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Letter to the Editor
Aug. 19th, 2004 07:28 amDear Dr. Gridlock,
Ms. Levin and yourself should take a bike ride on the “safe” bike path through Rock Creek Park one morning [District Extra: August 19, 2004]. Unlike the road, it is not maintained with regular resurfacing, and as a result, unless you ride a mountain bike or hybrid with tougher tires, you’re taking your life in your own hands. Roots have pushed up the path in many places, sinkholes appear and are barely patched. Whenever we get a good, hard rain the creek tends to flood, washing mud and sand all over the path. The Zoo tends to close off the relatively safe section of trail that bypasses the tunnel on the backside of the Zoo whenever there’s an elevated security alert, or whenever they’re too lazy to come around and open the gates (it’s often impossible to tell why they fail to open the trail), forcing cyclists and others onto the road. Then there’s the joggers with headphones who cannot hear you when you attempt to come around them (I had a nasty crash last August because of one of those), the light poles and manhole covers between P Street and Pennsylvania Ave, and any number of other obstacles on the trail.
Yes, it’s isolated from the cars, but until the Parks Service maintains it better and widens it for the increased use it gets now, it’s no match for the speed, ease, and obstacle-free ride on the Parkway.
Moose
Washington, DC
Ms. Levin and yourself should take a bike ride on the “safe” bike path through Rock Creek Park one morning [District Extra: August 19, 2004]. Unlike the road, it is not maintained with regular resurfacing, and as a result, unless you ride a mountain bike or hybrid with tougher tires, you’re taking your life in your own hands. Roots have pushed up the path in many places, sinkholes appear and are barely patched. Whenever we get a good, hard rain the creek tends to flood, washing mud and sand all over the path. The Zoo tends to close off the relatively safe section of trail that bypasses the tunnel on the backside of the Zoo whenever there’s an elevated security alert, or whenever they’re too lazy to come around and open the gates (it’s often impossible to tell why they fail to open the trail), forcing cyclists and others onto the road. Then there’s the joggers with headphones who cannot hear you when you attempt to come around them (I had a nasty crash last August because of one of those), the light poles and manhole covers between P Street and Pennsylvania Ave, and any number of other obstacles on the trail.
Yes, it’s isolated from the cars, but until the Parks Service maintains it better and widens it for the increased use it gets now, it’s no match for the speed, ease, and obstacle-free ride on the Parkway.
Moose
Washington, DC
