Bike Unfriendly Curb Cut on Walter Reed Project

[Steve O]

@Brandon 192987 wrote:

So unfortunately it looks like they DID make this a beg button at the S Walter Reed Dr intersection. I was stopped and waiting for the crosswalk this morning and the 4MR traffic got the green but no crosswalk light, even with no left turn traffic and light. I almost missed it while chatting with another cyclist. So make sure you push that button when you get there . . . 😡

We can bring this up at the BAC meeting. There’s one tonight, in fact, and you are welcome to attend. Everyone is welcome to attend.

[zsionakides]

@Brandon 192987 wrote:

So unfortunately it looks like they DID make this a beg button at the S Walter Reed Dr intersection. I was stopped and waiting for the crosswalk this morning and the 4MR traffic got the green but no crosswalk light, even with no left turn traffic and light. I almost missed it while chatting with another cyclist. So make sure you push that button when you get there . . . 😡

I haven’t seen this crossing Walter Reed, but I have noticed the pedestrian/bicycle signal crossing for 4MR turns red well before the road light does – about 10 seconds before.

[Emm]

@Brandon 192987 wrote:

So unfortunately it looks like they DID make this a beg button at the S Walter Reed Dr intersection. I was stopped and waiting for the crosswalk this morning and the 4MR traffic got the green but no crosswalk light, even with no left turn traffic and light. I almost missed it while chatting with another cyclist. So make sure you push that button when you get there . . . 😡

I noticed this while driving a few days ago. I was turning left off onto Walter Reed from Four Mile Run Drive after spending an exciting few hours at the Shirlington DMV, and of course checked the trail before turning left onto Walter Reed. That’s when I noticed that even though I had just gotten the green light on Four Mile Run Dr, the trail crossing was still a solid “do not cross”. I thought it was weird at the time but forgot to ask about it. There’s no left turn arrow at this intersection going south, so that wouldn’t be why it said “do not cross”.

[Steve O]

@Emm 192997 wrote:

I noticed this while driving a few days ago. I was turning left off onto Walter Reed from Four Mile Run Drive after spending an exciting few hours at the Shirlington DMV, and of course checked the trail before turning left onto Walter Reed. That’s when I noticed that even though I had just gotten the green light on Four Mile Run Dr, the trail crossing was still a solid “do not cross”. I thought it was weird at the time but forgot to ask about it. There’s no left turn arrow at this intersection going south, so that wouldn’t be why it said “do not cross”.

So you were e-bound on 4MR turning north–up superman hill? Or w-bound on 4MR turning south?

I guess I always think of 4MR as running E-W along here rather than N-S but it’s kinda diagonal.

I will bring this up at the BAC tonight. Before the “improvements” the walk signal on the W&OD always activated on the green light. So something has been altered.

[huskerdont]

I’ve been taking S. Four Mile Run Drive (and Arlington Mill Drive) more often lately. Having to beg to cross using the trail is going to entrench that behavior.

[dasgeh]

The light timing didn’t come up last night (we were talking about ebikes & scooters), but I reported it directly to signals.

Is it possible the light is not in rest in wait — i.e. the ped light turns white when the corresponding traffic light turns green, but the ped light counts down and goes to red before the traffic light goes yellow/red.

I recently encountered this problem on Washington Blvd at Longfellow (just east of Westover) — the ped light was red, the traffic light was green and (the kicker) there was NO BEG BUTTON to get the ped light to come on. I have also reported this but seriously SMH

[Emm]

@dasgeh 193029 wrote:

Is it possible the light is not in rest in wait — i.e. the ped light turns white when the corresponding traffic light turns green, but the ped light counts down and goes to red before the traffic light goes yellow/red.

Nope. I waiting on red to turn left, got a green light, turned left asap, and walk signal was red. So unless it was a 5 second long walk/count down signal, it never turned.

[dasgeh]

@Emm 193036 wrote:

Nope. I waiting on red to turn left, got a green light, turned left asap, and walk signal was red. So unless it was a 5 second long walk/count down signal, it never turned.

ARRRRGH! (thanks for the update)

[KLizotte]

I live at the intersection of 4MR and Walter Reed so I routinely drive, walk, take the bus, and cycle through that intersection. It sucks for everyone. As a non-driver, I regularly avoid crossing Walter Reed (just before the big hill) because drivers are trying to make a left turn there without the advantage of a left turn signal (arghhhhhhhh) and right turn drivers can’t really see cyclists coming from the east at all on the W&OD (requires extraordinarily flexible neck muscles). I wish they had set the lights so that peds/cyclists could cross WR without any driver interference at all.

I regularly take S Arlington Mill Drive when driving so that I can head up Walter Reed before turning on to the slip road. Less chance of hitting a cyclist that way.

In parting, I strongly advise looking very carefully for left turning drivers and if you are heading west on the W&OD, be aware that drivers are not expecting cyclists to suddenly cross in front of them while they make a right hand turn on to Walter Reed. I look as best I can but if someone is doing 15+ mph and is only looking at the walking man sign, the cyclist is gonna hit my car because I won’t have time to stop given the very short sightlines. I can’t crane my neck around enough to fully check if the coast is clear and most folks aren’t even thinking of cyclists.

I hate that intersection; it’s very poorly designed and I don’t want to see any more people get hurt. I see the accidents from my window.

[zsionakides]

@KLizotte 193069 wrote:

I live at the intersection of 4MR and Walter Reed so I routinely drive, walk, take the bus, and cycle through that intersection. It sucks for everyone. As a non-driver, I regularly avoid crossing Walter Reed (just before the big hill) because drivers are trying to make a left turn there without the advantage of a left turn signal (arghhhhhhhh) and right turn drivers can’t really see cyclists coming from the east at all on the W&OD (requires extraordinarily flexible neck muscles). I wish they had set the lights so that peds/cyclists could cross WR without any driver interference at all.

I regularly take S Arlington Mill Drive when driving so that I can head up Walter Reed before turning on to the slip road. Less chance of hitting a cyclist that way.

In parting, I strongly advise looking very carefully for left turning drivers and if you are heading west on the W&OD, be aware that drivers are not expecting cyclists to suddenly cross in front of them while they make a right hand turn on to Walter Reed. I look as best I can but if someone is doing 15+ mph and is only looking at the walking man sign, the cyclist is gonna hit my car because I won’t have time to stop given the very short sightlines. I can’t crane my neck around enough to fully check if the coast is clear and most folks aren’t even thinking of cyclists.

I hate that intersection; it’s very poorly designed and I don’t want to see any more people get hurt. I see the accidents from my window.

I agree, and Walter Reed is probably the worst of the W&OD intersections in Arlington. Knowing there are cyclists going through there helps while driving, but the bad sightlines plus lack of a dedicated left turn signal greatly increase the dangers for everyone at the intersection.

Probably the 2nd best thing they could do at Walter Reed (best is build an overpass) would be to shift the path back from 4MR to be closer to 4MR Minor and stop southbound Walter Reed traffic at 4MR minor instead of 4MR. This would give turning traffic more visibility into bikes and pedestrians crossing, particularly since there aren’t dedicated turn signals for left turns off 4MR.

[Steve O]

@zsionakides 193075 wrote:

I agree, and Walter Reed is probably the worst of the W&OD intersections in Arlington. Knowing there are cyclists going through there helps while driving, but the bad sightlines plus lack of a dedicated left turn signal greatly increase the dangers for everyone at the intersection.

Probably the 2nd best thing they could do at Walter Reed (best is build an overpass) would be to shift the path back from 4MR to be closer to 4MR Minor and stop southbound Walter Reed traffic at 4MR minor instead of 4MR. This would give turning traffic more visibility into bikes and pedestrians crossing, particularly since there aren’t dedicated turn signals for left turns off 4MR.

This is essentially the design at George Mason, which works better than Walter Reed, IMO.

[zsionakides]

@Emm 193036 wrote:

Nope. I waiting on red to turn left, got a green light, turned left asap, and walk signal was red. So unless it was a 5 second long walk/count down signal, it never turned.

I ran through the intersection on the WOD this morning and purposely didn’t push the beg button. The hand stayed red the whole time that 4MR had the green light.

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