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A path meant to serve downcounty cyclists has support from planning officials — up to a point.

To create a more comprehensive riding network for cyclists around the National Institutes of Health and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, the county's transportation department has proposed a 1.1-mile shared-use path for walkers and cyclists along the north side of Jones Bridge Road between Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues.

Officials have argued it will form part of a crucial network around NIH and Navy Med as they push for more commuters to get to work without getting in their vehicles. The path would be eight to ten feet wide, but would not continue east of Connecticut Avenue and therefore not connect directly with the popular Capital Crescent Trail, which runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Silver Spring.

A pedestrian and bike traffic count conducted in December showed, during the peak hour, that 44 pedestrians and cyclists crossed the intersection of Jones Bridge Road and Wisconsin Avenue going in either direction. Dan Sheridan, a senior manager at the transportation department, indicated that an extrapolation to the year 2030 showed that the peak-hour number would increase to 64 pedestrians and cyclists, although their individual points of origins and destinations were unknown.

"We believe that it makes a good system," said the Planning Department's Larry Cole at a Thursday meeting of the Planning Board, referencing bike path projects on Rockville Pike, Cedar Lane and elsewhere.

But at that meeting, after hearing from two Jones Bridge Road residents upset with the proposed path, Planning Board commissioners were less than enthusiastic about its details.

The Planning Board voted to approve the path, but also stated an alternate should be investigated that moves a portion of the path to the south of Jones Bridge Road so it does not cross driveways from houses on the north. Montgomery County Department of Transportation Director Art Holmes has final approval power over the project and its design. The path, along with other new shared-use paths along Cedar Lane, Rockville Pike and elsewhere, has $4.6 million in county funds available for construction.

Commissioner Norman Dreyfuss said the path could cross Jones Bridge Road at some point further west of Connecticut Avenue, so that it does not conflict as much with traffic and does not run in front of homes directly on Jones Bridge Road.

The resident of one such home, Allen Hutter, said that combined with proposed intersection construction at Jones Bridge Road and Connecticut Avenue, meant to deal with the relocation of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to Navy Med, a bike path in front of his home would only isolate his neighborhood further by adding fast-moving bikers to volatile and heavy traffic.

"You're creating a terrible barrier for us," Hutter said.

A deputy director with the department, Edgar Gonzalez, said in an interview after the vote that the department had already investigated putting some of the path on the south side of Jones Bridge Road, but that it would be extremely complicated. He also warned that such a significant change to the project would eliminate the department's goal of finishing the project before September 2011, when Walter Reed is scheduled to relocate to Navy Med.

Gonzalez said that despite the remarks from Hutter, he thought Chevy Chase Valley residents in general were well-informed about the project and did not necessarily agree with Hutter. The neighborhood is located north of Jones Bridge Road, east of Navy Med and west of Connecticut Avenue.

"They have expressed absolutely no objection to what we were doing," he said.