This is our 25th Greenbelt East Trail Newsletter. If you're new to the project, our website for Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail is www.greenbeltnasatrail.org for background info.


Here's the latest news:


  1. Join our Bike to Work Day convoy from the Greenbelt pit stop to NASA along the route of the future trail. MEETUP: Greenbelt Pit Stop, Parking Lot Behind 25 Crescent Road. ARRIVE: Old NASA Main Gate, Greenbelt Road (MD 193) at Goddard Road. DATE/TIME: Friday, May 17th, 8:30am Depart Greenbelt -- 8:50am Arrive NASA (approx). Lots of fun and photo ops to support the trail, and lots of public officials invited to join us.
  2. Here's a better link to the final MDOT Feasibility Study for the NASA Sector. The first link we sent last time was garbled by Google. This one should be easier to read.
  3. The feasibility study for the NASA sector has some great things, including a protected shared use trail, floating bus stops, elimination of outbound high-speed ramps from NASA, and a much needed new signalized crosswalk at Chelsea Wood.
  4. However, it also has some ridiculous elements, like 200+ foot right turn deceleration lanes inbound to NASA from the east, which greatly add to the cost. Those inbound deceleration lanes are essentially a misapplication of a high-speed, pedestrian and bike hostile design standard from AASHTO that is wrongheaded in this context. Delivery trucks now use the Good Luck Road gate, not westbound Greenbelt Road!
  5. Our comments on the feasibility study will also request a new crosswalk at Cipriano Road, which would help the Greenbelt East Trail tie in to Prince George's County's planned improvements to local roads that link with the Greenbelt East Trail (see map below).
  6. Our UMD students' speed study was in the Greenbelt News Review and at Greenbelt online -- Here's a link: https://www.greenbeltonline.org/study-records-70mph-on-greenbelt-road-near-nasa/
  7. We also had an article in Daily Kos (a nationwide progressive old timers blog) last week with an article called Distressed About Climate Change? Let's Build a Bike Trail!
  8. I got a call today from SHA District 3 regarding our suggestions for immediate steps to aid safety along the NASA sector, including our ideas to paint a 2nd white stripe, add some initial Quickcurb or even temporary construction barrels etc. I think we made some progress and understanding, although I don't have anything to announce yet.
  9. I'm also working on trying to figure out the process for getting a "Future Greenbelt East Trail" sign installed -- more to come on that, hopefully.
  10. Our next stakeholders call will be in mid-June. Please reply to this email or send a note to info@greenbeltnasatrail.org if you'd like to be added to the invite list for our monthly stakeholders calls.

WABA's Prince George's County Bike Summit is Saturday -- Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail will be There! Click Here to Register

Homicidal Driving is Common on Greenbelt Road: When I first saw this video from between the NASA entrances along Greenbelt Road, my thought was "that driver needs to be taken off the road." And it turns out they have over $3000 in speed camera fines in DC alone, so yeah. But those kinds of aggressive drivers are fairly common. Taking one off the road won't solve much long term.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/WPEDdWJ927M
Video Link: https://youtu.be/Vkqou5pbF5A

The Problem is the Road Itself: It a road looks like a highway, some drivers are going to treat it like a highway, regardless or the speed limit. Sure, speed enforcement would help -- there's none currently, either by camera or by police. But in the absence of enforcement, we desperately need engineering. We need vertical features like curbstops and flexposts or Quickcurb to start calming traffic on Greenbelt Road before more people are killed.

Prince George's County Is Planning to Use the Greenbelt East Trail as the Spine of a Broader Active Transport Network. More Info Here

Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail

Full Trail Resources:


Sector 2 (NASA) Resources:


Our community partners in this effort are the City of Greenbelt, WABA, ATHA, the East Coast Greenway, the Greenbelt Community Development Corp., and the Glenn Dale Citizens Association. Would your company or organization like to help the trail effort? Please use reply to this newsletter or email us at info@greenbeltnasatrail.org for more info. -Jeff

How Can You Help?

Please don't hesitate to reply to this email with info and corrections and ideas! Please forward this newsletter to your friends and encourage them to sign up for these emails too. We will need to reach out to more stakeholders and public officials whose help we will need to make www.GreenbeltNASATrail.org a reality! -Jeff