With D.C. opening a new high school in the Palisades neighborhood, there are renewed calls to pave the Palisades Trolley Trail to create a bike path for resident and student use.
When you are walking on the grassy Palisades Trolley Trail you鈥檒l notice plenty of beautiful views of the Potomac, but very few other people.
鈥淚t’s a woefully underused trail,鈥� said Brett Young, who lives in the Palisades near MacArthur High School. 鈥淎nd there’s no bike lanes in this neighborhood.鈥�
Young is also a member of the and for nearly a decade has tried to persuade city leaders to pave a 10-foot-wide bike path on the existing two-and-a-half mile trail.
He told 海角社区app that with the addition of the new high school, the trail is more important than ever, as more and more cars will likely clog surrounding streets as they drop students off at MacArthur.
鈥淭he path will connect multiple neighborhoods to get to schools, by biking and by walking in a safe environment and in a safe corridor. Why aren鈥檛 we doing this?鈥� Young said.
The trail currently runs from the Palisades Recreation Center to Q Street NW.
by the District Department of Transportation in 2019 showed that the trail could eventually connect to Georgetown with the addition of new bridges at Maddox Branch and Clark Place NW.
For the trail to be extended to Georgetown, D.C. would likely also need to buy the dilapidated Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge that parallels Canal Road near Georgetown University.
鈥淚t’s not in great shape but these things can be restored,鈥� Young said.
The bridge is currently owned by Metro who tried to demolish the structure but was halted by a court order after a case was brought by the D.C. Preservation League.
The D.C. Council had discussed buying the bridge but the last mention of funding came in , which showed that they would not purchase the bridge this fiscal year.
鈥淚t’s not, ‘Do we have the money?’ It’s how we allocate the money and what our priorities are. And ultimately the priorities always seems, for all the Vision Zero talk, it generally favors, when it comes to money, if it’s more expensive, it just goes to automobiles,鈥� concluded Young. 鈥淭his is a perfect project for them.鈥�
