get in the bike lane!

[bobco85]

@mstone 81590 wrote:

Anyone want to guess where the Fairfax Drive bike lane is in this picture?

[ATTACH]5083[/ATTACH]

Yuck! I don’t remember that mess being there the other day when I rode through there.

[PotomacCyclist]

One of the downtown DC bike lanes was used as a parking lane last night. Maybe 10 cars in a row in the bike lane. I’m not sure what was going on. There was a large tractor-trailer caught halfway in a turn in the intersection ahead. But that still didn’t explain why all of those drivers were stopped in the bike lane.

[Dickie]

@mstone 81590 wrote:

Anyone want to guess where the Fairfax Drive bike lane is in this picture?

[ATTACH]5083[/ATTACH]

Thanks for the Pic mstone, I ride through there every afternoon and it’s just one thing after another… the debris field in the bike lane just keeps piling up… I’ve flatted a few times this season already.

[bobco85]

Never mind my last post. I must have attentional blindness as I usually am not looking down in that spot, but I do remember rocks being there. I’m usually too busy making sure that drivers in both lanes of traffic on either side of the bike lane keep their position and don’t squish me to notice.

I sent the following e-mail to the Arlington street-sweeping contact:

Good morning, (name).

I would like to request a pile of debris to be cleared from the road. While biking through the Ballston area, I noticed that at the intersection of Fairfax Drive and Glebe Road, there is significant debris in the bike lane going eastbound (towards Virginia Square). Because cyclists must stay to the right of straight-moving traffic while keeping to the left of right-turning traffic, there is no room to maneuver around the debris. The debris consists of small rocks up to a couple inches in diameter, which has caused some cyclists to get flats.

A fellow cyclist posted a picture of it on the BikeArlington forum; here is the picture:

(mstone’s picture)

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help get this area cleared. Thank you.

I know that next week Arlington will be doing its street-sweeping, but I will update everyone if I get a response.

[dasgeh]

@bobco85 81611 wrote:

Never mind my last post. I must have attentional blindness as I usually am not looking down in that spot, but I do remember rocks being there. I’m usually too busy making sure that drivers in both lanes of traffic on either side of the bike lane keep their position and don’t squish me to notice.

I sent the following e-mail to the Arlington street-sweeping contact:

I know that next week Arlington will be doing its street-sweeping, but I will update everyone if I get a response.

Thank you for posting. You may so want to report it on the ArlCo app/map thingy .

We rode in that area twice recently – a few days ago, I noticed the pile of s**t, so last night, we turned left onto Wakefield, then right onto 11th, which meets up nicely with Quincy. This won’t help everyone, but it was much more pleasant for us (headed to Quincy & Lee) than Fairfax to Quincy. You could also take Quincy to 13th, then 13th to Jackson then to Key, which get you all the way to Veitch.

Speaking of that block of Wakefield, holy potholes Batman. Worst I’ve seen in the County. Easy enough to avoid, but be on the lookout if you go that way. (I just reported these. BTW, you can “like” the report of these potholes, or any other reports, through that app/map thingy.)

[DismalScientist]

Given all the loose crap on the road and usual car traffic patterns, gravel naturally will accumulate there at the corner of Glebe and Fairfax. What we need is more bike commuters with 40mm tires to clear out that patch of gravel. My 25s won’t cut it.:rolleyes: I expect many bike lanes (Washington Blvd. and Clarendon) to remain full of this crap until street sweeping can remove all the accumulation from pieces of road that are now potholes and other winter treating of the roads.

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 81622 wrote:

until street sweeping can remove all the accumulation from pieces of road that are now potholes and other winter treating of the roads.

From the looks of it, I’d guess in this case that all the construction debris was really badly cleaned up. A final FU from what’s been a pretty bike/pedestrian-hostile bike/pedestrian safety improvement project. Although, really, that area’s been pretty hostile due to ongoing construction for years now–and they’re planning to rip everything up again for the MU building. :rolleyes:

[cyclingfool]

@DismalScientist 81622 wrote:

What we need is more bike commuters with 40mm tires to clear out that patch of gravel.

You mean an army of commuters like this?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5092[/ATTACH]

[cyclingfool]

@DismalScientist 81622 wrote:

What we need is more bike commuters with 40mm tires to clear out that patch of gravel.

Or one of these:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5094[/ATTACH]

[brendan]

@mstone 81590 wrote:

Anyone want to guess where the Fairfax Drive bike lane is in this picture?

In my experience, it’s always been delineated by a gravel spill across the intersection…

I’m mostly taking custis home now, but that picture brings back the memories…

[Author]

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