population of bikers. This is the same mantra used to widen highways in Northern Virginia with the same result–more congestion, unsafe conditions, loss of wildlife habitat and excessive runoff.

Dr. Bernard Berne, a long time community leader and avid cyclist, reports that he is “not aware of any studies that have demonstrated that widening existing trails in urban areas increase[s] their safety or decrease[s] speeding. In the absence of such demonstrations, the Bicycle Element should not ‘consider widening to accommodate heavy use’ (Policy 10.b, p. 25).”

Dr. Berne has forwarded to you a set of proposed amendments to the draft Bicycle Element that would proscribe or limit road widening in urban parks.

He also recommends that you add the following sections to Policy 5 (p. 19) consistent with the 2012 AASHTO Guide for Development of Bicycle Facilities:

i.   To protect natural areas near trails, limit the maximum widths of paved trails to 10 feet.

i.    Mowed buffers adjacent to paved trails in natural areas should not exceed three feet in width, except where environmental conditions prevent this. 

Please add a sentence to Appendix C. Design Guidance (p. 46):  

The AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities is used by Arlington County staff primarily for the design of multi-use trails. ASHTO guidance includes limitations on the widths of heavily used trails that are constrained by natural areas and Resource Protection Areas (RPAs).

Please remove from Appendix D projects to widen both the Four Mile Run (2-02) and Mount Vernon Trails (2-09), as both transect Resource Protection Areas (RPAs) along the Potomac River and/or a major tributary thereof.

Finally remove the 8th Road N./Bluemont Park Connector (2-30) and the Bluemont and Upton Hill woodland trail linkage (2-29), neither of which are needed and both of which would adversely impact an RPA.