December 2015 ABAC Meeting

[dasgeh]

Good meeting. Thanks to all who came out.

For those who weren’t there, be prepared for large swaths of FMR east of Shirlington to be closed for large swaths of time.

[dbb]

[ATTACH]10238[/ATTACH]

Discussed last night.

Public meeting at NRECA (4301 Wilson Blvd, Room CC1) at 6:30 pm Wed 16 Dec.

Will discuss changes to bus parking at the Ballston Metro Station

[Sunyata]

@dasgeh 129360 wrote:

Good meeting. Thanks to all who came out.

For those who weren’t there, be prepared for large swaths of FMR east of Shirlington to be closed for large swaths of time.

Is there any additional information on this? (such as dates/locations and if there will be signed detours in effect?)

Thanks for all of your efforts!

[sjclaeys]

@dasgeh 129360 wrote:

Good meeting. Thanks to all who came out.

For those who weren’t there, be prepared for large swaths of FMR east of Shirlington to be closed for large swaths of time.

So what is Arlington County’s plan to provide safe and practicable alternate routes for cyclists? Also, I thought that the ABAC meeting notes were usually posted. Is that no longer the practice?

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 129393 wrote:

So what is Arlington County’s plan to provide safe and practicable alternate routes for cyclists? Also, I thought that the ABAC meeting notes were usually posted. Is that no longer the practice?

There are 3 (three!) projects that threaten to close different parts of the FMR Trail east of Shirlington.

The most concerning is an environmental project to do some work in the stream. Large vehicles will use the trail, so cyclists and pedestrians will not. They are planning for trail closures for a year, starting next summer, but are hoping for a shorter time frame. They’re detour plan is to route bikes over the stream along Rte 1, then on the “FMR Park Trail” that goes through a park on the ALX side, then up Mt Vernon Ave to get back on the trail. The County staff who presented the detour (technical term is they are in the process of creating the MOT (“Maintenance of Travel”) plan) was woefully under prepared. He had not thought through how people were expected to travel on Mt Vernon Ave or on Rte 1, short of saying, basically, “there are sidewalks”. He did not know the condition of the sidewalks. He did not know the condition of the ALX Trail. He had not looked at the safety of the ALX Trail (a concern at the meeting). He at not looked at alternatives, such as taking a lane on S Glebe for a 2 way protected cycletrack, or improving a sidewalk on S Glebe for such. He promised to do some homework and come back to the BAC in January.

The other two are:
* A redevelopment at the Berkeley, which is just west of the work area for the environmental project. I believe the plans involve repaving (so short term closure). The redevelopment plans do NOT include taking down the fence at the back of the parking lot. A relevant meeting is being held 12/21.

* A VDOT project to improve the 395 bridges over FMR creek. They expect some night closures of the FMR Trail over a period of 6 months, starting next year. Detour involves the bridge. BAC asked the County to look at improving bike infra on Martha Custis before that starts.

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 129393 wrote:

So what is Arlington County’s plan to provide safe and practicable alternate routes for cyclists? Also, I thought that the ABAC meeting notes were usually posted. Is that no longer the practice?

There are 3 (three!) projects that threaten to close different parts of the FMR Trail west of Shirlington.

The most concerning is an environmental project to do some work in the stream. Large vehicles will use the trail, so cyclists and pedestrians will not. They are planning for trail closures for a year, starting next summer, but are hoping for a shorter time frame. They’re detour plan is to route bikes over the stream along Rte 1, then on the “FMR Park Trail” that goes through a park on the ALX side, then up Mt Vernon Ave to get back on the trail. The County staff who presented the detour (technical term is they are in the process of creating the MOT (“Maintenance of Travel”) plan) was woefully under prepared. He had not thought through how people were expected to travel on Mt Vernon Ave or on Rte 1, short of saying, basically, “there are sidewalks”. He did not know the condition of the sidewalks. He did not know the condition of the ALX Trail. He had not looked at the safety of the ALX Trail (a concern at the meeting). He at not looked at alternatives, such as taking a lane on S Glebe for a 2 way protected cycletrack, or improving a sidewalk on S Glebe for such. He promised to do some homework and come back to the BAC in January.

The other two are:
* A redevelopment at the Berkeley, which is just west of the work area for the environmental project. I believe the plans involve repaving (so short term closure). The redevelopment plans do NOT include taking down the fence at the back of the parking lot. A relevant meeting is being held 12/21.

* A VDOT project to improve the 395 bridges over FMR creek. They expect some night closures of the FMR Trail over a period of 6 months, starting next year. Detour involves the bridge. BAC asked the County to look at improving bike infra on Martha Custis before that starts.

[dasgeh]

Pic of detour for environmental project

[chris_s]

@dasgeh 129401 wrote:

detour plan is to route bikes over the stream along Rte 1, then on the “FMR Park Trail” that goes through a park on the ALX side, then up Mt Vernon Ave to get back on the trail.

This is my commute, I actually intentionally bail to the Alexandria side at Mt Vernon since I’m headed to Commonwealth Ave and don’t want to go past it to the Route 1 bridge. I expect it’ll be mostly OK, except the Mt Vernon Ave sidewalk is narrow. Like TR bridge narrow. Dasgeh and I had better not try to pass eachother

This is assuming Alexandria is done with THEIR stream project first, because that trail that is shown in the detour on the Alexandria side is closed right now (so I’m staying on the Arlington side and going across Route 1, whose sidewalk is plenty wide).

[chris_s]

@dasgeh 129401 wrote:

* A redevelopment at the Berkeley, which is just west of the work area for the environmental project. I believe the plans involve repaving (so short term closure). The redevelopment plans do NOT include taking down the fence at the back of the parking lot. A relevant meeting is being held 12/21.

Unless things have changed, this project should actually WIDEN the trail to 12′. If things have changed, they’re going to get a piece of my mind and they should get a piece of the BAC’s as well. Widening the trail to 12′ there is one of the few bike projects that is actually in the MTP. We require development projects to bring adjacent sidewalks & street trees up to our current standards, they should do the same with the trail.

[consularrider]

dasgeh, all three of those locations are east of Shirlington,

[DismalScientist]

Well, since the Earth is a spheroid, they are also west of Shirlington.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 129409 wrote:

I expect it’ll be mostly OK, except the Mt Vernon Ave sidewalk is narrow. Like TR bridge narrow.

There are also a significant number of pedestrians who use that sidewalk – I know, I counted them.

[S. Arlington Observer]

Seriously, this is the kind of thing that makes me doubt Arlington’s commitment to bicycle commuting. They want to simply close a “main road” for a year? I use the route daily, sometimes twice a day. I will, of course, try the detour, which will add significant time. And I am concerned about safety. How does one navigate Route 1?

I may simply use the sidewalk (assuming they don’t close that too) along S. Glebe. I suspect others will too. This is not a recipe for either cyclist or pedestrian safety.

This is not a serious community when it comes to promoting cycling. Much of Europe is serious, but Arlington is not. Very distressing.

[S. Arlington Observer]

I want to write the County Board about this (and about the general lack of consistency between County rhetoric and actions regarding “the car free diet”). But I suppose I’ll wait until after the 14th (next week.) The two new Board members are to be sworn in then. I’m not sure how to email them now.

[dasgeh]

@consularrider 129418 wrote:

dasgeh, all three of those locations are east of Shirlington,

They moved since you left.

Or fixed.

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