Columbia Association progress on paths

     With today's (Friday, November 21) ceremonial ribbon cutting of the completion of the path around Lake Kittamaqundi at 1 pm to at the new bridge CA adds another link in our community path system.  All of Columbia's lakes now allow users a path to circumnavigate each lake.  CA's notice on the event explains:
     "The ceremony will be held on the northwest side of the lake at a new bridge and boardwalk that brings pedestrians and bicyclists over a wetlands area. The quickest route there from the Downtown Columbia Lakefront is to take the pathway outside of Sushi Sono and walk north. For those who may need assistance to get to the ceremony from the lakefront area, CA also will be providing golf cart shuttles to the site that will leave from near Sushi Sono starting around 12:45 p.m."

    

   Yesterday saw the Planning Board hearing on construction of a 10 ft wide path connecting the path over 29 to the Blandair Park.  The 10 ft wide paths are CA's plan to make high usage paths more user friendly to both walkers and bikers.

    The additional signage on the path system to direct users to the lakes is a nice navigational tool to encourage users to explore the lakes.

   Yesterday on a walk across the pedestrian bridge over Route 29 I stopped to watch the work on adding an additional northbound lane on 29.  I couldn't help but wonder how nice it would be to have a 10 wide bike lane down the middle of the median of Route 29.  When the Rouse Company planned a new larger Route 29 and a Route 175 to be the main north/south and east/west roads for the new town the planning unfortunately didn't include bike transportation on these new roads.   As I have blogged before (sorry to be so repetitive) for bikes to be a real method of commuting the routes like 29 and 175 (and maybe 108) need to have some thought given on how bikers could safely utilize these direct routes to commute. 

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