FFX Co Pkwy trail?

[mstone]

http://fabb-bikes.blogspot.com/2012/02/fixing-fairfax-co-parkway-trail.html

It’s like a little dream come true.

Assuming it gets done.

[vvill]

It’s cool, but my dream would be if the right lane of every multi-lane road was sharrowed by default. Then the funding for roads would benefit cyclists as well as other road users.

[JimF22003]

The surface does suck, but the most dangerous part of the trail is the horrible crossing points where traffic enters and exits at high speed. Very difficult to cross, and very difficult for cars to even see you’re there.

[CCrew]

Saw a notation in the FABB article about the bad signage at the I66 crossing. Does it actually go beyond Fair Lakes area? We rode it last year (on carbon road bikes – not again!) but had to bail at Fair Lakes because we didn’t see where it went further.

[jabberwocky]

@JimF22003 15100 wrote:

The surface does suck, but the most dangerous part of the trail is the horrible crossing points where traffic enters and exits at high speed. Very difficult to cross, and very difficult for cars to even see you’re there.

That was my first thought as well. The crossings on that trail are generally quite dangerous.

[mstone]

@CCrew 15101 wrote:

Saw a notation in the FABB article about the bad signage at the I66 crossing. Does it actually go beyond Fair Lakes area? We rode it last year (on carbon road bikes – not again!) but had to bail at Fair Lakes because we didn’t see where it went further.

You can take either monument or fair lakes to west ox and pick the trail up again south of lee highway. If there’s any signage at all, I’ve missed it, and you have to cross a bunch of streets as the trail does the annoying “it’s cheaper to make the cyclists cross the same street repeatedly than to pick one side and stick with it” thing. There’s another detour further south around 123, but I think that one might actually have a sign. (It’s also harder to miss as the trail simply ends and there’s only one way to go across the street.)

And yes, the only spot between the W&OD and 66 suitable for a road bike is the spot where they put in the temporary detour 5 years ago for utility work, so the trail runs on the road for a couple hundred feet. Since it’s a road, it has been repaved since it was built.

[mstone]

@vvill 15094 wrote:

It’s cool, but my dream would be if the right lane of every multi-lane road was sharrowed by default. Then the funding for roads would benefit cyclists as well as other road users.

I’ve seen people ride on the parkway, but you couldn’t pay me to do it with or without sharrows. Typical speeds are over 60mph, and I have young kids.

[jtcallahan]

I feel that the signage for the 123 route-around is adequate. The bike trail takes you up to the 123 trail which you follow down to Burke Center Pkwy. Then you take Burke Cener Pkwy back down to the FFX Pkwy. No problemo. I do agree that the West Ox re-around is not well signed, but anyone taking a trek on the parkway trail should have already used a map to plan their route. Google Maps has the parkway trail on their bicycle overlay.

[mstone]

Depends on how you planned it. If you planned a turn at monument you’re golden. (Until you get to 29 and the spot where your choices are to go west on 29 or turn around and ride back to the previous intersection so you can cross west ox to cross 29 to get to the parkway.) If you were planning to take the the path through fair lakes it’s unlikely that your map has kept up with the construction, and there are enough intersecting paths that even with a good map you’ll be a mite bewildered. That’s if there’s still a path where you were expecting one. Maybe we should just steal the signs from the 123 bypass and move them to where they’re more needed.

[Author]

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