Biking Columbia Pike

[JustinW]

In many ways a simple approach is to avoid the Pike. Unless one needs to go directly where the pike goes (east<-->west) it is easier and safer and more fun to simply avoid the area. Maybe when all / some of the changes noted in the article are done…

[tnelson]

@JustinW 143656 wrote:

In many ways a simple approach is to avoid the Pike. Unless one needs to go directly where the pike goes (east<-->west) it is easier and safer and more fun to simply avoid the area. Maybe when all / some of the changes noted in the article are done…

Problem is, I want to be able to ride my bike to places on the Pike. I’d probably go much more often if the bike infrastructure were better.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

Yup. Farmers market. The Draft House. Delicious restaurants. The draft house. Papillon Cycles. The draft house. Judd’s Pool, my cat’s vet, The draft house, more ways to get east west quickly, potentially fun hills, the draft house… Instead I avoid the place almost as much as I avoid Clarendon.

[huskerdont]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 143658 wrote:

Yup. Farmers market. The Draft House. Delicious restaurants. The draft house. Papillon Cycles. The draft house. Judd’s Pool, my cat’s vet, The draft house, more ways to get east west quickly, potentially fun hills, the draft house… Instead I avoid the place almost as much as I avoid Clarendon.

I find Clarendon quite bikeable, as long as you watch out for all the regular things one has to watch out for. And if the main roads aren’t to your liking, the neighborhood roads make great alternatives.

But yeah, the only thing I bike to on Columbia Pike is Papillon, and all my visits are commando-style.

[gibby]

@tnelson 143657 wrote:

Problem is, I want to be able to ride my bike to places on the Pike. I’d probably go much more often if the bike infrastructure were better.

I lived off Barton St for many years and maneuvered the parallel streets and sidewalks fairly effectively even during rush hour. Not the best or fastest option and definitely frustrating, but at least from the Pentagon, uphill to Ft Myers and over to the new Wash Blvd underpass it’s smooth sailing.

[JustinW]

@huskerdont 143663 wrote:

I find Clarendon quite bikeable, as long as you watch out for all the regular things one has to watch out for. And if the main roads aren’t to your liking, the neighborhood roads make great alternatives.

But yeah, the only thing I bike to on Columbia Pike is Papillon, and all my visits are commando-style.

With some planning I find you can hit many points on the Pike *without riding much* on the Pike. Be it on bike blvds / parallel streets or via intersecting roads coming from north or south of the Pike, one can access Pike stuff. Riding ON the Pike is less viable in too many places at this time.

As far as “all my visits are commando-style” I’m not sure how one’s choice of underwear affects biking safety on the Pike….

[dasgeh]

Great write up. Thanks for putting it out there.

@JustinW 143679 wrote:

With some planning I find you can hit many points on the Pike *without riding much* on the Pike. Be it on bike blvds / parallel streets or via intersecting roads coming from north or south of the Pike, one can access Pike stuff. Riding ON the Pike is less viable in too many places at this time.

As far as “all my visits are commando-style” I’m not sure how one’s choice of underwear affects biking safety on the Pike….

The main issues I have with Pike-biking are:
1) You’re never on the Pike, which makes getting to Pike destinations more difficult. The hills don’t help here either: you can’t see the Pike from the alternatives, so you have to remember the cross street, not just “I know it’s west of Mason”. E.g. If you want to go to Sazon, and you’re on 9th, you have to remember to take Buchannon, not Taylor, etc. And you won’t just see a place that looks cool and duck in, which is one of my favorite things about being on a bike.

2) West of the W&OD, it all sucks. The Pike sucks, the alternatives suck, the hills suck, and then you’re in Fairfax.

3) East of the W&OD, the alternatives are ok for longer routes, but add a significant distance to shorter routes. As mentioned in the article.

I was surprised you focused on 9th instead of 12th. I expect 12th will become the main alternative once the Hoffman-Boston connector is reality. Also, the grade difference between 12th and the Pike isn’t as great and there seems to be more retail near 12th, both of which also makes me think that 12th is a better single alternative (if you have to have a single alternative).

[huskerdont]

@dasgeh 143686 wrote:

2) West of the W&OD, it all sucks. The Pike sucks, the alternatives suck, the hills suck, and then you’re in Fairfax.

Funniest/truest thing I’ve read all day.

[DrP]

So, why is it that the folks who seem to design bike and pedestrian paths seem to think that cyclists and pedestrians have all the time in the world to get somewhere? The routes are longer than for cars in the majority of instances, such as this one or anything where there is a “pedestrian bridge.” Clearly, if we needed to get somewhere in a rapid amount of time, we would drive ourselves (public transit is rarely fast either – cycling is often about the same amount of time).

How do we get the designers to take walking and biking seriously as a mode of transportation? Thus getting them to design the shorter routes for us rather than having us detour many blocks out of the way, over fair weather fords (and this morning, not all were clear), forcing a dangerous crossing, etc. Do we need to require all designers to give up their cars for a week at the beginning of a design cycle? As well as the boards who approve the plans and some of the folks in the neighborhood who just complain about everything without thinking?

[lordofthemark]

@DrP 143690 wrote:

So, why is it that the folks who seem to design bike and pedestrian paths seem to think that cyclists and pedestrians have all the time in the world to get somewhere? The routes are longer than for cars in the majority of instances, such as this one or anything where there is a “pedestrian bridge.” Clearly, if we needed to get somewhere in a rapid amount of time, we would drive ourselves (public transit is rarely fast either – cycling is often about the same amount of time).

How do we get the designers to take walking and biking seriously as a mode of transportation? Thus getting them to design the shorter routes for us rather than having us detour many blocks out of the way, over fair weather fords (and this morning, not all were clear), forcing a dangerous crossing, etc. Do we need to require all designers to give up their cars for a week at the beginning of a design cycle? As well as the boards who approve the plans and some of the folks in the neighborhood who just complain about everything without thinking?

A. Organize. Join local advocacy orgs (and donate to them), show up at meetings, write emails to elected officials, let elected officials know you bike and care about biking conditions, etc B. Get more people biking, and biking more – both because its easier for advocates to make a case when biking numbers are higher, and because more cyclists means more who will organize (even though most won’t)

“Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize!” Joe Hill

[chris_s]

@dasgeh 143686 wrote:

2) West of the W&OD, it all sucks. The Pike sucks, the alternatives suck, the hills suck, and then you’re in Fairfax.

This so true, and it is born out by, for instance, the Strava heat map. Biking drops off significantly between the W&OD and the County line.

@dasgeh 143686 wrote:

I was surprised you focused on 9th instead of 12th. I expect 12th will become the main alternative once the Hoffman-Boston connector is reality. Also, the grade difference between 12th and the Pike isn’t as great and there seems to be more retail near 12th, both of which also makes me think that 12th is a better single alternative (if you have to have a single alternative).

I focused on 9th because of the reliance on the north-side sidepath for both the east end and the west end – traveling on 12th would require crossing and re-crossing the Pike multiple times. Also because 12th gets you even less far West and even less far East than 9th, at least for now.

[Judd]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 143658 wrote:

Yup. Farmers market. The Draft House. Delicious restaurants. The draft house. Papillon Cycles. The draft house. Judd’s Pool, my cat’s vet, The draft house, more ways to get east west quickly, potentially fun hills, the draft house… Instead I avoid the place almost as much as I avoid Clarendon.

It’s true. Not a single one of my bike friends has come to play in my pool since I live on the Pike. This is probably the worst part of biking on the Pike. Although I would recommend that taking the W&OD and then a simple six turns in the 7th no wait the 8th no wait the 9th no wait the 6th street bike boulevard to South Courthouse will get you to my house.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elbows]

What’s the latest for the Hoffman-Boston connector? Something like 2022-2023? And it would be dream come true for the people behind consideration of things like denying bikes in ANC to ride the Pike to and from DC during rushhour.

Also, its nice to have the wider sidewalks around the bridge under 27, but would be really nice is if the pedestrian signals did not need to be separately begged for by a button push. If you obey the lights, you’re almost guaranteeing yourself a sit through several light cycles even when vehicles are not coming through. That’s the amount of consideration that is given to nondriving users of this area. (Slightly restated from what I said on GGW.)

[chris_s]

@elbows 143707 wrote:

What’s the latest for the Hoffman-Boston connector? Something like 2022-2023?

Preliminary Design FY 2020
Engineering FY 2021
Construction FY 2022 – FY 2023

@elbows 143707 wrote:

Also, its nice to have the wider sidewalks around the bridge under 27, but would be really nice is if the pedestrian signals did not need to be separately begged for by a button push.

It’s not supposed to be this way traveling ALONG the Pike. If the Pike traffic gets a green and the ped signal doesn’t immediately go to walk, the signal timing has gotten screwed up (again). Email des@arlingtonva.us that “the signal at X is not giving a pedestrian walk signal during the main movement phase (Pike traffic)”. They fixed it about a week ago I think after I had alerted them that it was messed up.

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