Town study biased by its scope.

The Town of Chevy Chase has hired a transportation consultant, Sam Schwartz, to perform a study of Bus Rapid Transit on Jones Bridge Road, and also to help the Town conduct a public relations compaign against building the Purple Line next to the Town along the Georgetown Branch Trail. The Schwartz study, and a portion of the correspondence between the Town and public officials, is available at the Town website.

MTA believes many of the Schwartz study "findings" are in error. The Secretary of Transportation first answered some of the claims the Sam Schwartz study makes in a letter to the Town. A July 8 MTA briefing to the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board Transportation Committee addressed more of the issues. MTA Purple Line project Manager Mike Madden has also released an informal memo addressing some more recent assertions from the Town about the Trail. MTA is trying to schedule a meeting with the Town in a few weeks, and will be releasing a lengthy technical report that addresses the study assertions in detail.

I won't get into the Schwartz vs. MTA assessments of the effectivenes or BRT on Jones Bridge Road here. But Sam Schwartz makes claims about the impact of the Purple Line on the CCT that I must challenge. I gave a short list of questions for Sam Schwartz to the Mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase, Pat Burda, in late May. The questions that most concern me are:

- Why does Schwartz portray the safety restraint structures on the top of trail ramps and on the elevated trail structure in the Bethesda tunnel as solid walls, when chain link fences and cages are more than adequate for safety and more typical for elevated trail structures?
- Why does Schwartz assert a trail ramp to elevate the trail at the east end of the Bethesda tunnel must be 1200'+ long to meet ADA requirements, when only 500' is needed to meet ADA requirements?
- Why does Schwartz assert the trail effective width will be less than 10' in many places while MTA finds they can and will provide a full 10' wide trail with 2' clearance on both sides throughout this entire area?

The Schwartz choice of solid walls instead of chain link fences for safety on elevated structures especially troubles me, because it suggests an unfair bias. This is most evident in the difference between MTA and Sam Schwartz' concepts for the elevated trail structure in the Bethesda Tunnel. Let's start by being realistic about the condition of the trail in the tunnel now:

The trail is confined in the tunnel to 14' between fences
The tunnel is dimly lit and not attractive. Trail safety from crime is provided mainly by "eyes on the trail" of other trail users.

If the Purple Line is built, then the trail would need to be in an elevated structure in the tunnel. The MTA concept for this is presented on the MTA website:
A fence is suggested along the north side of the trail.
The clearance between fences is proposed to be at least 14'.

The choice of a fence for safety in this concept is important. A fence would allow trail users to see and be seen by transit users at the station below. Since MTA estimates there will be over 13,000 people boarding transit at this station every day, the number of "eyes on the trail" will be over 10 times that in the tunnel today. Riding a bike on this elevated structure will be like riding along a long balcony, with a view below along one side through the length of the tunnel.

Now let's see Sam Schwartz' concept for this elevated structure, as he presents it in his Town study:

A solid wall completely encloses the trail.
The clearance between walls is stated to be only 10'.
Having selected a solid wall to enclose the trail, Sam Schwartz then goes on to claim the trail will be too "tomb-like". Well, yes it will be. If his design is used.

Why would Schwartz ignore the most common, and far cheaper, use of fences for safety on elevated trail structures and instead show solid walls in his concepts? Chain link fences are everywhere on trails, including very nearby on the CCT:

CCT at River Road

Imagine crossing River Road on the bridge, above, if the fences on the ramps and the chain link cage on the span were replaced by all solid walls. I'll take the chain link fence any day. Be thankful Sam Schwartz did not design this bridge!

Pat Burda forwarded my questions to Sam Schwartz, who then gave detailed answers in a memo response. I followed up with another memo to Pat Burda detailing why I felt Schwartz' answers fell short. Sam Schwartz continues to defend his solid walls. He asserts that a chain link fence or cage could not provide adequate protection between trail users and the electric wires that would be about 10' away over the north side transit tracks. Schwartz does not explain how trail users would touch the wires through a chain link fence. Are we to believe people are at risk from sticking a 10' pole through the fence to touch the wire? What would prevent people from using that same 10' pole to reach up and touch the wire from the station platform below? Have people been using 10' long poles to reach out and touch any of the thousands of wires along thousands of streets where street cars have been operating around the world?

Our exchange on the other trail design issues, such as the length and width of the proposed ramp at the east end of the tunnel, followed a similar pattern with Schwartz always taking the most severe trail design. I am left with the belief that Schwartz displays a definite bias toward making the impact of the Purple Line on CCT appear as severe as possible.

This long memo exchange with Sam Schwartz about his trail designs misses the larger issue: Any study of the trail that is limited to the Town of Chevy Chase will be severely biased by its scope. The Town asked Schwartz to consider the impact of the Purple Line on only the short section of the CCT at the Town, west of the Country Club, even though the BRT on Jones Bridge Road option the Town is promoting would place buses alongside all of the trail east of Jones Mill Road.

The Schwartz study examines less than 1/4 of the future CCT,
making the study very incomplete.

As I concluded in my memo to Pat Burda:

"But by far the greatest bias in Sam Schwartz’ study is not Sam’s fault. The Town of Chevy Chase limited the scope of the study to examine the impact of the Purple Line on only the short section of the future CCT adjacent to the Town, from Woodmont Avenue to the Country Club. This is a segment of the future CCT where the impact is worse than typical, due to the worse than average constraints at the Bethesda tunnel. Any study that examines only this section will conclude the Purple Line impacts are on balance negative, but will be very incomplete."

"The future CCT will extend 4.4 miles from Woodmont Avenue to Colesville Road. If Sam Schwartz had extended his study only a few feet east into the Columbia Country Club, he would have found a trail that is now constrained to be only 16’ wide between high chain link fences in places, and with a 100’ right-of-way available for transit and trail. If Sam had extended his study east of Jones Mill Road, he would have found that over half of the future CCT, 2.4 miles, lies east of Jones Mill Road and would not be spared from the impacts of the BRT on the Jones Bridge Road alternative alignment. If Sam had continued east to my Woodside neighborhood and to the Silver Spring CBD he would have found a long section where the interim CCT is still on road with at-grade crossings of busy highways, and where the Purple Line is needed to complete the trail as an off-road trail. The impacts of transit on the trail will be on balance very positive in this section, balancing against the negative impacts at the Town of Chevy Chase. The future of the trail is as important in Silver Spring as it is in the Town of Chevy Chase."

I go on to ask that Sam Schwartz take the Trail Ride with me:

"Pat Burda is suggesting Sam and I try to meet when he is in the area in late July. I do not object to a meeting, but doubt that it will be productive if we only rehash this discussion. I propose that since Sam is an avid cyclist, he might find it much more productive to do a quick tour with me by bike, of the 4.4 miles of the future CCT between Bethesda and Silver Spring. I have a decent bike I can loan him, and the round trip can be done in 2 hours including time for stops along the way to check out Purple Line issues. Sam needs to see the rest of the future CCT before he can put the impact of the Purple Line on the trail into proper perspective."

Stay tuned - I'll let you know if Sam Schwartz agrees to get out of Chevy Chase to see the rest of the future Trail.

A "natural Trail" for Golf

Can playing too much golf can make you think a "natural Trail" looks like this?

The Interim CCT at the Columbia Country Club. Trail users are confined in a 16' wide linear cage even though the public owns a 100' wide right-of-way here.

Mr. J. Paul McNamara, President of the Columbia Country Club, wrote to the Montgomery County Council in a January 13 letter: "I, along with thousands of other Trail users, would be distressed to see this natural Trail degraded and the surrounding mature forest destroyed for a light rail Purple Line."

The text of Mr. McNamara's letter is cut-and-paste directly from Chevy Chase neighborhood activist Pam Browning's call for emails to stop the Purple Line. Mr. McNamara presents himself as a trail user and does not disclose his affiliation with the Country Club in his letter. Perhaps Mr. McNamara feels this is necessary to preserve the "grass roots" appearance of the new club grass roots campaign to stop the Purple Line.

One wonders how Mr. McNamara can see the trail at his Country Club as it exists, narrowly confined between high black fences and treeless near the putting greens, and still believe it is "natural". But maybe if you play a lot of golf at the Columbia Country Club, in time you begin to feel it is "natural" to play golf in the 100' wide right-of-way that the public owns while the public is confined to a 16' wide cage. Many of us who are not members of the Club would feel the Trail is more natural if, say, the fences were removed and trees were planted to replace the golf cart paths and putting greens now in the 100' wide right-of-way. With 100' to work with, we could widen the trail, share the corridor with the Purple Line, and still have more trees in the remaining right-of-way.

Transit on grass tracks alongside a trail.
If trees and grass tracks replace the golf cart paths and putting greens now within the Georgetown Branch right-of-way at the Columbia Country Club, we would have a more natural trail setting than exists there now.

Crossing Colesville

The alignment the future CCT takes across Colesville Road to connect with the Metropolitan Branch Trail will determine whether the CCT will complete an urban trail network of regional importance.

Looking north toward Colesville Road from above the Silver Spring transit center. The Georgetown Branch Trail now ends at Second Avenue on the north side of Colesville Road (right center in the photo above).
Click here for a larger view.

Construction of the new Silver Spring Transit Center will begin in earnest this summer. A three level bus deck will be built in the center where the bus bays are now. Two high rise buildings will be built at the northeast and southeast corners. The northern terminus of the Metropolitan Branch Trail will be built with the transit center construction. The MetBranch Trail will enter the transit center from the south, alongside the CSX corridor.

The future CCT needs a direct alignment that gives a safe crossing of Colesville Road and an easy MetBranch Trail connection through all of the heavy vehicle and pedestrian activity at the new transit center. The Purple Line transit/trail concept will provide this connection. The concept calls for the CCT to be built across Colesville Road and straight through the transit center alongside the CSX/Metro tracks on an elevated structure. The CCT would be at the same elevation as the CSX/Metro tracks but separated from them by a 25'+ buffer space. The CCT would also be at the same level as the existing MARC platform and the new second level bus deck, and would have a pedestrian bridge connection across to the elevators and escalators from the second level bus deck down to the first level of the transit center. The CCT be at the high elevation needed for a level connection to the MetBranch Trail at the south side of the transit center.

The Purple Line transit would also go across Colesville Road and through the transit center on an elevated structure, between the CCT and the CSX/WMATA tracks and about 20' higher than the CCT. The structure holding the Purple Line high above the trail would be similar to that holding the Metro Red Line above the Beltway and Rockville Pike in North Bethesda.

It is unlikely the CCT will ever be built on this alignment without the Purple Line. The Metro Plaza Building proximity to the CSX tracks on the north side of Colesville Road creates a serious "choke point" for this alignment. The CCT can get through this choke point as a 10' wide trail IF an agreement can be reached with CSX and WMATA to build a retaining wall at the minimum required 25' safety standoff within their r.o.w., IF a several foot wide easement can be taken from the west side of the Metro Plaza building lot to allow the trail to be built to within 2' of the building at the south corner, and IF we can fund the high cost of the retaining wall and the elevated structure over Colesville Road and through the Transit Center. We need the Purple Line to leverage the CSX operating agreements and easements, and to share the cost of combined transit/trail structures.

If the CCT is not built on this alignment, then the best alternative alignment past the Metro Plaza Building will be on along Second Avenue. But that will force the CCT onto an at-grade trail crossing of Colesville Road, a six lane highway busy with bus traffic coming into the busiest bus station in Maryland. After crossing Colesville Road the CCT must either use a path through the transit center or go around the transit center on a sidepath trail along Wayne Avenue and Ramsey Avenue to connect to the MetBranch Trail. Any route through the center will conflict with the heavy bus and pedestrian activity in the center, and will require cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes through most of the center. A sidepath trail going around the center must deal with the motor vehicle conflicts from crossing the entrances to the second level bus deck, the third level kiss-and-ride and taxi deck, and entrances to the high rise buildings.

You don't have to be a trail advocate to want the direct CCT connection into the new transit center. Anyone who lives or works north of Colesville Road and wants to use Metrobus, MARC, or the Purple Line will want the grade-separated trail crossing of Colesville Road.

90 years old and counting.

The fate of the Talbot Avenue Bridge was discussed at the Purple Line CSX/Lyttonsville/Woodside focus group meeting on March 12. MTA Project Manager Mike Madden told the group of local residents that MTA intends to disassemble and remove the old bridge during Purple Line construction, but the bridge would be reassembled at its present location after the Purple Line trackbed is completed. This is, of course, IF the old bridge can survive the process of being taken apart and then being put back together again. The new Capital Crescent Trail would have its own new bridge over the CSX/Purple Line tracks about 100 feet south of the rebuilt Talbot Avenue Bridge.

See more of the bridge at my flickr photoset.
The Talbot Avenue Bridge was built in 1918. The center section was a railroad turntable bridge hauled to the site from Martinsburg and turned upside down to serve as a road bridge. It is a single lane bridge with a wood deck, and carries 1000-2000 vehicles every day.

The bridge requires frequent repairs. In 1996 the bridge was closed when it was discovered to be unsafe, and repaired. The bridge was closed again during weekday periods for about four weeks this winter to repair rust damage, and new steel braces were welded onto the existing braces to extend the bridge life for a few more years.

So why not just haul this rusting old bridge off to the junk heap, and build a new two lane bridge here? DPWT raised the issue of permanently closing the bridge when the bridge as closed as unsafe in 1996. Residents of North Woodside, mostly those living on Hanover Street and Grace Church Road, supported the idea and started a campaign to keep the bridge closed permanently except for pedestrian/cyclist traffic. They played the "Won't someone think of the children" card, arguing that the bridge traffic endangers neighborhood children. Street hockey goals and basketball hoops started to appear along Grace Church Road and Hanover Street curbs.

But many residents in Rosemary Hills and Lyttonsville wanted the Talbot Avenue Bridge reopened as soon as possible. They argued that the bridge provided important access out of their neighborhood and they were being badly inconvenienced by the bridge closure. They pointed out that this bridge was open when the North Woodside residents bought their homes, and if North Woodside residents wanted their children to be safe they should not encourage them to play in the streets.

This debate started to develop an ugly "other side of the tracks" undertone, since the North Woodside residents lobbying to keep the bridge closed were mostly white, while the Rosemary Hills residents wanting the bridge reopened were majority black. Then County Executive Doug Duncan ended this potentially explosive debate by declaring the long term status quo would be preserved. The bridge was repaired and reopened.

Mike Madden indicated at the March 12 focus group meeting that MTA does not want to open a new neighborhood battle here, and therefore proposes to maintain the status quo by reopening the old bridge as close to its original condition as possible unless Montgomery County requests a new motor vehicle bridge.

The Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail (CCCT) supports the recommendation of the 2001 Trail Facility Plan and of MTA that the trail should cross CSX on a new trail bridge that is separate from the existing Talbot Avenue Bridge. The old one lane bridge cannot safely carry both the existing motor vehicle traffic and also the heavy trail traffic that will come when the CCT is completed into Silver Spring. CCCT's position will help it avoid getting into the middle of a new neighborhood fight over the motor vehicle bridge.

The CCCT and MTA are wise to avoid another neighborhood bridge dispute.

Access to a real park.

The future CCT can give Silver Spring and its neighborhoods direct and safe off-road access to Rock Creek Park.

The Georgetown Branch Trail goes to Rock Creek from downtown Silver Spring. It takes you to the park at Ray's Meadow where the Rock Creek Trail can be used to reach the nearby play lots, ball fields, horse stables, and picnic facilities in Ray's Meadow and Candy Cane City. But the Georgetown Branch Trail is only an on-road bike route in Silver Spring, with several dangerous crossings of busy streets. At Rock Creek the trail passes high above the Park on the trestle, with only an indirect connection down into the Park on neighborhood streets.

Source: CCCT, at www.cctrail.org

The CCT, if completed, will give Silver Spring a direct off-road connection to Rock Creek Park. Cyclists of all ages and abilities could reach the Park with a short bike ride from Silver Spring neighborhoods. The at-grade crossings of Colesville Road, Spring Street, and 16th Street would be replaced by trail bridges or underpasses. The trip to the park on the CCT would become a major part of the attraction.

Purple Line opponents are quick to complain that construction of the Purple Line will result in the removal of the CCT trestle now over Rock Creek. And they have a point - the trestle is a very attractive feature, and gives good views from high above Rock Creek. But Silver Spring is very poorly served by the trestle since it is hard to reach from Silver Spring. We knew when the trestle was built that it was not meant to be permanent. The trestle deck was built from modular sections so it can be disassembled and used elsewhere when the time comes to build the Purple Line.

The trestle will be replaced by a new trail bridge over Rock Creek if the Purple Line is built. A new shared use path will be built to connect from the CCT down to the Rock Creek Trail. All trail users connecting between the rebuilt CCT and the Rock Creek Trail will find the connection much easier and more direct than it is now. Trail users staying on the CCT to cross Rock Creek will still have a direct crossing on a trail bridge, although the bridge will be lower than the trestle is now. The rebuilt CCT will stay low enough to pass under Jones Mill Road in an underpass. Trail users will no longer have to wait at the pedestrian signal west of Rock Creek to cross Jones Mill Road at grade.


Purple Line and CCT at Rock Creek Park
Source: MTA at www.purplelinemd.com

I was out there advocating to build the trestle from the start, and I wish we could find a practical way to keep the trestle and also complete the CCT. I have posted a Show us what we are missing challenge for anyone to show how to complete the CCT into Silver Spring as a safe off-road trail without transit. I will take the grade separated CCT crossing of Jones Mill Road, the much better access from the CCT down into Rock Creek Park, and the completion of the CCT through my Silver Spring neighborhood as more than fair compensation for the loss of the view from the trestle.

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.

Show us what we are missing.

Purple Line opponents assert that we can finish the CCT into Silver Spring now, without transit. Mier Wolf, former mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase and Chairman of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Coalition, has repeated that claim very recently in a letter to the Bethesda Gazette, with no explanation as to how this can be done.

Those who assert we can complete the CCT without the Purple line should show us a plan to back up this assertion. Are they claiming that the right-of-way needed to build the Trail along the CSX corridor can be obtained without being part of a transit deal with CSX? If so, they should show some evidence that they can do what no one has succeeded in doing to date - i.e. get the CSX Corporation to negotiate a r.o.w. for the trail alone. Are they asserting a good trail alignment exists that does not use any CSX right-of-way? If so, they should show us what that alignment is. Where will the major roadways like 16th Street and Colesville Road be crossed? How will the connection to the MetBranch Trail be made in the S.S. Transit Center? Let us see their trail plan so we can judge whether their trail would be direct, safe and off-road to a standard appropriate for a major regional trail like the CCT.

I outline at www.silverspringtrails.org why I believe the CCT must use an alignment along the CSX corridor to be off-road, have safe crossings of busy streets, and connect seamlessly with the MetBranch Trail. What have I been missing?