Crossing 16th

Woodside and North Woodside were built as one neighborhood. But 16th Street was later built through the middle as a six lane state highway. Now the two communities are connected by only one signalized crosswalk at Second Avenue. The crosswalk's angle to 16th Street makes it 140' long, and the many vehicles turning right from southbound Second Avenue threaten pedestrians in the crosswalk. This unsafe design makes it a worthy competitor to the http://www.crossinggeorgia.org/ at Forest Glen for the honor of being the local "crosswalk from hell."

Crossing 16th will become much safer for pedestrians and cyclists when the CCT is completed. The CCT concept is for the Trail to pass under the 16th Street Bridge at the CSX corridor.





The "preferred" Master Plan trail alignment would continue alongside the CSX corridor. But an alternate Trail alignment is possible that would go up the west side of 16th Street to Lyttonsville Road. If that alignment is built instead of (or as well as) the preferred alignment then pedestrian and cyclist traffic coming to and from North Woodside by the Second Avenue sidewalk could also conveniently access this new 16th Street crossing for trips to the Spring Center or to downtown Silver Spring.


This grade-separated crossing of 16th Street requires right-of-way from CSX at the west side of the bridge, so we need the Purple Line to get the right-of-way for the trail even though the Purple Line will most likely be on the opposite side of the tracks here.

A light-rail station will be built at 16th street at one of the two alternative locations shown in the map. Good pedestrian access to the station will need a wider sidewalk across 16th Street on the side of the bridge nearest the station (room to widen the existing sidewalk can be created by narrowing the wide bridge median). An A.D.A. compliant sidewalk access ramp can connect from the CCT to this bridge sidewalk. Both Woodside and North Woodside would then have safe pedestrian access to the Purple Line station without having to cross 16th street.

This is a view of the 16th Street Bridge from the south side of the CSX tracks, near Suburban Towers. The CCT would pass under the bridge behind the row of columns.

Going under 16th Street will not be scary as it appears to be now. Trail construction will do much to clean up the area, and the trail itself will be wide with a fairly good sight line. The trail will remain 6+ feet higher than the CSX tracks, will be over 25' from the tracks, and will have a fence and retaining wall between the trail and tracks. The frequent trail traffic and the presence of the light rail station directly across the tracks will put eyes on the bridge to discourage loitering or bad behavior.