Arlington CaBi expansion, Part 2 (or is it Part 3?)

[PotomacCyclist]

A station in the middle of the Crystal City-Pentagon City area would be nice too. Maybe 18th & Eads.

[PotomacCyclist]

There will be 30 new stations in the latest round of expansion in Arlington. By next summer, there will be 70 CaBi stations in Arlington!

http://news.arlingtonva.us/pr/ava/arlington-county-to-expand-capital-217486.aspx

[PotomacCyclist]

There will be 30 new stations in the latest round of expansion in Arlington. By next summer, there will be 70 CaBi stations in Arlington!

http://news.arlingtonva.us/pr/ava/arlington-county-to-expand-capital-217486.aspx

[PotomacCyclist]

Boeing will add another CaBi station at its new Arlington-area HQ in north Crystal City. The Arlington County Board approved the revised plan for the plot located between 6th and 10th Street S., and between Ball and Clark St. (or Old Jefferson Davis Highway). [OJD will be renamed Long Bridge Drive next spring.] The new Long Bridge Park is located immediately to the north of the new Boeing site. Boeing agreed to sponsor a CaBi station as part of the extended negotiations over the deal. The developer will transfer the land to the north of Long Bridge Park to the County in return for the land for the Boeing project. The new County land will be used to build Phase II of the park. That will include an aquatic center and possibly an extension of the esplanade/bike-walking trail over to the Mt. Vernon Trail.

By the way, the first phase of the park should be finished soon. People are already walking and riding on the sidewalks and esplanade after the construction crews leave for the day. The park is no longer fenced off so I don’t think that constitutes trespassing. The trail is a little short for a bike workout and it doesn’t connect to the MVT yet. So it will be of limited use to bike commuters. But it could be a good place to run, if you don’t mind running on the hard stone surface. It will also be a great place for leisurely strolls, as well as soccer games and practices.

I probably wouldn’t drive over there, however. OJD still hasn’t been repaired yet. Crews are burying utility lines under the road. But the process is taking longer than planned. So stay off that road if you’re riding on skinny road tires. Unless you want to pop a spoke or something.

http://news.arlingtonva.us/pr/ava/arlington-county-board-approves-217674.aspx

[PotomacCyclist]

Some of the Court House and Clarendon stations will be installed this week! Although they previously said 4 stations would be installed this month, CaBi now says that 6 new stations will be added. The remainder of the new stations will be installed next year.

[rcannon100]

My thoughts on the proposed expansion on CABI in Arlington. The draft uses the wrong paradigm of corridors – I think the right paradigm is “islands.” I also suggest that the drafts principle of 1/2 mile distance between stations premised on 1 mile trips – is flawed and invalid for consideration in Arlington. CABI should be widely deployed in Arlington, it should not just overlay the subway system, it should not simply benefit the wealthy urban corridors. If widely deployed it would create a mesh network that leverages the Arlington bike infrastructure of trails and lanes, further Arlington’s goals of smart growth and car free, and result in economic benefits to businesses.

http://donaldsonrun.blogspot.com/2012/03/arlington-bikeshare-expansion-my.html

[Mikey]

Please work with DoD to put one at the Pentagon. Just about every bus in NoVa terminates there. It would make perfect sense for last mile trips to be able to hop on a CaBi.

[rcannon100]

Please work with DoD to put one at the Pentagon.

And the Pentagon sits on the MV Trail, with a connector through the Lady Bird Johnson Memorial Park, as well as connectors via Columbia pike to Washington Blvd and the planned bike path along Washington Blvd. Very high public transportation demand area.

[JacquesOfAllTrades]

@rcannon100 17415 wrote:

My thoughts on the proposed expansion on CABI in Arlington. The draft uses the wrong paradigm of corridors – I think the right paradigm is “islands.” I also suggest that the drafts principle of 1/2 mile distance between stations premised on 1 mile trips – is flawed and invalid for consideration in Arlington. CABI should be widely deployed in Arlington, it should not just overlay the subway system, it should not simply benefit the wealthy urban corridors. If widely deployed it would create a mesh network that leverages the Arlington bike infrastructure of trails and lanes, further Arlington’s goals of smart growth and car free, and result in economic benefits to businesses.

http://donaldsonrun.blogspot.com/2012/03/arlington-bikeshare-expansion-my.html

I really like some of your suggestions for an “island-based” approach to CaBi expansion, although I would aim to have the islands be pairs or trios of stations within a relatively small distance of each other, in order to mitigate potential dockblocking scenarios (and to make rebalancing efforts worthwhile). For example, put a station in the center of the Westover shopping area, along with one on Patrick Henry Drive at either Westover Park (across from Swanson MS) or Bon Air Park, connecting to the Custis and W&OD trails, and perhaps a third station near one of the larger garden-style apartment complexes on Washington Blvd.

It would still be a bit of a walk if someone was stuck at one of the stations, but not as bad as doubling back to EFC or Ballston Metro, or to somewhere else on a “corridor” such as the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center. It would also have the added benefit of introducing potential CaBi users to using the bikes to replace short-drive/long-walk trips, such as a run from home to pick up a sandwich, or something from the Market.

[PotomacCyclist]

With all of the new stations in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor over the past two weeks, there are now more CaBi stations in the R-B Corridor than in the Crystal City-Pentagon City area. There is finally a true CaBi network in R-B, not just the 4 stations in Rosslyn we had for quite a while.

Judging from the approved locations on the map of planned stations, I think the spring 2012 Arlington expansion is almost done:

http://g.co/maps/hvfya

Looks like there will be two more stations this week. The locations marked in purple should be added later in the year, I believe. According to what I’ve read elsewhere, CaBi will soon change gears and focus on expansion in Alexandria and maybe D.C. One recent article said that the Alexandria stations would be installed in May but others merely say sometime by the summer. There are also a dozen approved expansion sites in D.C., including stations near the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.

I haven’t seen any updates on the next wave of expansion in Arlington and D.C. Many more stations have been announced, in addition to the locations that have already been approved. Maybe we won’t see those until the fall or winter. That’s just my guess. No updates on the Montgomery County stations either.

[KLizotte]

If CaBi is going to be installed at the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials then NPS is going to have get serious and cracking about fixing the biking infrastructure and signage at those two locations. I dread to think of what will occur if we start seeing 500+ CaBis at a time descending on those areas this summer.

[dbb]

I agree. The trail up to the 14th Street Bridge may become a choke point as the Jefferson Memorial CaBi station may create some congestion. Given the recent Park Police activity in that area, the NPS might want to look at extending the trail off the bridge a bit further up East Basin Drive and add a new crosswalk to reduce the potential for conflicts.

[Arlingtonrider]

One small saving grace is that out of shape tourists on fat tire CaBi’s might not want to attempt that hill. My concern is that those who do may want to stop in the middle of the 14th Street bridge to snap photos, chat with friends etc. But I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, so to speak . . .

[PotomacCyclist]

There is ongoing renovation work being done on the Reflecting Pool and the trails and sidewalks nearby. I think the bike network should be improved around the Lincoln Memorial when that project is complete. I don’t remember the timetable.

As for the Jefferson Memorial and the 14th St. Bridge (George Mason Bridge), I’ve heard about various proposals but I don’t know if any of them have been approved and funded. A draft environmental impact statement was released for the 14th St. Bridge corridor this year. Several people have written to NPS complaining about the path from the bridge. (I think I sent them an email or two over the past year, or that might have been a comment on the DEIS.) It can be a hassle riding from the bridge over to the Washington Monument area and 15th St. Maybe someday that entire area can be fixed and improved.

14th St. Bridge Corridor website

The Draft EIS

Some highlights of the DEIS, as posted by The WashCycle

Mason Bridge improvement option.

This is more of an idea than a detailed plan at this point. The drawings show only the current trail and note that it should be improved. One can assume this would mean widening the trail connections and removing some obstacles on the DC side, but at this point they haven’t done the detailed study. The cost of this is only ~$350,000.

[eminva]

@KLizotte 18952 wrote:

I dread to think of what will occur if we start seeing 500+ CaBis at a time descending on those areas this summer.

@Arlingtonrider 18962 wrote:

One small saving grace is that out of shape tourists on fat tire CaBi’s might not want to attempt that hill. My concern is that those who do may want to stop in the middle of the 14th Street bridge to snap photos, chat with friends etc. But I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, so to speak . . .

Welcome to commuting on the Key Bridge . . . :p

Liz

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