“We taught our kids how to ride their bikes on the trail… If they swerved into a train …”

“The students said their track team, and other athletic teams throughout Bethesda and Chevy Chase, use the trail for practice runs – and for walking to school. “We’ll probably have to drive to school” if light rail is built, said [one student]”

Purple line opponents staged a march last weekend along a portion of the rail right-of-way. As the quotes above illustrate, the propaganda brigade was in full force, and in particularly misleading form.

Responding, in reverse order:

• With light rail, the trail will still exist and will still be perfectly usable for track team practice. Building transit does not mean the trail will go away. They will be adjacent to each other.
• Yes, transit options that preserve the trail do exist, but the Jones Bridge Road alignment isn’t one of them, and opponents are even less interested in seeing those options built than the trail alignment.
• Cross sections show that on the master plan alignment there will be fences between trains and trail to stop anyone on a bike from swerving into a train. The cross sections also show that there will be no such fences on the Jones Bridge Road alignment.

With every event staged, Purple line opponents expose themselves more and more as mere NIMBYs. How much longer are we supposed to take them seriously?