{"id":2084,"date":"2010-08-30T17:24:50","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T17:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/?p=2084"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:28:43","slug":"man-vs-nature-on-the-greenways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2010\/08\/man-vs-nature-on-the-greenways\/","title":{"rendered":"Man vs. Nature on the Greenways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">The recently approved <a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/planning\/communities\/area-3\/germantown\/germantown-2009\/\">Germantown Sector Plan <\/a>recommends greenways along Observation Drive and Crystal Rock Drive that would connect Black Hill Regional Park to the Town Center. It\u2019s a good fit on streets that already have wide sidewalks, buffers, and stormwater management facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds like a great feature, one that creates a distinctive roadscape, creates a desirable recreation feature that also works for bicycle and pedestrian transportation, and can be implemented at the same time road and site improvements are made.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2086\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Crystal-Rock-Greenway.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2086\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2086 \" title=\"Crystal Rock Greenway\" src=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Crystal-Rock-Greenway.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Crystal-Rock-Greenway.jpg 1032w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Crystal-Rock-Greenway-300x288.jpg 300w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Crystal-Rock-Greenway-1024x985.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1032px) 100vw, 1032px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">a proposed green transportation and recreation route<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fitting recreation into existing infrastructure and making that infrastructure do double duty is a sensible approach, given not only public sector\u2019s fiscal limits, but our increasing interest in sustainability. Just google greenways and you\u2019ll find lots of communities pursuing them one link at a time.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Knoxville has more than 41 miles of paved greenways.<\/li>\n<li>Central Indiana has 59 miles of trails, with plans for a 200-mile network.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nycgovparks.org\/facilities\/bikeways\">New York City<\/a>\u00a0 has three greenway trails, including the Hellfighter mountain bike trail in Highbridge Park. \u00a0(http:\/\/www.nycgovparks.org\/parks\/highbridgepark).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nashville.gov\/greenways\/\">Nashville\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0 expanding greenway system (overseen by a private, not-for-profit group) includes the 810-acre Shelby Bottoms Park along the Cumberland River.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These communities, whether dense and urban or suburban,\u00a0recognize the dual nature of a greenway; that it is a natural place, with a transportation and recreation function. They use them to connect neighborhoods and to create transportation routes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2085\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rfk-hammock-bikers.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2085\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2085 \" title=\"rfk hammock bikers\" src=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rfk-hammock-bikers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rfk-hammock-bikers.jpg 1972w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rfk-hammock-bikers-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rfk-hammock-bikers-1024x730.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1972px) 100vw, 1972px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boston&#8217;s Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway wends through downtown on the path of the old Central Artery highway. It is a green respite and a draw for cyclists (even on a rainy day!)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So how does Maryland\u00a0address greenways? The priority seems to be using them as environmental resources. Click through to Montgomery County\u00a0and you\u2019ll see that most of the greenways are based in the natural environments of the stream valley parks, but include recreation and transportation corridors like the Capital Crescent Trail.<\/p>\n<p>The Maryland Department of Transportation\u00a0has completed a state wide bike route survey (nearly 70 percent of Montgomery and Prince George\u2019s County state roads earn a grade of C or lower for user comfort) and has programs to retrofit streets with bike improvements. It also \u201cshares responsibility for building and enhancing many of the State\u2019s long-distance trails and greenways\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>By starting in one place\u2014natural environments\u2014and morphing into another\u2014recreation and transportation are we fully thinking out the benefits of each, and where they complement and conflict?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">The recently approved Germantown Sector Plan recommends greenways along Observation Drive and Crystal Rock Drive that would connect Black Hill Regional Park to the Town Center. It\u2019s a good fit on streets that already have wide sidewalks, buffers, and stormwater management facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds like a great feature, one that creates a distinctive roadscape, creates a desirable recreation feature that also works for bicycle and pedestrian transportation, and can be implemented at the same time road and site improvements are made.<\/p>\n<p>Fitting recreation into existing infrastructure and making that infrastructure do double duty is a sensible approach, given not only public sector\u2019s fiscal limits, but our increasing interest in sustainability. Just google greenways and you\u2019ll find lots of communities pursuing &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2010\/08\/man-vs-nature-on-the-greenways\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[178,185,184,186,187],"class_list":["post-2084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-planning","tag-bike-routes","tag-downtown","tag-greenways","tag-regional-trails","tag-trails"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2084"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11188,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions\/11188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}