Reply to NPS: Beach Drive May Stay Closed to Traffic During the Summer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Suck it drivers. Parks are for people not cars. I hope they close every single road in Rock Creek Park to cars and only allow bikes and public transit.

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I’m fine with that.  And major arterials are for moving traffic, not expansive bike lanes.  Bikers can use closed Beach Dr to their heart’s content.[/quote]
Except that's not DDOT's policy[/quote]

They can’t constrain an arterial like Connecticut Ave and close Beach Drive at the same time.  Traffic won’t magically go away.  More likely it will cut through neighborhoods looking for a route around the main road congestion.  [/quote]

This. Closing Beach Drive on weekdays hurts far more DC residents than it helps. Most people have to work for a living - they're not using their [b]elliptical bike on Beach Drive at 11am on a Wednesday[/b]. Close Beach => more traffic on Conn Ave => more traffic on NWDC residential streets => fewer weekday commuters into DC => fewer patrons for downtown businesses AND fewer jobs. But hey a few UMC bikers will have the roadway all to themselves, just a few years after $33m in our tax dollars were spent in rehabilitating Beach Drive for cars as well as recreational use.[/quote]

Ok but people working for a living are not commuting by car on beach drive at 11am that much either.[/quote]

Of course they are. Which is why the road was busy enough that NPS spent $33m to rehab it a few years ago. Why was the MD portion of Beach Drive re-opened last year (it had been closed during the pandemic too.) Because it's needed for car traffic and there's very little recreational use on weekdays anyway.[/quote]
It’s quite notable that the NPS report doesn’t bother to provide a count of users. I’m sure the number is small and dwindling.

None of these people demanding that it stay closed are out there cycling midday in January.

I agree with the person above who mentioned user fees. If it’s going to stay closed as a park, then they should charge walkers and cyclists $15 per entry like at Shenandoah or make them buy an annual pass. Because if it’s going to be solely a park for recreational use, that’s how NPS manages national parks for recreational use. In fact, they should also do this at other national parkland throughout the area, including Hains Point and the C&O tow path. Pay up folks. [/quote]

It's not closed as a park. It's open as a park. You can walk, bike, and drive and park you car in it. It's closed as a through road in the north/south direction (you can still use it to go crosstown).[/quote]
Anything to avoid being managed as NPS manages other parks. The park you want RCP to be costs $15. The park RCP used to be that you don’t want is free. [/quote]

Which park costs $15 that I want RCP to be?

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Restricted access national parks charge user fees. You don’t just get to cycle or even walk into NPS restricted access parks, including Shenandoah NP or Assateague Island National Seashore. Want a restricted access park? Pay up. [/quote]

C&O canal is free but you can't drive the length of it. You can drive across it at several points though. [/quote]

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