Broken roads

[dasgeh]

So all this talk of the craziness of Arlington Roads reminded me of something I’ve meaning to ask about:

Arlington has a number of “broken roads” — roads that cars can’t drive straight through from one end of Arlington to another. Some, like 25th (as so awesomely mapped by Dana), have physical barriers breaking up the streets. Others, like Oakland St in Cherrydale, are broken by a little landscaping, keeping cars from coming through.

Where neighborhood streets are broken, we lose some promising bike (and ped) routes (e.g. 20th Street through Cherrydale would be a great alternative to Lee Hwy, if you could get from Oakland to Monroe). It seems like we could connect some of the pieces to create some of these bike (and ped) routes. For the ones like 20th, I understand that it would take a lot of work to get easements and create trails. But for others, like Oakland, all we’d need is a better barrier to stop the cars.

What’s the County Policy are building these barriers that cut off streets (like Oakland St, Fillmore St near 10th St (or is that gone now?))? When they build new ones, do they include a strip for bikes to go straight through v. going up on the sidewalk?

How can we get the ones where bikes have to go up on the sidewalk retrofitted to have a safer bike option?

Safer, you may ask? Not only is it annoying to go up on the sidewalk, sidewalks can be more dangerous places for bikes. Almost every day I jump on the sidewalk to get to Lee Hwy on Oakland. To get off the sidewalk, I have to use the driveway coming out of a townhouse complex. Cars coming out of that driveway often pull into the street without stopping and barely looking for people on the sidewalk (because it’s not likely there will be a car on the street they are pulling on to). I am wary of the cars, so slow roll up to the driveway, ready to stop, and about once a week, I would be smushed by a car speeding through the sidewalk if I weren’t slow rolling. If I were in the street, the sight lines would be better.

Topic

[Tim Kelley]

I’ll see if I can get one of the County planners/engineers to weigh in on this.

[chris_s]

@dasgeh 53503 wrote:

Others, like Oakland St in Cherrydale, are broken by a little landscaping, keeping cars from coming through.

What’s the County Policy are building these barriers that cut off streets (like Oakland St, Fillmore St near 10th St (or is that gone now?))? When they build new ones, do they include a strip for bikes to go straight through v. going up on the sidewalk?

How can we get the ones where bikes have to go up on the sidewalk retrofitted to have a safer bike option?

Man, what is it about Oakland Street and these things? Oakland & Pike

If nothing else, these things should go on our hit list next time the Bike Element of the MTP gets updated.

Additionally, if these are on public land they are excellent candidates for Neighborhood Conservation projects through your Civic Association.

[dasgeh]

@chris_s 53523 wrote:

Additionally, if these are on public land they are excellent candidates for Neighborhood Conservation projects through your Civic Association.

It’s on the list for our NC, but honestly, it seems like the County should fix this without us going through NC. And they certainly shouldn’t build any new ones without a nifty bike cut through.

[americancyclo]

@dasgeh 53503 wrote:

It seems like we could connect some of the pieces to create some of these bike (and ped) routes.

I lived in Palo Alto, CA on Bryant St (also not well know at all as the Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard) The three miles from my door to downtown had a number of traffic calming devices or barriers that made it a wonderful way to get downtown stress free. I’d love to see some of the barriers they used incorporated in to other neighborhoods around here.

Case Study: http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikesafe/case_studies/casestudy.cfm?CS_NUM=502

Google Street View examples:

Bryant and El Verano
Bryant and Matadero Canal
Bryant and Lowell Ave
Bryant and Embarcadero

[baiskeli]

Bollards!

[KLizotte]

@chris_s 53523 wrote:

Man, what is it about Oakland Street and these things? Oakland & Pike

It looks like it would still be passable by bike (though not optimally):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2981[/ATTACH]

[americancyclo]

It seems it wouldn’t be too difficult, at least on the Oakland streets to put curb cuts in that sidewalk. Leave the trees to communicate to drivers that it isn’t a path for them.

[Bike-Ped Manager]

Most of these access controlled streets were created before Arlington’s comprehensive adoption of “complete streets” and routine bike accommodation. If designed today, streets like Oakland (both North and South!) would have allowed for much better bike mobility. The question then is how to get these older closures retrofitted to allow safer bike access and still meet their original intended purpose of filtering out automobile traffic. Re-designing them is usually relatively easy. So we’re really just talking about prioritization and resources (staff and construction capital) at this point. Fortunately, we’ve been working on knocking these out as time and money permits. Working with Arlington’s Water, Sewer & Street maintenance crews (WSS), we were able to fix at least two bike blockages last year. This year, we should be fixing at least a couple more near Ballston. We’ll put the two Oakland’s on the list too. People should send candidates for bike blockage removal to info@bikearlington.com and we’ll see what we can do with our friends in WSS to get them fixed.

[americancyclo]

@Bike-Ped Manager 54663 wrote:

This year, we should be fixing at least a couple more near Ballston. We’ll put the two Oakland’s on the list too.

Is there a published list and calendar associated with these projects, or at least a “small win” board to document?

[Author]

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