From the Gazette about the Shady Grove Metro Station and bike path in Rockville:
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\nJohnston 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.<\/p>\n
"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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"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."<\/p>\n
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.] Shady Grove Access Path Plan: https:\/\/www.montgomerycountymd.gov\/content\/omb\/FY08\/ciprec\/pdf\/500600.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nGazette Story: https:\/\/www.gazette.net\/stories\/03112009\/aspenew214521_32478.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n