Arlington bike projects: new trails, bike lanes, sharrows and bike routes – July 2011

[KLizotte]

Many thanks for the head’s up on this. As a resident of PC I am so looking forward to some of these improvements (though I was quite disappointed in the intersection “improvements” recently made to the Columbia Pike/S. Joyce St intersection – not particularly well designed IMHO). Would love to see a cycletrack and being able to bike easily to Clarendon would be a huge boost to residents of both neighborhoods.

[Mark Blacknell]

If anyone has any ideas on how to make this kind of list/news easier to track, post it here. Arlington County staff are very open with what they’ve got, but there’s often a practical barrier in updating and sharing new information.

[Mark Blacknell]

@KLizotte 5753 wrote:

Many thanks for the head’s up on this. As a resident of PC I am so looking forward to some of these improvements (though I was quite disappointed in the intersection “improvements” recently made to the Columbia Pike/S. Joyce St intersection – not particularly well designed IMHO). Would love to see a cycletrack and being able to bike easily to Clarendon would be a huge boost to residents of both neighborhoods.

Let me play a familiar role, K. – prepare to be disappointed some more. Arlington still doesn’t have any good N-S solutions in the works (and that isn’t a slam on staff – it’s a complicated and *expensive* issue).

[5555624]

@KLizotte 5753 wrote:

(though I was quite disappointed in the intersection “improvements” recently made to the Columbia Pike/S. Joyce St intersection – not particularly well designed IMHO)

Out of curiousity, what’s wrong with it? I pass through it every morning and many afternoons on my commute and other than when they changed how the light cycles, a couple of months back, I don’t see any difference. I’m not coming up S. Joyce St, but that doesn’t look to be any different.

[chris_s]

@Mark Blacknell 5782 wrote:

If anyone has any ideas on how to make this kind of list/news easier to track, post it here. Arlington County staff are very open with what they’ve got, but there’s often a practical barrier in updating and sharing new information.

Honestly, I think a great solution would be having a Forum Topic right here called “Bike Project Updates”, with a thread for each project in the list, and make it so only Admins can post to those threads. Then anytime there is an update to the project, just add a reply to that thread. That way it would show up as a “new post” for those of us that frequent these forums and anyone who doesn’t frequent the forums could use the built-in “subscribe to this thread / subscribe to this topic” tools to get email updates. Want to know any time a bike project is updated? Just subscribe to the whole topic area. Only want to know about one or two that are close to your daily commute? Just subscribe to those individual threads.

[americancyclo]

These two projects excite me the most! Would love to see the W&OD run over EFC Metro to eliminate the need to jog through side streets and the park at Sycamore.

B-30 W&OD Realignment at East Falls Church

Realign W&OD from Brandymore Castle to Van Buren east of Sycamore underpass (blind curves need rebuilding from flooding, 90‐degree turn, too much pavement). (Arlington, NVRPA) (0.2 mile)

B-31 W&OD Trail Crossing at Lee Highway

Improve at‐grade crossings, examining alternatives including under/overpasses, signal timing, etc. (Arlington/NVRPA) (0.1 mile)

[PotomacCyclist]

@Mark Blacknell 5783 wrote:

Let me play a familiar role, K. – prepare to be disappointed some more. Arlington still doesn’t have any good N-S solutions in the works (and that isn’t a slam on staff – it’s a complicated and *expensive* issue).

The Washington Blvd. Trail will help with the Pentagon City/Court House route. So will any upgrades to the Arlington Blvd. Trail, west and north of the road. There are supposed to be some improvements as part of the ongoing 10th St. interchange overhaul. But it’s going to be a while before these projects are finished.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Mark Blacknell 5782 wrote:

If anyone has any ideas on how to make this kind of list/news easier to track, post it here. Arlington County staff are very open with what they’ve got, but there’s often a practical barrier in updating and sharing new information.

The idea to have pinned forum threads is interesting.

The Arlington County website needs a better navigation system. After several attempts, I can’t figure out how to access project pages on that website when starting from the main page. There are a few links that either lead to “page not found” notices, or they redirect to the main page of arltransit.com or some such page.

There should be a link to an index of ongoing infrastructure projects. I saw a menu item for infrastructure but that page describes the team and what they do. I didn’t see a list of the projects.

So my suggestions would be (1) a better way to access such info on the Arlington Co. website, and (2) pinned forum threads on this forum site. The main county website could include a hyperlink to this website too.

[PotomacCyclist]

Arlington announced on Sept. 16 that the Washington Blvd. Trail Phase II is one of four priority transportation projects that will receive state and local funding. Here is the description of the project:

Washington Boulevard Trail Phase II: Construction of a trail parallel to Washington Boulevard from 2nd Street South to Columbia Pike. The County and State will each provide $170,000 toward this project. Total funding is $1.6 million.

The trail will allow users to avoid Courthouse Rd. and 6 blocks of extra travel along Columbia Pike when riding from Pentagon City to Clarendon or Court House. Just north of 2nd St. South, there is an existing trail (undergoing reconstruction) that runs along Washington Blvd. and then Arlington Blvd. That trail also branches off to Fillmore Park and Fillmore St. on the way to Clarendon.

The Pentagon City-Clarendon/Court House route still has a few difficult sections on the south end, including Joyce St. and Columbia Pike/sidewalk between Orme and Quinn St. (Between Joyce and Orme, it’s easy to use Southgate Rd. heading west. Heading east, Columbia Pike is manageable after Orme. It’s mostly downhill from there to Joyce St.)

http://news.arlingtonva.us/pr/ava/priority-transportation-projects-215516.aspx

[pfunkallstar]

Ditto to getting excited about B-30. That 90-degree turn at the underpass is insanely dangerous, especially given the fact that the semi-permanent asphalt patch has narrowed it down to essentially 1.5 lanes. Just the other day I saw a kid on a skateboard almost take out two cyclists coming down the hill, even after they came to a complete stop. Also, some serious thought needs to be given to developing the RT. 50 trail, which is essentially unusable right now.

[PotomacCyclist]

The Rte. 50/Arlington Blvd. Trail at and around 10th St. North is being renovated and expanded. But the process will take quite a long time. The intersection of Arlington Blvd. and 10th St. will be completely redesigned, including the roads. That area is going to be a mess until the construction is finished.

Once the project is complete, there will be bike/pedestrian trails on both sides of Arlington Blvd. The trails will be wider and brand new. It should be a very nice ride, but it will also require a lot of patience to wait until the work is complete.

[KLizotte]

@PotomacCyclist 8331 wrote:

That area is going to be a mess until the construction is finished.

Once the project is complete, there will be bike/pedestrian trails on both sides of Arlington Blvd. The trails will be wider and brand new. It should be a very nice ride, but it will also require a lot of patience to wait until the work is complete.

Unfortunately VDOT is showing an expected completion date of fall 2013(!) which we all know really means 2014ish. Patience is a virtue. The pics show a woman *walking* her bike which I find a bit funny.

[PotomacCyclist]

Is that the completion date for the entire project? If so, it’s possible that the bike trails would be in place before then. Hopefully…

Or maybe the bike trails will be the last part to be installed.

But now I’m thinking about Potomac Avenue in Potomac Yards (Arlington/Alexandria). The road and bike trail are both complete. The road hasn’t officially opened but the trail (and the road) are usable for cyclists. Maybe it could be a similar deal on Arlington Blvd. Instead of waiting until fall 2013, cyclists would only have to wait until… late summer 2013.

[PotomacCyclist]

Construction on the Washington Blvd. bridge over Columbia Pike will start next spring. The new bridge won’t be finished until 2015.

The new bridge will allow for a wider sidewalk on the north side of Columbia Pike. The ramps to the northwest of the bridge will be redesigned. That will allow for room to extend the Washington Blvd. bike trail down south to Columbia Pike. Currently there is very little room on the west side of Washington Blvd. for a trail on the final block of the proposed trail route.

The new designs will be more convenient for cyclists. But 2015 is a long way away.

[Author]

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