The Girl Scout Test

A bike trail should be designed to be safe. But it must also be perceived as safe if it is to be widely accepted.

One way to check a trail's perceived safety is to apply the "Girl Scout Test". I first heard of this test from M-NCPPC planners years ago when we were looking for the best future CCT alignment for the North and West Silver Spring Master Plan. The Girl Scout Test works like this: You are planning to take Girl Scouts on a bike ride. They have bike skills typical of pre-teens. They can ride in a straight line, keep right, and stop at stop signs without being told. But they are inexperienced and unpredictible around motor vehicle traffic. If you feel comfortable that a trail is safe for your Girl Scouts to bike on, then that trail passes the Girl Scout Test.

The Girl Scout Test helps to explain why the Georgetown Branch Trail is so little used in Silver Spring. Would you take your Girl Scouts on a trail that crosses a major highway like this?


Looking north along the Georgetown Branch Trail
at Second Avenue and 16th Street.

Finding a safe trail crossing of 16th Street is one of the major challenges for the future CCT. Crossing 16th shows how this will be done with the Purple Line transit/trail. Purple Line opponents need to explain how they would have their trail cross 16th Street if the Purple Line is not built. The existing at-grade Georgetown Branch Trail crossing at Second Avenue is unsafe.

Some Purple Line opponents appear to be applying a double standard regarding CCT highway crossings. Take Back Bethesda was recently posting in outrage when a developer proposed closing the Bethesda Tunnel during Woodmont East II project construction. The major objection was that the trail detour across Wisconsin Avenue would be far to dangerous for Bethesda's children. The website makes full use of the Girl Scout Test, using pictures of children to drive home the idea that the trail must be safe for users of all ages.

The at-grade crossing of Wisconsin Avenue
on the alternate CCT route in Bethesda.
But some Purple Line opponents who protest that any at-grade trail crossing of Wisconsin Avenue is unacceptible also call for building the CCT on the Interim CCT alignment, which would have at-grade crossings of two state highways (16th Street and Colesville Road) and several other streets.

Now maybe it's just me, but I can't figure out how an at-grade trail crossing of Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda is NOT OK, but at-grade trail crossings of 16th Street and Colesville Road in Silver Spring are OK. Maybe the Girl Scouts can explain it to me.

When is a trail not a trail?

Woodside residents see the hiker/biker logo on the many "Georgetown Branch Trail" signs posted all along Second Avenue and Grace Church Road. Our neighbors in Rosemary Hills and Lyttonsville see the same logo on the signs along the several streets between Talbot Avenue and Stewart Avenue. Nice signs. But WHERE IS THE TRAIL?

There is no off-road bike path along any of these streets. There are no bike lanes. Some streets do not even have sidewalks. So why do we call this a trail??

The signs are needed for the growing number of cyclists trying to follow the many turns on the bike route between the end of the Interim CCT in Lyttonsville and downtown Silver Spring.

But we need more "truth in advertising" in the Georgetown Branch signs and maps and call it what it is, no more than an on-road bike route.