Arlington’s first cycletrack? Hayes St. in Pentagon City

[CaseyKane50]

@jcflack54 92897 wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks this cycle track on Hayes is stupid? It leads to the green bike lanes that are unusable at best and dangerous at worst. There are cars and buses crossing and blocking the lane all the time dropping and picking up passengers at the Metro entrances.

Here are some additional reasons why the new separated lanes are valuable.

1. Nice connection from the Joyce Street bike lane onto the new lanes.
2. Risk of being doored is greatly reduced. Passenger doors open into the buffer zone containing the flex posts
3. Tour buses and large trucks are less likely to block the bike lane
4. It is easier for cars exiting the Highland Park parking lot to see bikes in the bike lane
5. Police vehicles are less likely to “stand” in the bike lanes. This morning, a police car was instead “standing” in the transition zone before the parking spaces.
6. Cars merging from 18th Street (eastbound) should be able to better see bicyclists in the bike lane.
7. This is just one more of the improvements in the Crystal City/Pentagon city bike infrastructure.
8. It provides a visual reference to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians what is meant by a separated bike lane. Hopefully, other Local Virginia jurisdictions will come visit this location.
9. It is less likely that motorists will drive in the bike lanes.
10. You have to start somewhere

[dplasters]

I’ve never had the pleasure of riding in/on? something like that. A concern I can imagine is that at small intersections with parking lots or smaller side streets cars will start pulling out into the bike lane to see around the cars that are parked. This could lead to the reason I avoid sidewalks like the plague. Cars that pull out into where cyclists are traveling without looking or caring because all they are looking for are cars.

I have a strange love of sharrows since it keeps me directly where cars are almost always looking.

Having said all that I’m wildly jealous and want one in Fairfax.

[dasgeh]

@dplasters 92941 wrote:

I’ve never had the pleasure of riding in/on? something like that. A concern I can imagine is that at small intersections with parking lots or smaller side streets cars will start pulling out into the bike lane to see around the cars that are parked. This could lead to the reason I avoid sidewalks like the plague. Cars that pull out into where cyclists are traveling without looking or caring because all they are looking for are cars.

I have a strange love of sharrows since it keeps me directly where cars are almost always looking.

Having said all that I’m wildly jealous and want one in Fairfax.

You’ve pretty much summed up a major debate going on in cycling advocacy for the last… as long as I’ve been paying attention. Both sides have valid points, but I think it boils down to critical mass*: when there aren’t a lot of cyclists on the road, and aren’t a lot of these sorts of protected infrastructure, drivers aren’t going to know how to act around them, so being as much like a car as possible is probably safer. Once there are a lot of cyclists on the road and a lot of these sorts of protected infrastructure, drivers will get used to driving around them safely, and the infrastructure helps protect cyclists against the most egregiously dangerous driver behavior (staring at a phone while driving, and not seeing the cyclist in front of you).

In my opinion, the catch is that we won’t get more people cycling unless we have more protected infrastructure. So you have a little bit of a chicken/egg situation. But, bikeshare has done SO MUCH to get more butts on bikes, so I think we’re getting to the point where protected infrastructure is better in places with lots of cars (there may be other caveats, like few driveways). Sharrows/bike boulevards seem appropriate on neighborhood streets.

*Like how I didn’t turn this into a KIDICAL MASS ARLINGTON advert…

[dplasters]

@dasgeh 92943 wrote:

You’ve pretty much summed up a major debate going on in cycling advocacy for the last… as long as I’ve been paying attention. Both sides have valid points, but I think it boils down to critical mass*: when there aren’t a lot of cyclists on the road, and aren’t a lot of these sorts of protected infrastructure, drivers aren’t going to know how to act around them, so being as much like a car as possible is probably safer. Once there are a lot of cyclists on the road and a lot of these sorts of protected infrastructure, drivers will get used to driving around them safely, and the infrastructure helps protect cyclists against the most egregiously dangerous driver behavior (staring at a phone while driving, and not seeing the cyclist in front of you).

In my opinion, the catch is that we won’t get more people cycling unless we have more protected infrastructure. So you have a little bit of a chicken/egg situation. But, bikeshare has done SO MUCH to get more butts on bikes, so I think we’re getting to the point where protected infrastructure is better in places with lots of cars (there may be other caveats, like few driveways). Sharrows/bike boulevards seem appropriate on neighborhood streets.

*Like how I didn’t turn this into a KIDICAL MASS ARLINGTON advert…

I love the idea of them and complete agree with your philosophy. In my head though that stretch of road does have a few more non traffic lighted intersections/curb cuts than I would love for a cycle track (but I have no better solution and my head is wrong a lot). Out in the boonies of Fairfax it seems like there are curb cuts every 50 feet, but we have the added benefit of generally not having to provide street parking. Thus eliminating the dooring/visibility issue. Huzzah, a future possible benefit of bike lanes on Lee Highway.

I’m going to make passive aggressive references to those lanes since they were suppose to be there.

[CaseyKane50]

Paint has been added to the entrance of the protected bike lane at 15th and Hayes.

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