22 new bike lanes in 2015

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  • May 20, 2015 at 5:52 pm #1030565
    bobco85
    Participant

    Hmm, looking at the list, I see this as a net positive. The ones affecting my riding and route selection habits are:

    Backlick Road/Amherst Ave (one-way streets a block apart, work like Wilson/Clarendon Blvd do) – buffered bike lanes would be awesome since Backlick traffic can get hairy. Hopefully something will be done to extend these bike lanes north past I-495 to Braddock Road, as that whole stretch is not very bicycle-friendly.

    Annandale Road (Route 50 to Gallows Rd) – bike lanes are awesome but should only be added as climbing lanes. Sharrows would work better for the descents because the bike lanes will be directly in the door zones (there are a lot of parked cars on this road). I’ve been wanting any sort of bike infrastructure on this road for quite a while.

    Westmoreland Street (Haycock Rd to Hopewood Dr) – bike lanes and sharrows here will help fill the gaps in the bike lanes/sharrows already on this road. There’s plenty of room for them, and drivers are already used to cyclists on this stretch (it’s part of the Freshbikes ride, too), so it’s a net positive.

    Westpark Drive & Jones Branch Drive – bike lanes (especially the climbing lanes) will be great on both roads, although honestly I’m more excited about the repaving itself :)

    Franconia Rd (Craft Rd to South Van Dorn St) – my jaw dropped when I saw that this will have a lane diet/bike lane. I don’t ride on it very often, but Franconia Road can be pretty intimidating (and annoying) to bike on or attempt to cross.

    I’m sure others can speak more about the other roads, but these improvements will definitely cause me to bike more in Fairfax (and bring my food-buying money).

    May 20, 2015 at 8:04 pm #1030580
    Supermau
    Participant

    Good to hear Franconia is getting some help. I avoid it mostly as it just seems to fast and dangerous.

    May 20, 2015 at 9:33 pm #1030595
    Anonymous
    Guest

    @PotomacCyclist 116377 wrote:

    Is this a big positive, a mild positive, neutral or somehow a negative?

    The ones I’m familiar with will mostly be neutral to mild positive imo, though the repaving itself will make an impact also (not having to dodge potholes bigger than my bike woohoo).

    The ones I think are potential bigger positives–

    Agree Franconia will be great, especially if the section on the list now is just the start and more of the road will follow in the future.

    Bike lanes on the section of Belle View east of Fort Hunt could be really nice if done well, but they’ll have to take parking (that’s actually used) away to take it all the way to GWP, which I’m skeptical they’re really doing–maybe, though. Curious also if they are really taking bike lanes all the way to Richmond Hwy on Beacon Hill and Quander, as in a bike lane at the intersection itself giving bikes a way to cross Richmond hwy w/o sharing lanes w/ car traffic doing the same. If they can do that in a way that works well, or even just doesn’t totally suck, improving Richmond hwy crossings would be a big benefit to getting around the area.

    May 21, 2015 at 12:49 pm #1030637
    scoot
    Participant

    Neutral to mild positive sounds about right to me. The road choices appear to have been motivated by the ease of creating bike facilities without inconveniencing any drivers, not by how useful those facilities will be to actual bicyclists. I think it’s a case of checking a box to say “look here, we’re making bike lanes”: these are merely the low-hanging fruit, not the ripest.

    Annandale Road:
    Agree that sharrows and climbing lanes are the way to go with the hills on this road. Narrowing the lanes could help slow down drivers.

    Backlick/Amherst:
    Those three blocks are presently the only place on this road that’s not too bad to ride already. Not to mention there are parallel alternatives right there. So this is definitely a case of putting bike lanes where they are easy, not where they are needed. A full-on road diet is needed all the way from the Beltway to Annandale. I suspect traffic levels are too high to justify that under current metrics, but most of those drivers are just cutting through to avoid freeway congestion anyway. Also, the bridge over the railroad desperately needs sidewalks on both sides. I’ve seen pedestrians walking in the street over that bridge on multiple occasions. Perhaps another project is addressing that.

    Franconia Road:
    This is the biggest nugget here from my perspective. But again, the portion east of Van Dorn is not where most of the problem lies on this road. What is really needed is a bike lane running further west to connect with the existing lane at Beulah. Even better would be an extension much further west to Commerce Street, making it much easier to get across 95. But of course that would slow down drivers.

    When I bike commute, I presently take the rightmost lane on Franconia westbound from Brookland to Beulah; traffic is very light early in the morning. In the afternoon, it always jams up approaching Van Dorn from the west, but then cars are off to the races as soon as they clear that intersection. I usually ride up Em, then filter past stopped cars using the sidewalk (pedestrians are rare) until the Edison HS parking lot, using the signal at the far side of the lot to create enough of a gap that I can cross the road back over to Brookland. I have tried using the lane from Van Dorn until the first Edison driveway (because that stretch of sidewalk is quite awful), but the drivers are just so aggressive there that I stopped doing that.

    May 21, 2015 at 2:10 pm #1030632
    Lt. Dan
    Participant

    The Sudley Manor project is confusing. As far as I can tell, that road goes to nowhere….

    May 21, 2015 at 3:58 pm #1030641
    scoot
    Participant

    The bike lane will probably improve things there a bit, but I wonder how much use it will get since the commercial district out along Sudley is pretty hostile to bicycles. Further west, Sudley Manor is a nasty stroad. It looks like there is an adjacent MUP in places, but not between Chatsworth and Sudley.

    Maybe there will eventually be a trail connection to bridge over the stream between Splash Down and Loch Lomond?

    June 10, 2015 at 3:54 pm #1031799
    Terpfan
    Participant

    @PotomacCyclist 116377 wrote:

    I don’t ride in Fairfax that often. Is this a big positive, a mild positive, neutral or somehow a negative?

    Positive, imo.

    The bike lane on Belle View/Beacon Hill will be particularly nice for me as I go that way home and it’s a fairly heavily trafficked route (at least in Belle View portion) because of its proximity to the MVT and Spokes Etc location there. And it’s surprising to me given I couldn’t get the county or state to move a huge branch that fell on the sidewalk last year (I eventually dragged it mostly off myself with considerable effort), yet now they want to build a bike lane. So score.

    September 25, 2015 at 8:26 pm #1038477
    Terpfan
    Participant

    @Terpfan 117757 wrote:

    Positive, imo.

    The bike lane on Belle View/Beacon Hill will be particularly nice for me as I go that way home and it’s a fairly heavily trafficked route (at least in Belle View portion) because of its proximity to the MVT and Spokes Etc location there. And it’s surprising to me given I couldn’t get the county or state to move a huge branch that fell on the sidewalk last year (I eventually dragged it mostly off myself with considerable effort), yet now they want to build a bike lane. So score.

    I would note that they moved on this pretty quickly as the lanes are almost fully installed following a repaving. I would not have guessed they would move that fast.

    February 1, 2016 at 8:51 pm #1046818
    Terpfan
    Participant

    @Terpfan 125016 wrote:

    I would note that they moved on this pretty quickly as the lanes are almost fully installed following a repaving. I would not have guessed they would move that fast.

    So, interestingly, VDOT plowed the bike lane from Beacon Hill Rd and Quander heading west toward Rt 1, yet left the portion going uphill from Ft. Hunt unplowed. Not sure if I should say something like “thanks, but really the part that would be most helpful is plowing the uphill stretch” or not?

    February 1, 2016 at 10:04 pm #1046834
    Anonymous
    Guest

    @Terpfan 133913 wrote:

    So, interestingly, VDOT plowed the bike lane from Beacon Hill Rd and Quander heading west toward Rt 1, yet left the portion going uphill from Ft. Hunt unplowed. Not sure if I should say something like “thanks, but really the part that would be most helpful is plowing the uphill stretch” or not?

    They didn’t plow it. It melted. I’ve been watching it incrementally shrink all week.

    May 27, 2016 at 4:34 pm #1052866
    Terpfan
    Participant

    @Amalitza 133930 wrote:

    They didn’t plow it. It melted. I’ve been watching it incrementally shrink all week.

    Think we can ever get them to use a streetsweeper on it? I did a VDOT item submission a few weeks back, but nothing. So the only way I get the crap out of the lane is to literally drive my tire over it when I know I can go slow and have a clear sight-line, but that’s really not a viable long-term solution.

    Plus side, I’ve had very few issues of people coming remotely close to me in that stretch since the installation (save the little spot right by library entrance where it ends).

    May 27, 2016 at 4:50 pm #1052867
    Supermau
    Participant

    I can only speak about Franconia since I live just off of it. I’ve only used the lane once, for about 100 yards in order to avoid a pedestrian on the sidewalk. That road is so fast and dangerous that I just don’t trust a painted line to feel safe. I drive it more than I ride it and constantly observe motor vehicles crossing that line. Scary. So I avoid it unless absolutely necessary.

    July 8, 2016 at 12:51 pm #1054983
    Terpfan
    Participant

    To VDOT’s credit, I observed the street sweeper doing the Beacon Hill bike lane. I wrote in about it a few weeks ago after I hit a rock on uphill. Never thought they would actually do it. So I am pleasantly surprised

    July 8, 2016 at 1:16 pm #1054990
    mstone
    Participant

    @Terpfan 142770 wrote:

    To VDOT’s credit, I observed the street sweeper doing the Beacon Hill bike lane. I wrote in about it a few weeks ago after I hit a rock on uphill. Never thought they would actually do it. So I am pleasantly surprised

    I’m sure that guy will be disciplined when they find out about it in Richmond.

    July 8, 2016 at 5:34 pm #1055030
    Anonymous
    Guest

    @Terpfan 142770 wrote:

    To VDOT’s credit, I observed the street sweeper doing the Beacon Hill bike lane. I wrote in about it a few weeks ago after I hit a rock on uphill. Never thought they would actually do it. So I am pleasantly surprised

    Saw him too. Nice.

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