Opened in 2010, Washington DC’s Metropolitan Branch Trail is an efficient, smooth, and green transportation alternative connecting Maryland and downtown Washington, DC. One particularly appealing feature of the trail is that it is car-free: cyclists who use the MBT can commute without traffic lights or the danger of riding alongside vehicular traffic.1
The trail’s appealing features, however, have been overshadowed by its growing reputation for violent crime and mob attacks. There have been dozens of violent incidents on the trail in the last three years, including sexual assault, armed robbery, and severe beatings. And these crimes are only the ones that have been reported. My own July 2014 experience with attempted assault and robbery on the MBT was not acknowledged by police as worth reporting because it did not involve a weapon.
While some of these crimes take place when one might expect crimes to take place, such as after dark or in the summer months, many have taken place in broad daylight, and a number have taken place in the middle of winter (like this robbery and shooting in January). One pattern that unites many of these crimes is the typical perpetrators: a mob of teenage youth. The bands of youth typically try to knock the victim off his or her bicycle and then will physically attack and rob the victim.
One reason for the frequency and severity of these attacks is the isolation of the trail. Most of the MBT runs through industrial areas without nearby retail, workplaces, or residences. The trail is also poorly lit and its surrounding fences have multiple holes. In addition, there may be as few as three functioning security cameras over the entirety of the 8-mile trail. The Metropolitan Police Department has taken to advising residents to never ride the trail alone -- but this warning, understood as a poor excuse for the MPD’s inadequate policing of the trail, has led to much outcry. In the absence of a strong police patrol, several neighborhood and civic groups, such as the Guardian Angels and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) Trail Rangers, have stepped in to try to take action.
This site presents three different angles on the root causes of -- and corresponding solutions to -- the trail's crime problem:
The trail’s appealing features, however, have been overshadowed by its growing reputation for violent crime and mob attacks. There have been dozens of violent incidents on the trail in the last three years, including sexual assault, armed robbery, and severe beatings. And these crimes are only the ones that have been reported. My own July 2014 experience with attempted assault and robbery on the MBT was not acknowledged by police as worth reporting because it did not involve a weapon.
While some of these crimes take place when one might expect crimes to take place, such as after dark or in the summer months, many have taken place in broad daylight, and a number have taken place in the middle of winter (like this robbery and shooting in January). One pattern that unites many of these crimes is the typical perpetrators: a mob of teenage youth. The bands of youth typically try to knock the victim off his or her bicycle and then will physically attack and rob the victim.
One reason for the frequency and severity of these attacks is the isolation of the trail. Most of the MBT runs through industrial areas without nearby retail, workplaces, or residences. The trail is also poorly lit and its surrounding fences have multiple holes. In addition, there may be as few as three functioning security cameras over the entirety of the 8-mile trail. The Metropolitan Police Department has taken to advising residents to never ride the trail alone -- but this warning, understood as a poor excuse for the MPD’s inadequate policing of the trail, has led to much outcry. In the absence of a strong police patrol, several neighborhood and civic groups, such as the Guardian Angels and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) Trail Rangers, have stepped in to try to take action.
This site presents three different angles on the root causes of -- and corresponding solutions to -- the trail's crime problem:
Banner photo source: Payton Chung (Flickr)
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