May 16 BAC Facilities Committee ride of S.

Cap Corridor (rescheduled from April 5)

We rode over the S. Cap Bridge (upstream side), down to Firth-Sterling, across FS to check out how to
get to Anacostia Metro Station. That hairpin turn to go under the S. Cap Bridge is bad. Hopefully the
new bridge will have a better, wider turn to head south from the upstream side of the bridge. Looks like
plenty of space, so I'm not sure why it has to be so tight. The path was just mowed, so we got to see the
hayfield (oops, path) in all its splendor. It's simply true that the path that Dan Tangherlini had paved for
us will in a few years time look just like it did when he rode it to see that it needed attention. Once at
FS, crossing FS to get to the sidewalk is not too bad. There's a light and a crosswalk, and at the time, not
much traffic into and out of Anacostia Naval Air Station. There's plenty of space under the overpass at
FS for a good off-street bike path. Not sure why that was yanked from the plans. We opted to ride on
the sidewalk rather than in the street. Theres no shoulder space and a curb to hop if you needed to get
out of some motorists way. There are 2 lanes; one of them is for light rail, and that seems like a
dangerous thing to have bicycle traffic share a lane with light rail, thus there should be a separate off-
street path for cyclists. Crossing FS at Suitland is fun .NOT. We then took the sidewalk in along Howard
Rd in front of the Metro station up to MLK looking at the craziness of trying to cycle on Howard Rd. (lots
of parked cars picking up people from Metro, shuttles from places like Bolling, and many buses.) The
intersection of Howard and MLK is busy with lots of bus traffic. Then we went north on MLK to Good
Hope, over to Anacostia Park, through the park and back over to the base of the S. Cap bridge where we
then rode a bit through the grass to see about possibilities to go from the S. Cap Bridge to Howard
Rd. That entire area needs loving attention, because it simply sucks. We then went down S. Cap
(traffic by 7:15PM wasn't bad) to check out the areas where the planners appear to have the S. Cap trail
cut by a retaining wall in one area, then have it running IN their widened S. Cap Street. It appears in the
current configuration of S. Capitol Street that there's plenty of space there, but when/if they widen S.
Cap, the street would run so close to the light rail tracks that, in the plans, their retaining wall also
appears to cut through the light rail tracks. The tracks are not complete all the way yet, though I can't
discern from the plans and the ride just where (on the plans) they end right now. Too much foliage for
me to get a sense based upon landmarks in Bolling, which I know fairly well. We then rode up to
Malcom X/McDill Blvd to return. At that time of day, there was no problem getting into the left lane to
make a turn, but thats an area where motorists going to Bolling are FLYING off I-295 and coming over to
the right hand lane to make a right into Bolling. (That reminded me of David Van Kuren who was killed
on S. Cap as he tried to get onto the sidewalk ramp at O Street to go over the former configuration of
the S. Cap bridge and was hit by a truck coming off S. Cap to use the service road.) We got back onto S.
Cap northbound and rode back to and over the S. Cap bridge on the downstream side to get a look at
where the new bridge will end.
Jeanie Osburn
Chair, BAC Facilities Committee