Glebe Rd (Alexandria) Bike Lanes

[DismalScientist]

Isn’t Glebe perfectly flat between Commonwealth and Rt 1? If anything, EB is downhill.

[Sunyata]

@DismalScientist 137854 wrote:

Isn’t Glebe perfectly flat between Commonwealth and Rt 1? If anything, EB is downhill.

There is a very slight rise before it turns downhill. But… I do not recall ever seeing a bike lane. Are they saying that is the only thing they have planned or the only thing they currently have (which, I am pretty sure is not there…)?

[lordofthemark]

@Sunyata 137862 wrote:

There is a very slight rise before it turns downhill. But… I do not recall ever seeing a bike lane. Are they saying that is the only thing they have planned or the only thing they currently have (which, I am pretty sure is not there…)?

Sounds like the former. IE “the only thing we have in the plans, to put on the website”

[scoot]

@DismalScientist 137854 wrote:

Isn’t Glebe perfectly flat between Commonwealth and Rt 1? If anything, EB is downhill.

I would have thought so too, but Google Earth shows Glebe’s elevation ASL at Commonwealth = 14 feet and Rt 1 = 37 feet.

It looks like the road is only about 32 feet wide gutter to gutter. Unless the parking lane is removed, any bike lane is doomed to end up in the DZ, no?

[KWL]

@scoot 137873 wrote:

I would have thought so too, but Google Earth shows Glebe’s elevation ASL at Commonwealth = 14 feet and Rt 1 = 37 feet.

It looks like the road is only about 32 feet wide gutter to gutter. Unless the parking lane is removed, any bike lane is doomed to end up in the DZ, no?

And to terminate at one of the worst intersections in Alexandria – Rt 1 & East Glebe. That express bus lane really did a number on the left turns there. creating all sorts of confusion that is not good for anyone cycling through that intersection.

[creadinger]

@scoot 137873 wrote:

I would have thought so too, but Google Earth shows Glebe’s elevation ASL at Commonwealth = 14 feet and Rt 1 = 37 feet.

It looks like the road is only about 32 feet wide gutter to gutter. Unless the parking lane is removed, any bike lane is doomed to end up in the DZ, no?

It’s definitely not flat. While it’s not a “hill”, it rises enough that it would slow most cyclists down a bit. And it’s not a bad idea adding an E-W lane in that area seeing how Reed street is now a hellhole, and everything south of there are neighborhood streets with only Custis and Monroe actually crossing Rt 1.

What are they going to do with that “traffic calming” pedestrian island which separates and narrows each lane at Montrose? I hate those things. They may be good for pedestrians, but I don’t like being forced into a narrow traffic lane like that. It’s an unofficial merge, and you know how much people like merging in general… ugh.

[lordofthemark]

I rode it this past weekend – the rise was enough to slow me (and I imagine many less strong cyclists, folks on CaBi bikes or on the undersized mountain bikes often ridden by poorer Alexandrians, etc) – that combined with it being residential so not a lot of parking turnover, makes me think this is not a bad candidate for a doorzone bike lane (I am sure the parking will stay – A. If parking was being taken out, there would be a lot more outreach, preparatory to going before the TPB) B. Taking out the parking would mean either very wide bike lanes, or adding to the general travel lanes, which would defeat traffic calming, which is likely the City’s principle motive for change here.

As for the intersection, I don’t think either going straight through, or turning right, will he hard with a bike lane, as they are not hard now. Making a vehicular left will be difficult, but it looked like no fun now.

[scoot]

@lordofthemark 138013 wrote:

this is not a bad candidate for a doorzone bike lane (I am sure the parking will stay

Is there such a thing as a good doorzone bike lane? If there isn’t enough space to get the bike lane out of the DZ, shouldn’t this street get sharrows instead?

[lordofthemark]

@scoot 138014 wrote:

Is there such a thing as a good doorzone bike lane? If there isn’t enough space to get the bike lane out of the DZ, shouldn’t this street get sharrows instead?

A sharrows does not narrow the general travel lane, hence does little for traffic calming. Which is of benefit to pedestrians, many drivers, and yes, some cyclists.

In addition many cyclists are more comfortable in a door zone bike lane than a sharrows. I’d rather not get into the theological debate on that. I would love to see a study on relative safety that managed to adjust for both cyclist speed on a climbing lane, and for parking turnover rates.

[scoot]

@lordofthemark 138018 wrote:

I would love to see a study on relative safety that managed to adjust for both cyclist speed on a climbing lane, and for parking turnover rates.

It seems obvious that there are some situations where bicycles are safer sharing space with motor vehicles and that there are other situations where mode separation is safer. The challenge is identification and characterization of the features that define the boundary between these two cases. Examples of factors likely to contribute: relative speed, average amount of bicycle and motor traffic, average parking turnover, time of day, sightlines, mean vehicle distances between turns on/off the road, etc. Not possible to sufficiently control any existing data set, I suspect. A machine learning approach, with data from many different locations, might be able to make a rough estimate of the boundary for a rule of thumb.

[creadinger]

I have to assume this is already on some list of improvements, but one thing I need to see ASAP is repaving Commonwealth north of Reed St. I’m assuming they’ll do it once they’re done upgrading whatever facilities are down there, but that road is terrible now! A bike lane on Glebe doesn’t seem totally necessary to me.

[peterw_diy]

@creadinger 138029 wrote:

I have to assume this is already on some list of improvements, but one thing I need to see ASAP is repaving Commonwealth north of Reed St. I’m assuming they’ll do it once they’re done upgrading whatever facilities are down there, but that road is terrible now!

Not on the list through June 2018 – https://www.alexandriava.gov/PublicWorks#FY2016PavingProgram

[creadinger]

@peterw_diy 138041 wrote:

Not on the list through June 2018 – https://www.alexandriava.gov/PublicWorks#FY2016PavingProgram

Thanks for the link. The “good” news is that my street is on the list to get re-paved next year I guess… so that’s something. Parts of it will be just gravel by then, but oh well. Same with Commonwealth north of Reed.

[CaseyKane50]

@Fairlington124 137852 wrote:

Inquired with City and got this response:

Quote:

We are working to get a Glebe Road website up.

The website is now available. Along with the climbing lanes in the eastbound direction, the project will add a bike box on Commonwealth in the southbound direction.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11732[/ATTACH]

[lordofthemark]

And as was speculated above, the principal motive for the bike lane is to narrow the general travel lanes for traffic calming purposes, and parking will remain.

[Author]

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