Four Mile Run Trail Closure Along South Glebe — Options

[Steve O]

Looking at a map, one option could be to go up Arlington Ridge just one block and then turn right on June.
Is the trail through Oakcrest Park rideable? If so, then one could work through the neighborhood streets to 23rd and not deal with the traffic or the curves on Arlington Ridge. Can’t avoid the climb, though.

Or take the sidewalk on the north side of Glebe to Hill St. & right on 31st to Eads. Looks less hilly. I have not done this, so I don’t know the feasibility of riding the sidewalk on Glebe. I would suspect trying to turn left off of Glebe onto Hill would be suicide except during very low traffic times. You’d have to cross at Mt. Vernon Ave.
This might be an interesting option coming the other way. Exit MVT at Crystal City; take Eads to right on 31st; left on Hill; right on Glebe for a short distance (or sidewalk) to Mt. Vernon Ave. Perhaps I’ll test this going to 3rd Thursday.

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[ginacico]

@Steve O 145831 wrote:

Is the trail through Oakcrest Park rideable? If so, then one could work through the neighborhood streets to 23rd and not deal with the traffic or the curves on Arlington Ridge. Can’t avoid the climb, though.

It’s narrow, paved, and steep. Would be an interesting diversion from Arlington Ridge. Goat Path, without the bollards. Death is imminent.

[vern]

I think I’ll try SteveO’s 31st street scheme going home tonight and then try the Arlington Ridge route tomorrow morning. Thanks for all the helpful responses.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@Steve O 145831 wrote:

Looking at a map, one option could be to go up Arlington Ridge just one block and then turn right on June.
Is the trail through Oakcrest Park rideable? If so, then one could work through the neighborhood streets to 23rd and not deal with the traffic or the curves on Arlington Ridge. Can’t avoid the climb, though.

Or take the sidewalk on the north side of Glebe to Hill St. & right on 31st to Eads. Looks less hilly. I have not done this, so I don’t know the feasibility of riding the sidewalk on Glebe. I would suspect trying to turn left off of Glebe onto Hill would be suicide except during very low traffic times. You’d have to cross at Mt. Vernon Ave.
This might be an interesting option coming the other way. Exit MVT at Crystal City; take Eads to right on 31st; left on Hill; right on Glebe for a short distance (or sidewalk) to Mt. Vernon Ave. Perhaps I’ll test this going to 3rd Thursday.

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I’ve ridden on all the routes around that area a few times cause I lived there in Aurora Highlands for 6-7 years. I recommend crossing Glebe at Meade (the Giant Foods side) to 28th and then going up and down Army Navy drive to the Pentagon Mall/Row area over messing with biking Mt Vernon Ave/Arlington Ridge Rd or the Glebes. Crossing the intersection of Glebe and Mt Vern will never not be a nightmare.

That path up to Oakcrest is 1 way traffic width and gets up to like a 20% incline. People walk their dogs on it. It’s a lot of fun if you like that stuff. Most people don’t.

The sidewalk there on the north side of glebe isn’t great, and rock walls/bushes/electrical poles will try to push you into the road while blocking sight lines to anybody exiting the smaller streets. At some point the sidewalk just stops if you keep heading east. Going back behind the processing plant on 31st isn’t too bad though. Getting up over the hump of south Grant from 31st could really kick your ticker if you wanted to do that too!

[DismalScientist]

@vern 145812 wrote:

From those in the know I’d like to hear about the feasibility of going north on Arlington Ridge Road and then cutting east on 23rd to get to Crystal City. Is there any reason why this wouldn’t be a decent workaround?

Going over the ridge (or to the north) are options if you are going from Shirlington to Crystal City or vice versa, but actually taking Arlington Ridge road adds mileage.

From Shirlington, take 4 Mile Run Trail and go under the freeway to get to the corner of Glebe and Glebe. Beware the signal off Four Mile Run Drive at Glebe and Glebe requires a car to trigger it. Cut over to Army Navy Drive, which parallels 395 (You are on Glebe for 1/2 block and 28th Street). Turn right on 20th Street to go over the ridge and down into Crystal City.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8430456,-77.0856384/38.8589109,-77.0461/@38.8495972,-77.0738019,15z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0776914!2d38.8472716!3s0x89b7b13508409ebd:0x45d5d82fb3b9fe1a!1m0!3e1
You can go over on 23rd, but the hill is a little higher and there is more traffic. Cars are pretty polite on Army Navy and sight-lines are good.

If you don’t like hills, continue on Army Navy and you will be on the north side of Crystal City. You can get back on the Mount Vernon trail going north by either approaching the Water Park from the north or going through the Pentagon Parking lot (or Joyce, Columbia Pike and the 27 trail) and the marina.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8430456,-77.0856384/38.8755024,-77.0484099/@38.8633868,-77.0638633,15.5z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0766859!2d38.8493174!3s0x89b7b6cb29510451:0xf646b4540307c32d!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0541456!2d38.8661995!3s0x89b7b72048274eb3:0x1a7d4cf4e8ae1c98!1m0!3e1

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Steve O 145802 wrote:

Just go 45 then.

Truly vehicular cycling at that point. I’ve taken it west bound at 28-30mph and was still getting blown away by cars to the point where I wasn’t very comfortable…

I think I’ll take West Glebe to Commonwealth and grab the trail on the south side of 4MR behind Jack Taylor Toyota. 25/30 MPH speed limits, 4 lanes (mostly). One could bypass a section of W. Glebe (with not-so-great sight lines for eastbound traffic) by taking Tennessee to Old Dominion to W. Glebe.

I hate the intersection of Mt. Vernon and S. Glebe. WAY too many folks blowing red lights there, especially in the afternoons.

[dasgeh]

@vern 145812 wrote:

From those in the know I’d like to hear about the feasibility of going north on Arlington Ridge Road and then cutting east on 23rd to get to Crystal City. Is there any reason why this wouldn’t be a decent workaround?

Army-Navy goes around the hill, rather than up it. It’s not bad, though puts you further north in Pentagon City/Crystal City. If you’re headed more west in DC, then you can take the 27 Trail to the Memorial Bridge

[ShawnoftheDread]

I would take Army-Navy before Arlington Ridge.

I’m having a hard time believing the sidewalks on the official detour are going to be better than the sidewalk song Glebe enough to justify the much longer route. Just slow down and take the sidewalk straight to Eads. Or, we can all decide to start taking a lane on Glebe so there will be a steady stream of us.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Arlingtonrider]

@Harry Meatmotor 145846 wrote:

I hate the intersection of Mt. Vernon and S. Glebe. WAY too many folks blowing red lights there, especially in the afternoons.

Ditto. I’ve found that crossing difficult to make at other times of the day as well, including in the morning (trying to head south from Arlington Ridge to Mt. Vernon Ave).

[Steve O]

@ShawnoftheDread 145850 wrote:

Or, we can all decide to start taking a lane on Glebe so there will be a steady stream of us.

+1. Perhaps we can create a critical mass of riders in batches at the intersection of Mt. Vernon. Once there are 4-6, then all go together. Given the volume of traffic during rush hours, one shouldn’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes for a group to form.
The trick is communicating this to all the riders, so they know.

Personally, I would love for this to happen. If drivers want to have a “conversation” at the light at Eads, ask them politely to call ArlCo and ask for a better accommodation. This would have been the perfect time to fix the eastbound sidewalk IMO, in advance of the project.

---

For those of you who do not attend the ABAC meetings, this was a major topic of discussion on several occasions. The members of the BAC expressed numerous concerns with the planned detours and suggested other alternatives, most of which were ignored.

[scoot]

This is a great idea. Then, all riders should backtrack via the “official” detour so they can do laps. If we can get enough people to do multiple laps every morning, drivers will soon be begging for bike lanes on Glebe.

[ginacico]

@Steve O 145852 wrote:

For those of you who do not attend the ABAC meetings, this was a major topic of discussion on several occasions. The members of the BAC expressed numerous concerns with the planned detours and suggested other alternatives, most of which were ignored.

@chris_s 145806 wrote:

That is how it will be signed. I also expect it to be thoroughly ignored.

So, that’s a two way street (pun fully intended).

I’m in for some laps down S Glebe. It’ll have to be early if we still want to make it for coffee.

[AFHokie]

Has anyone observed any signage to notify people about the impending closure? I don’t recall seeing any either time I passed through today. I’m sure quite a few users of the trail are completely unaware of the closure beginning next week.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[vern]

@AFHokie 145858 wrote:

Has anyone observed any signage to notify people about the impending closure? I don’t recall seeing any either time I passed through today. I’m sure quite a few users of the trail are completely unaware of the closure beginning next week.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

I haven’t seen any signs either. Excellent communication by the county.

[vern]

@DismalScientist 145838 wrote:

Going over the ridge (or to the north) are options if you are going from Shirlington to Crystal City or vice versa, but actually taking Arlington Ridge road adds mileage.

From Shirlington, take 4 Mile Run Trail and go under the freeway to get to the corner of Glebe and Glebe. Beware the signal off Four Mile Run Drive at Glebe and Glebe requires a car to trigger it. Cut over to Army Navy Drive, which parallels 395 (You are on Glebe for 1/2 block and 28th Street). Turn right on 20th Street to go over the ridge and down into Crystal City.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8430456,-77.0856384/38.8589109,-77.0461/@38.8495972,-77.0738019,15z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0776914!2d38.8472716!3s0x89b7b13508409ebd:0x45d5d82fb3b9fe1a!1m0!3e1
You can go over on 23rd, but the hill is a little higher and there is more traffic. Cars are pretty polite on Army Navy and sight-lines are good.

If you don’t like hills, continue on Army Navy and you will be on the north side of Crystal City. You can get back on the Mount Vernon trail going north by either approaching the Water Park from the north or going through the Pentagon Parking lot (or Joyce, Columbia Pike and the 27 trail) and the marina.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8430456,-77.0856384/38.8755024,-77.0484099/@38.8633868,-77.0638633,15.5z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0766859!2d38.8493174!3s0x89b7b6cb29510451:0xf646b4540307c32d!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0541456!2d38.8661995!3s0x89b7b72048274eb3:0x1a7d4cf4e8ae1c98!1m0!3e1

I went home this way today, heading west. It worked well if one can ignore the terrible state of the streets in Crystal City around the Metro Stop, and then again on Fern. There was zero traffic on Army-Navy. The only thing I didn’t like about this was the left-hand turn from 26th onto Glebe. There’s a light, but opposite is the crush of cars coming off of 395 that are just dying to make a right-hand turn. This intersection, heading in the direction I was, had an IOD vibe to it, at least at 4:30 this afternoon.

[Author]

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