Wow. I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I've not heard such an unalloyed specimen of 1960's spokes-and-hub transportation thinking in 25 years.
There are over nine million people in the Washington-Baltimore CMSA. About 700,000 live in the DC proper. Fairfax, Montgomery and PG Counties are all larger in population. A majority of the jobs are in the suburban countries. Lateral movement around the core is arguably a bigger problem than the schlep into DC. That's as true for metrorail, busses and bicycles as it is for cars.
I don't understand your complaint about spending an additional $150 million to connect one suburb to another. The American Legion Bridge already does that. The point of the story is that the American Legion Bridge is inadequate for today's traffic volume and needs to be rebuilt. All I'm saying is that if the bridge is rebuilt, it should be rebuilt to modern standards, which would include pedestrian and bike access.
Where does your $150 million figure come from? I refuse to pay the Washington Post so I can't view the rest of the article.
The %150M is just to add an bike path to the bridge. I have lived in the MD suburbs most of my life and I travel across the ALB every day.
Are you at all familiar with the American Legion Bridge?
Where exactly would this bike path connect to and from? River Road to Route 123? That would be insane.
There is no similarity between the Wilson Bridge and the ALB. The Wilson is a draw bridge crossing over a wide span on flat terrain and the ALB is an elevated bridge (125’) over rough river canyon. The Canal tow path is a hundred feet below and there is NO pedestrian paths for miles and the VA side.
In short this would be a huge waste of money.
I would much rather have the parkways repaved and made safe than build a bike path that no one living here wants.