Arlington County Board Election

[PotomacCyclist]

Even though the MTP may not mention protected bike lanes, Arlington has already started building them in some locations: S. Hayes St. between 15th & Fern, S. Eads St. from 15th to 23rd. They seem to have adopted the new standard even though the MTP hasn’t been updated. If they continue to do that, then that would be fine with me.

I rode in both protected bike lanes last weekend. Much better travel conditions than before.

I’m trying to figure out what the new bus/bike lanes on Crystal Drive will be like. That could be another good addition to bike infrastructure in Crystal City and Potomac Yard-Arlington. I don’t know what the rules will be for the new transit-only lanes. Will cyclists be allowed on those parts of the Metroway route too?

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 114298 wrote:

They seem to have adopted the new standard even though the MTP hasn’t been updated. If they continue to do that, then that would be fine with me.

They can’t continue to do that if it isn’t in the MTP. In order to add more protected infrastructure, Arlington has taken all the “low hanging fruit” and will need to start taking space away from motor vehicle travel and parking lanes. That doesn’t happen easily and having PBLs in the MTP provides guidelines and path for making it happen.

[PotomacCyclist]

I thought they took away car travel lanes on Eads St. to add the protected bike lanes. Strange, I’ve crossed that street hundreds of times over the years and I’m kind of drawing a blank.

OK, I checked on Google Maps. Some of the Street View images predate the new PBLs. There used to be 4 lanes (2 in each direction). Last year, it was changed to 1 lane in each direction plus a center 2-way turn lane, and the new PBLs on each side.

Anyway, if the MTP can affect future projects, then I hope it is updated.

[dasgeh]

@PotomacCyclist 114307 wrote:

I thought they took away car travel lanes on Eads St. to add the protected bike lanes. Strange, I’ve crossed that street hundreds of times over the years and I’m kind of drawing a blank.

OK, I checked on Google Maps. Some of the Street View images predate the new PBLs. There used to be 4 lanes (2 in each direction). Last year, it was changed to 1 lane in each direction plus a center 2-way turn lane, and the new PBLs on each side.

Anyway, if the MTP can affect future projects, then I hope it is updated.

Those travel lanes were going to be taken away anyway. The issue is that some roads are over-built for the amount of traffic they see (see Army-Navy Drive). The County wants to reduce the number of lanes to control speeds. When there’s space, they’ve been willing to put in PBLs, which is great. However, they haven’t been willing to “take” space from other road users (mostly moving or parked cars).

Also, the County still builds things like nubs, which could create conflict with future PBLs. We need PBLs in the plan, and we need policies in place, so that future road changes can include PBLs.

[chris_s]

@PotomacCyclist 114307 wrote:

I thought they took away car travel lanes on Eads St. to add the protected bike lanes. Strange, I’ve crossed that street hundreds of times over the years and I’m kind of drawing a blank.

OK, I checked on Google Maps. Some of the Street View images predate the new PBLs. There used to be 4 lanes (2 in each direction). Last year, it was changed to 1 lane in each direction plus a center 2-way turn lane, and the new PBLs on each side.

Anyway, if the MTP can affect future projects, then I hope it is updated.

They can only do so many “demonstration projects” and “pilot projects” before it starts getting hairy to build stuff we don’t have policies around. Plus it’s high time we took a holistic look at what we want in a cycling network in Arlington.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 114278 wrote:

The Action Committee is not due to some legal concerns WABA has.

Here’s some thoughts:

Do you ride a bike? How often? For recreation or transportation? If not, what would it take

Would you support removing parking to install bike infrastructure that closes an important gap in the bicycle network?

Do you support “road diets” as Arlington has done in the past on Shirlington Drive and is installing on Wilson Blvd this Summer which remove travel lanes on overbuilt streets to provide accommodations for other modes of travel like bicycles?

If elected, what do you hope to have accomplished to make Arlington a better place for cycling by the end of your first term?

List the specific bike infrastructure projects you would like to see built in Arlington.

Many board members have been supportive of cycling, but few are true champions. Would you be a supportive board member or a champion?

The Bike Element of the Master Transportation Plan (MTP) is almost seven years old, an eternity given the rapid pace of innovation in bicycle facilities. It contains no reference to the current gold standard bike infrastructure known as “protected bike lanes” and many of the projects identified have already been built. If elected, would you support the funding and prioritizing a robust community process to update the Bike Element of the MTP?

Can we borrow some of these in Alexandria (where we also have an election coming up) ?

[chris_s]

@lordofthemark 114329 wrote:

Can we borrow some of these in Alexandria (where we also have an election coming up) ?

Absolutely. Might I also recommend shamelessly cribbing from a Google Search of “candidate questionnaire bikes”.

[lordofthemark]

@dasgeh 114308 wrote:

Those travel lanes were going to be taken away anyway. The issue is that some roads are over-built for the amount of traffic they see (see Army-Navy Drive). The County wants to reduce the number of lanes to control speeds. When there’s space, they’ve been willing to put in PBLs, which is great. However, they haven’t been willing to “take” space from other road users (mostly moving or parked cars).

Also, the County still builds things like nubs, which could create conflict with future PBLs. We need PBLs in the plan, and we need policies in place, so that future road changes can include PBLs.

Does your master plan reference the NAACTO guidelines? IIUC City of Alexandria’s revised Bike Ped Master Plan is going to reference them – so even though we may or may not end up with explicit reference to PBL’s, we will still have a guideline for their usage. Though I note that NAACTO suggests PBLs on roads with speed limits of >35MPH – not >or= to 35MPH, which I find a matter of concern in the Alexandria context, and was going to ask about here.

[PotomacCyclist]

FYI, it’s NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) with one “A.”

[lordofthemark]

Yeah, I was mentally conflating them with AASHTO.

but the City will be using the NACTO guidelines, not the AASHTO guidelines.

[mstone]

@PotomacCyclist 114334 wrote:

FYI, it’s NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) with one “A.”

not to be confused with AASHTO with two As.

[baiskeli]

@rcannon100 94985 wrote:

We are firm believers in democracy, and the more of it the better ~ unlike your outer suburbs where they only tease you with the pretense once every four years or so. The more elections we have, the more democracy we have. We are a shining bacon of democracy where you can vote as often as you can go to a Starbucks.

I think we should vote on this statement.

[baiskeli]

@mstone 114339 wrote:

not to be confused with AASHTO with two As.

Hey, watch your mouth, there are kids here.

[rcannon100]

Please note – this is not a laundry list of concerns – these are questions to candidates to see (a) if they have a clue (“any candidate who responds to me ‘can you tell me what the Intersection of Doom is’ can be dismissed) and (b) which way they blow. So far, candidates answers to these surveys have been massively interesting.

[arlmom]

Shining “bacon” of democracy.

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