Advocacy Wins Across the Region!

2021 set a powerful precedent of what we can win with your support and the resources we need. Here’s some of what we accomplished together this year, across the region:

Maryland

• The Purple Line project is moving forward again, which means we’re closer than ever to completing the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring. And, with your help, we deflected another attempt to cut funding for the trail tunnel under Wisconsin Ave.

• Speaking of Silver Spring, the Fenton Street protected bike lanes are coming, and they’re going to be great. 

• Prince George’s County is expanding its trail planning staff so it can keep up with demand for building new trails.

• The Transportation Planning Board directed federal funding to resurface crumbling trails and replace washed out bridges on the Oxon Cove Trail.

• The reconstruction of the American Legion Bridge (the northern Beltway bridge over the Potomac) will feature a bike and pedestrian trail connecting Potomac, Maryland and Tysons, Virginia—a vital new link in the transportation network and a drastic expansion of access to beloved parks on both sides of the river. 

• The successful pilot of a protected bike lane on University Boulevard—the first protected bike lane on a state highway in Maryland. For years and years, the state high administration has insisted that it could not possibly build or maintain this kind of infrastructure, resulting in big gaps in our safe biking network. This year, thanks to support from advocates like you, we convinced them to give it a try. Surprise! It’s completely possible, and this project has opened the door for many new, critical connections in the regional bike network.

Virginia

• Route 1. The chorus of voices demanding a safer and more sustainable replacement for this unnecessary urban freeway has grown. It’s not just the bike advocates anymore—the pressure is coming from businesses and local government, and it’s working. The Virginia Department of Transportation’s plans to make Route 1 a human-scale boulevard keep getting better and better—with more space for biking, walking, and transit.

• Funding for reconstruction and widening of some of the busiest sections of the Mount Vernon Trail, from Roosevelt Island to Jones Point park. 

• Construction continues on the I-66 Trail, which will extend the Custis Trail all the way to Haymarket.

• Construction begins next year on the Columbia Pike protected bike lanes between Washington Boulevard and the Pentagon.

• A newly reconstructed section of the W&OD showcases some of the most forward-thinking trail design in the country, with separated space for people walking and people biking.

Washington, DC

• A 3.3 mile protected bike lane on Connecticut Avenue, from Woodley Park all the way to Chevy Chase— a major expansion in bike connectivity and a major step towards a city-wide low-stress bike network. 

• Construction is almost complete on the extension of the 15th Street NW, protected bike lane from The White House to the Jefferson Memorial. That will be a continuous low-stress bike route from Columbia Heights to the Mount Vernon Trail.

• The shiny new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge has not one, but two 18-foot bike and pedestrian paths connecting the East and West banks of the Anacostia River Trail, with a connection to the Suitland Parkway Trail coming in the next phase of construction. 

• If you’ve ridden the Red Line recently, you’ve seen the pavement slowly extending North on the Met Branch Trail to Fort Totten. It’s slated to open in the next few weeks. 

• In Dupont and Foggy Bottom, new protected bike lanes on 20th St NW and 17th St NW make it easier than ever to breeze in and out of downtown on your bike. 
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  New protected bike lanes across the mall on 4th Street NW and SW connect downtown to the Southwest Waterfront and the Anacostia River Trail.