The number of bicycle and pedestrian lanes and trails has exploded in the Washington region during the past decade and that trend is likely to continue with the $530 million expected to be spent on improvement projects in the next 20 years, according to a new regional study.
The study, being compiled by Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Transportation Planning Board, shows more than 350 projects directly aimed at pedestrians and bicyclists are current working their way through individual jurisdictions. The projects — only 30 percent of which are currently funded — would add 680 miles of walking and biking paths across the region.
“There has been a real change in the way transportation planners are looking at nonmotorized travel in the region,” said TPB’s Michael Farrell, co-author of the study. “Adding bike lanes or sidewalks used to be the exception, now the exception is not to provide these facilities.”
In 1995, the District, Arlington and Montgomery counties had just more than 7 miles of dedicated bike lanes along its streets. The three jurisdictions now have a combined 58 miles.
One example of the new thinking is the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, expected to be completed in 2008. It will have a massive bicycle/pedestrian crossing with a scenic stop area along the northern span. The old Woodrow Wilson Bridge didn’t even have shoulders for disabled and emergency vehicles, said TPB top transportation planner Ronald Kirby.
“There is a real sea change,” Kirby said. “Providing these facilities is no longer an afterthought.”
Yet, the study also shows that funds set aside for nonmotorized path and lanes remains a very small percentage of total transportation spending — just 2 percent of the $2.8 billion expected to be spent on capital projects across the region in fiscal year 2006.
Farrell said one reason spending remains a small is that the projects are relatively inexpensive and sometimes can be as simple as restriping a street or widening sidewalks.
Nonauto travel in D.C.
» The Washington region ranks sixth among major cities in the amount of people who walk to work at 3.1 percent, officials said. New York ranks first at 5.55 percent.
» Just 0.3 percent of commuters ride their bike to work in the Washington region, officials said.
» Transportation officials said bike and pedestrian paths will likely not take many cars off the roads, but may cut down on the number of trips per vehicle.
» Officials said 17 percent of all commuter trips are less than five miles, which they say is a distance mos
