Columbia Pike 2020 closures

[dasgeh]

Portions of lanes along Columbia Pike are set to be closed for most of 2020. The County has set up detours routing cars up to 50 or down to 7/Mason. Any reports from the ground on how that’s affecting biking? Is the Pike so clogged or empty that folks can bike on it? Are cars using the bike boulevards? What’s the word on the street?

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[ChristoB50]

I never bike directly on the Pike itself, but I do drive it, and boy what a mess!
They alternate 2 lanes in one direction with 1 going opposite, and I guess they change that config during each rush hour so the heavier traffic gets the 2 lanes. So there are prominent dog-leg lane shifts to deal with twice, plus the kidney-jostling horrible road surface in its current torn-up state. Traffic is no good for that whole stretch – avoid, avoid, avoid!

I’ve given up leaving my building (the driveway opens directly onto Columbia Pike) — I go out the back garage exit, then take a side street or two, even if I’m ultimately needing to rejoin the Pike (anywhere east of Four Mile Run stream, where things return to the normal 2-lanes both-ways again.)

[JustinW]

Snarky perhaps, but man o man, it is fun to cross that mess when going E or W on the W&OD where it crosses the Pike. Cars stacked up, not going much of anywhere, and you can slice right through on your way to wherever you are going.

[Judd]

I experience daily. During evening commute times the crosswalk for the W&OD across the Pike ends up being blocked 40% of the time by folks who crept forward and had the light change on them. It creates some not fun experiences if there’s a car turning right from Four Mile Run Dr on to the Pike since they can’t see folks weaving around a stopped car until the last second.

The reduction from 2 lanes to 1 westbound seems to back up traffic for a block and a half during evening rush. I am surprised that hardly anyone is turning left on to Four Mile Run Drive and then taking George Mason to avoid the Pike. My perception is that people aren’t attempting to detour.

The road surface is too bad to bike on and has been for quite some time.

Folks have complained that they didn’t know this was happening. I heard about it multiple times before it happened. There seems to be a weird expectation here that the County will hand deliver a note to people when there’s a project that might impact them. There’s a community meeting on Thursday where I’m sure County employees will mostly deal with people being jerk faces.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scoot]

This could create an opportunity for data collection regarding the impact of a potential road diet or bus lane on Columbia Pike. Since the closures will be in place for many months, we can observe what choices travelers are making to adapt.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/04/what-happened-to-atlantas-carmageddon/521805/

[Steve O]

In addition to the others mentioned in the article, perhaps the most famous of all: The Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco, that was damaged by the “World Series,” Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 and eventually torn down rather than repaired.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2010/12/san-francisco-the-embarcadero-freeway.html

[Author]

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