By BODE RAMSAY
Now that the State Highway Administration (SHA) has finished extending the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail to the Anacostia Tributary Trail in Hyattsville some local officials said they want to take it farther.
The College Park City-University Partnership plans to spend $3 million to build an off-campus bike lane along Campus Drive that will connect to campus and to the Trolley Trail, according to Executive Director Susan Slingluff Hartmann.
And College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said he hopes future improvements eventually will extend the trail north to Beltsville.
“Maybe in the future we could extend even beyond College Park, because bicycle transportation is not that great once you go past [here],” Kabir, a cyclist himself, said. “Beltsville is very dangerous, actually, to bike, so that’s something we’ll be advocating for.”
The Trolley Trail runs 3.8 miles south from College Park to Hyattsville. Its southern end in Hyattsville was completed in late 2023, giving users a direct route — via connecting trails — all the way to D.C.
Hartmann said she hopes adding the bike lane along Campus Drive will encourage more student use.
Kabir said he wishes to encourage more cyclists and pedestrians to use the trail in College Park as an alternative form of transportation.
The Trolley Trail was built directly over a streetcar line, which half a century ago ran from the Department of the Treasury, in downtown D.C., all the way north to Laurel. The trail has served area residents since 2002, when the first section opened in College Park.
Over the years, the College Park City-University Partnership has added security cameras and lighting in dark areas to improve trail safety.
The partnership is also working to install art projects across the Lakeland portion of the trail, according to Hartmann.
“[The goal] is to make it a beautiful art walk — to bring public art and enliven the space,” she said.
Kabir said he would like to place a map and a way-finding sign along the College Park stretch of the trail, similar to the neon one in Hyattsville, to direct potential new users to the trail.
“The idea is to give residents information that there are ways other than taking your car,” Kabir said.
The $6.4 million extension in Hyattsville, which was completed in December, is the trail’s most recent update. The extension includes features to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety.
The SHA constructed a 10-foot wide, half mile-long path and buffers stretching from Farragut Street to Charles Armentrout Drive to connect the Trolley Trail to the Anacostia Tributary Trail.
The path, with grass buffers separating it from the street, creates an alternative for those wishing to travel into D.C. without using public transportation or a car.
The project was part of the state’s Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, which aims to reduce and ideally eliminate traffic-related injuries and deaths.
“Here in Hyattsville, we’re providing features and improvements that meet community needs by creating a safe, accessible, world-class connection to Prince George’s County’s trail network,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said in a statement. “That, in turn, encourages even greater pedestrian and bicycle mobility.”
According to the SHA, this project is the last of the state’s scheduled work on the Trolley Trai .
Kabir said that although College Park officials have started talking to the county about potential local improvements, they have no funding at this time.