March 2016 Road and Trail Conditions

Arlington – Rode on South Courthouse Road for the first time in a while and noticed that it has finally been repaved. Not only that, I noticed sharrows between 2nd St S and 6th St S and bike lanes between 6th St S and 8th St S. Well, the northbound bike lanes have been painted, but the southbound lanes currently are in invisible paint (but there is a sign saying “Bike Lane” so it must be there somewhere).

For those in Vienna – Follin Lane might be finished by the end of May.

Good afternoon Kathleen,

We anticipate the completion of Follin Lane to be around the end of May 2016, barring unforeseen problems and weather issues, of course. After that, we will evaluate Echols Street for repairs and possible repaving.

Sincerley,

J
_____________
From:
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 10:29 AM
To: Public Works, Town of Vienna, Department of
Subject: Echols Lane

Hi –

I’m not sure where to report this, but here I go! I bike commute into Tysons most days and the road construction on Follin Lane has caused great disruption to my commute. I travel from the W&OD trail, take the Branch Road exit, Echols, Wolf Trap, Lord Fairfax and into Tysons. Because Follin is torn up, many, many more cars (and Metro busses) than usual take Echols. The road surface of Echols is horrible, in part because of the increased traffic on that road. I’ve seen fender-benders as a result of the stop signs and folks traveling too fast.

As a bike commuter, it is an important connection to Tysons. The terrible road surface causes me to weave and bob on Echols, likely bothering car traffic because they are unsure of my path.

Are there any updates on when Follin will be completed? It seems like it has been going on for a year! Any updates on repaving Echols?

Thanks!

@bobco85 136016 wrote:

Arlington – Rode on South Courthouse Road for the first time in a while and noticed that it has finally been repaved. Not only that, I noticed sharrows between 2nd St S and 6th St S and bike lanes between 6th St S and 8th St S. Well, the northbound bike lanes have been painted, but the southbound lanes currently are in invisible paint (but there is a sign saying “Bike Lane” so it must be there somewhere).

I hope that cyclists using this northbound bike lane are paying attention as they approach the downhill, because the lane ends abruptly at a hard concrete curb at the bottom of the hill. There are dashed lines several feet before the curb, but no “Bike Lane Ends” sign, IIRC. Best advice for anyone riding here is to merge into the traffic lane well before the solid line changes to dashed. Adding a sign and dashing the lines much earlier would help a bit. Actually a curb cut (where the bike lane ends into the sidewalk) might not be a bad idea for safety’s sake. On the other hand, it could also enable high-speed riders to terrorize pedestrians on that sidewalk.

Pretreating bookends my MVT commute. Way to show up all other jurisdictions, Arlington County. L to R: Rosslyn to MVT GW Parkway overpass. MVT intersection with 4MRT.

Trails all clear this morning in Prince Geo’s. Plus they didn’t even spread an inch of salt on the roads and parking lots, so that’s a huge post-snow bonus.

Is this falls church city or do they have a police exchange program?

@Tania 136238 wrote:

W&OD east of Van Buren and Custis looked freshly brined this am. I don’t want to know why.

I actually think that is left over from the 1/4 inch snowfall we had last week. Not enough moisture to dissolve it, so it stays until the next rain.