Yet Another Little Falls Parkway Action Alert: Remove the Excess Asphalt

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is accepting public comment related to a pending Little Falls Parkway environmental assessment. We have an opportunity to ask them to prioritize safety and green space along what should remain a single two-lane roadway. Let’s use that opportunity!

Please visit the NCPC’s project page – you’ll see a short project description there – and then click the Comments button to say “Please prioritize safety and green space in the Little Falls Parkway Improvements project, with removal of unused pavement and conversion into green parkland. The existing two-lane configuration is safer than the proposed divided highway. Unused asphalt is not a proper use of park land and its retention invites dangerous, high-speed driving.” Of course, rework this suggested text however you wish.

Comment closes March 29, 2024. Please submit your comment right away, via the Comments button at www.ncpc.gov/participate/notices/MP046/. Thank you!

If you’d like detailed information, visit the NPCP’s Little Falls Parkway Improvements page and consult this backgrounder and call to action from our friends at the Action Committee for Transit –

In 2016, bicyclist Ned Gaylin was killed by a driver while crossing Little Falls Parkway on the Capital Crescent Trail. Years of crashes and injuries had preceded this tragedy, and the county finally took action. Little Falls Parkway was narrowed from a four-lane divided highway to a two-lane road with a 25 mph speed limit.

The two unused lanes remained, however, pending approval of a final design. Meanwhile, the defenders of 1950s-era automobile-first planning went to work, seeking to reverse these changes and make Little Falls Parkway a four-lane speedway again.

Under this pressure, the County Council voted last December for a plan that partially reverses the safety improvements of the last six years. Little Falls Parkway will once again be a divided highway. While drivers will be restricted — at least for now — to one lane in each direction, there will be a 28-foot-wide expanse of asphalt on each side of the median. This design will encourage deadly speeding.

The County does not have the last word here. Because the parkway was built with federal money under the Capper-Crampton Act of 1930, changes must be approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). A public comment period is now under way.Please submit your comment to NCPC before the comment period closes on March 29th and tell them to prioritize safety and green space over fast movement of automobiles. Little Falls Parkway should remain a single two-lane roadway. Unused pavement should be removed and made into green parkland.

To comment, you must go to this page, click on the blue “Comment” button, and fill in the comment form. Some key points you can make are below.  Feel free to cut and paste, but your comment will be most effective if you include some of your own words.

Key points:

• The existing two-lane configuration is safer than the proposed divided highway.
• Unused asphalt is not a proper use of park land; it must be converted to green space.
• Retaining a 28-foot-wide asphalt strip on each side of the median invites dangerous, high-speed driving.

More information about the comment period is on this page.

Please send in your comments ASAP, the comment period closes on March 29th!