Photo by Rich Renomeron.

Greater Greater Washington is organizing a bike tour of Greenbelt on Sunday, April 18. We’ll be starting at 1:30, and the tour should run about 3 hours or so.

The Washington region is littered with different landmarks from the planning profession. From the original city plan of Washington by L’Enfant and Ellicott to the new urbanist Kentlands, many of the different eras of planning have significant examples in the area.

One of those is Greenbelt, a stone’s throw from Washington, which was built as a planned community by the Roosevelt Administration from 1934-37 as a part of the New Deal. You can read a brief overview of Greenbelt here.

The tour will be about 4 miles long, but will include several stops, so the 4 miles won’t be all at once. It will begin and end at the Greenbelt Metro station (east entrance) at the northern end of the Green Line. The riding will be almost entirely on streets with bike lanes, bike paths, or quiet residential streets. You should feel comfortable riding with cars, but even novice riders should be fine.

There will be no cost for the tour, but we will visit the Greenbelt Museum, which has an admission fee of $5. For logistical purposes, I’m limiting the size of the group, so please RSVP by email at mcjohnson@ggwash.org with the subject “Greenbelt Bike Tour”. If there’s enough demand, I will schedule another tour.

The Greenbelt bike tour isn’t the only way to enjoy the outdoors and the spring weather. The day before the Greenbelt tour, and in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Dupont Circle community leaders are organizing Green in the Circle, a showcase of environmental groups and businesses along with live music, food, dancing, a scavenger hunt and more.

Organizers plan a series of events in the Circle, with the next one featuring microscopes and telescopes in June. These are the first steps in a greater effort to program this excellent yet sometimes underutilized space.

And speaking of bicycling, two major bicycle fundraisers are coming up. This Thursday, Phoenix Bikes in Arlington is holding their annual Bike Show fundraiser, with art, a silent auction, a raffle, and more. And WABA’s annual gala and benefit auction is Friday, April 23rd at the Austrian Embassy near UDC.

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Tagged: arlington, bicycling, cat:bicycling, dc, dupont circle, environment, greenbelt, maryland, prince george's, prince george's county, sustainability, virginia, waba

Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington area since 2007. He has a Master’s in Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He lives in Dupont Circle. He’s a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and is an employee of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. His views are his own and do not represent those of his employer.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.