Belvoir's walkways: A good thing that can be better

Living on post as a member of a one-car family, I make at least 90 percent of my trips outside the home on foot. I typically walk for three to four hours per day and enjoy it.
I am lucky in that Fort Belvoir has a reasonable pedestrian network, but it wouldn't take much effort or expenditure to turn "reasonable" into "excellent" and to further enhance Fort Belvoir's strong 'green' credentials.

There are many great reasons to improve pedestrian facilities around Belvoir. Exercising can help combat obesity and heart problems, reduce stress and enable us to reconnect with nature. It may also be a crime deterrent: in Britain, studies have found that areas with more and better sidewalks tend to have more pedestrians and fewer criminal incidents.

If superb pedestrian facilities are available, then many people may choose to walk for local errands, rather than have to keep refueling their gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks at ever-increasing fuel prices.

Additionally, Base Realignment and Closure will bring many, many new personnel to Fort Belvoir and, unless we plan to have Ikea-sized parking lots on every street corner (yikes!!), we need to encourage our community to leave the car at home, or park once, at the office, for the day, and use alternative transport to get around post - bike, bus or feet.

Some suggestions for improvements to pedestrian facilities on post include the following:

Maintain the sidewalks - particularly replacing cracked or lifted slabs along tree-lined streets such as 18th, 19th and Belvoir Road, that are trip hazards and difficult to navigate with a stroller.

Review the sidewalk network to solve inconsistencies. The sidewalk from Dewitt Hospital currently ends at the Warrior Transition Unit building. Why not implement a share-the-road model down Langfitt Loop to Mount Vernon Avenue, enabling better pedestrian access from George Washington and Dogue Creek villages?

Repaint crosswalks, many of which are so faded they're invisible to drivers, and install crosswalk lights where pedestrians cannot see the traffic lights to cross the street safely.
The Directorate of Public Works promised in March's Army Family Action Plan meeting that crosswalk repainting would occur "as soon as the weather improves."

Reposition or add crosswalks in high pedestrian-traffic places, such as at Starbucks, the Shopette and Van Noy Library on 12th street; on Gunston Road to cross 9th street; and across Belvoir Road from Vernondale Village to the hospital.

Install bike racks and dog leash clips outside popular facilities such as the Shopette or Starbucks, PX, Home & Garden Center, etc., to make it more convenient to walk or cycle and encourage people to leave the car at home for short errands.

Maintain the small "connector" trails and paths, especially after storms. Some of these paths may need redefinition or extension to make them more useful -for example, the
Youth Services trail dead-ends at a locked, chain-link fence and has been blocked by fallen trees and debris, but could be extended around the side of YS to the parking lot, making it useful to the general community. Construction of a trail from GW Village to 12th Street would create a safe route for pedestrians to access the shops and facilities, avoiding Surveyor Road.

Improve the maintenance of trails in Accotink Nature Reserve. The nature reserve is heavily used throughout the year by families, dog-walkers and others and is a valuable resource to encourage non-walkers to get out and about. But trails seem to be cleared only once per year and rapidly gets overgrown, leaving visitors vulnerable to ticks and insect bites and making them less inclined to get out for some exercise. Many trails are presently near impassable, particularly those farther from the parking lots.

Fort Belvoir is a beautiful place, green and filled with nature. Lets keep it that way by acting in an environmentally aware manner and by being sure to get out and enjoy nature on post from the best possible view - on foot.

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