Between you me and the lamp post

[mstone]

Poles in sidewalk/trail ROW are just a symptom of the general lack of concern the DOTs have for non-motorized transportation. They would never consider putting a utility pole in the middle of the street, but there’s nothing specifically prohibiting them from doing it on a trail so they do. Part of the reason is that they do have guidelines about how close a pole can be to traffic, so it’s better for them to put it on the pedestrian ROW than too close to the street.

The ones plopped in the middle of the W&OD bypass annoyance and go straight to ironic.

[Steve O]

@mstone 112925 wrote:

Poles in sidewalk/trail ROW are just a symptom of the general lack of concern the DOTs have for non-motorized transportation. They would never consider putting a utility pole in the middle of the street, but there’s nothing specifically prohibiting them from doing it on a trail

Not only is there nothing specifically prohibiting it, they often make a special effort to design extraneous ones in and incur extra costs to make sure they are there. Hence my ongoing battle against bollards, which are, essentially, poles in the middle of the trail.

[Emm]

OHHH somewhere for me to gripe! My favorite

Potomac Ave in Alexandria–at the intersection of Glebe road where you have to cross the street to stay on the trail. WHY is there a light post in the middle of the north west side of the trail? It makes turning at any speed terrifying–it creates a VERY tight turn. And just to add salt to the wound, on the north west side the call button for the walk signal is broken. I have now tried it almost every day for a month and it has NEVER worked. The call button on the east side works fine though, so I refuse to believe this is a user error.

Griping about this actually did help though–I just submitted a service request to Alexandria about the walk signal

[Crickey7]

Yep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/two-legs-bad-two-wheels-bad-four-wheels-bad/2012/12/05/067730b4-3ef8-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html

[lordofthemark]

@Emm 112942 wrote:

OHHH somewhere for me to gripe! My favorite

Potomac Ave in Alexandria–at the intersection of Glebe road where you have to cross the street to stay on the trail. WHY is there a light post in the middle of the north west side of the trail? It makes turning at any speed terrifying–it creates a VERY tight turn. And just to add salt to the wound, on the north west side the call button for the walk signal is broken. I have now tried it almost every day for a month and it has NEVER worked. The call button on the east side works fine though, so I refuse to believe this is a user error.

Griping about this actually did help though–I just submitted a service request to Alexandria about the walk signal

This? https://www.google.com/maps/place/Potomac+Ave,+Alexandria,+VA+22307/@38.832642,-77.047659,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sutLPrrRLusNW9nIyDHVx2g!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7b1cd317bed43:0xf815fe931835e596

Compare this:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/King+St,+Alexandria,+VA+22302/@38.837196,-77.10247,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sdZhiUja7l_k7ocrM-hnlWA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7b3e4e9ec7b27:0xc8a46cd7f6bec30

of course the latter has the excuse it was not built recently, in “more enlightened times”.

But crossing the River, this has to top most

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.88146,-77.026777,3a,75y,90h,97.87t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sSgKZcINIccZWU4WJGoAmAA!2e0

[Emm]

@lordofthemark 112945 wrote:

This? https://www.google.com/maps/place/Potomac+Ave,+Alexandria,+VA+22307/@38.832642,-77.047659,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sutLPrrRLusNW9nIyDHVx2g!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7b1cd317bed43:0xf815fe931835e596

Across the street from that–google maps doesn’t show it clearly, but only 1 person can go by it at once–ped, bike, or dog, so it doesn’t allow 2 way traffic which is problematic for a busy trail. They also have a large construction sign there currently which takes up additional trail space and blocks your view of oncoming traffic (which you need to see to cross the trail since the walk sign is broken…). Is it as bad as the ones you list? Not really, but when mixed with the fact the call box has malfunctioned since sometime last year, it’s a real annoyance for me every single day.

[komorebi]

@Emm 112942 wrote:

on the north west side the call button for the walk signal is broken. I have now tried it almost every day for a month and it has NEVER worked. The call button on the east side works fine though, so I refuse to believe this is a user error.

Emm, have you tried using the call button on the other post at the northwest corner (i.e., the post that’s closer to Glebe Road, not the post that’s closer to Potomac Avenue)? I’m pretty sure that the call button closer to Glebe Road is the one that you’re supposed to use if you’re trying to cross Potomac Avenue. I used it successfully just an hour or so ago, and it’s been working consistently every time that I’ve been through there in the last month.

I agree with you that it’s extremely annoying to have a post smack dab in the middle of the turn area, though. It bothers me every time I go through there.

[Emm]

@komorebi 112962 wrote:

Emm, have you tried using the call button on the other post at the northwest corner (i.e., the post that’s closer to Glebe Road, not the post that’s closer to Potomac Avenue)? I’m pretty sure that the call button closer to Glebe Road is the one that you’re supposed to use if you’re trying to cross Potomac Avenue. I used it successfully just an hour or so ago, and it’s been working consistently every time that I’ve been through there in the last month.

I agree with you that it’s extremely annoying to have a post smack dab in the middle of the turn area, though. It bothers me every time I go through there.

Hmm. I will try this tonight. That would be a pretty odd place for the correct call box–I generally assume that unless there are arrows stating otherwise, the call box closest to the road I am trying to cross is the correct one.

[komorebi]

@Emm 112970 wrote:

That would be a pretty odd place for the correct call box–I generally assume that unless there are arrows stating otherwise, the call box closest to the road I am trying to cross is the correct one.

I suspect that whoever put up the call boxes was thinking that the pedestrians using the call boxes would be continuing straight — in other words, that pedestrians walking east along Glebe would use the call box closest to Glebe to continue straight across Potomac Ave, and that pedestrians walking south along Potomac Ave. would use the call box closest to Potomac Ave. to continue straight across Glebe.

Of course, the fact that the same people put the post smack dab in the middle of the path could be taken as evidence that they weren’t thinking at all. :rolleyes:

[DCAKen]

The ones that irk me are on the sidewalk connecting the Georgetown Branch of the CCT to Rock Creek.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8342[/ATTACH]

And the newest obstacle is even more maddening, but hopefully more temporary. New signals are being put in where the trail crosses Connecticut Avenue. They’ve installed the new pole for the walk signal in the middle of the sidewalk right at the curb cut.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8343[/ATTACH]

It looks like the sidewalk will get reconstructed when the old pole is removed, but for the time being, it’s frustrating to see this done.

[Steve O]

@DCAKen 113669 wrote:

And the newest obstacle is even more maddening, but hopefully more temporary. New signals are being put in where the trail crosses Connecticut Avenue. They’ve installed the new pole for the walk signal in the middle of the sidewalk right at the curb cut.

[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8343&stc=1[/IMG]

This one is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know who you would notify in MoCo, but I think it needs to be shown to the ped/bike people, the head of transportation, the project manager, and why not your county board member, too. Otherwise this kind of crap just keeps happening. It appears to be grossly out of compliance with ADA requirements, too. I’m no expert on that, though.

[datgl]

@DCAKen 113669 wrote:

The ones that irk me are on the sidewalk connecting the Georgetown Branch of the CCT to Rock Creek.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8342[/ATTACH]

And the newest obstacle is even more maddening, but hopefully more temporary. New signals are being put in where the trail crosses Connecticut Avenue. They’ve installed the new pole for the walk signal in the middle of the sidewalk right at the curb cut.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8343[/ATTACH]

It looks like the sidewalk will get reconstructed when the old pole is removed, but for the time being, it’s frustrating to see this done.

And would it be too much to ask that the powers to be put up a sign telling us what they are doing. They do it all the time for people in cars, but not people in bikes. If the people at Park and Planning are tired of us calling, tweeting, and asking them to take it down, a laminated sign at the intersection would solve that problem.

[lordofthemark]

@Emm 112947 wrote:

Across the street from that–google maps doesn’t show it clearly, but only 1 person can go by it at once–ped, bike, or dog, so it doesn’t allow 2 way traffic which is problematic for a busy trail. They also have a large construction sign there currently which takes up additional trail space and blocks your view of oncoming traffic (which you need to see to cross the trail since the walk sign is broken…). Is it as bad as the ones you list? Not really, but when mixed with the fact the call box has malfunctioned since sometime last year, it’s a real annoyance for me every single day.

Use call click connect. Not just for broken stuff, but for complaints about bad infra. I was told to by someone from T&ES today.

Also they definitely plan to extend the MUP north to Arlington when Potomac Yard North is developed. Which could be years.

[peterw_diy]

@Emm 112942 wrote:

OHHH somewhere for me to gripe! My favorite

Potomac Ave in Alexandria–at the intersection of Glebe road where you have to cross the street to stay on the trail. WHY is there a light post in the middle of the north west side of the trail? It makes turning at any speed terrifying–it creates a VERY tight turn. And just to add salt to the wound, on the north west side the call button for the walk signal is broken. I have now tried it almost every day for a month and it has NEVER worked. The call button on the east side works fine though, so I refuse to believe this is a user error.

Griping about this actually did help though–I just submitted a service request to Alexandria about the walk signal

What kind of response did you get from this? I am pretty annoyed to see your post because I reported the same d%~n thing on September 22 this year. On September 29 this year it appears that some kid on the bike got hit by a car while trying to cross Potomac Avenue. Now I hear you raised the issue five months earlier!?!

Staff told me they thought they would have signage clarifying the button placement installed around the first week of October. But as of today there still is no signage clarify which button does what.

[Emm]

@peterw_diy 126358 wrote:

What kind of response did you get from this? I am pretty annoyed to see your post because I reported the same d%~n thing on September 22 this year. On September 29 this year it appears that some kid on the bike got hit by a car while trying to cross Potomac Avenue. Now I hear you raised the issue five months earlier!?!

Staff told me they thought they would have signage clarifying the button placement installed around the first week of October. But as of today there still is no signage clarify which button does what.

I got no response. . I definitely reported it though as being broken or confusing. I see people every day hit the wrong button. I now mostly take potomac ave and not the trail because this intersection (and the ones behind potomac yard) scares me.

[Author]

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