Introducing the Arlington County Bicycle Comfort Level Map

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 122846 wrote:

This is really cool and useful! I’ve already planned out a few new loops to keep things interesting (and safer). It would be useful if the map showed where the blue/yellow/orange routes provide access to the W&OD, FMR and Custis. It’s a little hard to tell in some places and a newbie may very presume he or she can access the trail at all road/route crossings. Perhaps a little white circle at access points? (I’ve only seen the web version thus far, not the paper map)

It would also be super awesome if Alexandria and Falls Church got on board since our little county is small and one might assume dragons and sea monsters are on the other side of the border.

Thanks Arlington!

Good suggestion on the access points.

And yes, we cracked jokes about “there be dragons here” when discussing how to do borders. In the end trying to coordinate with other jurisdictions would have been time consuming for this edition. Perhaps in future editions!

[Tim Kelley]

@consularrider 122855 wrote:

I notice Tri360 in East Falls Church and Big Wheel Bikes in Lyon Village did not get bike shop marks. Did shops have to pay to play? Also, shouldn’t S. Kenmore and S. Arlington Ridge Rd get hill arrows?

Oh Dukes! Good catch–must have fallen off somehow. Guess I need to apologize to Blaine in advance!

[Steve O]

@Tim Kelley 122861 wrote:

Oh Steve O….You mean the trail that goes through Zachary Taylor Nature Area, that’s west of Military Rd, and is completely separate from Donaldson Run Park and the trail in it that is west of Donaldson Run?

But seriously, it’s funny you bring that up. It didn’t appear to have a name that we could find anywhere so we had to check with Parks for an official decision!

I put “Zachary Taylor Trail” into Google. The only one that comes up is in Florida. There is no reference whatsoever to any such thing in Arlington.
The trail does, in fact, run right alongside, and even crosses over a couple of times, the stream that is widely known as “Donaldson Run.” It also runs directly through the center of the neighborhood called Donaldson Run. The stream was there first; the park (which includes a small portion of the Run) was named after the stream, not vice versa.

So now I know that there is a Zachary Taylor Nature Area (what did he ever do for us Arlingtonians, by the way?).
I still think it makes way more sense to call the trail Donaldson Run, just like we call the trail Four Mile Run even when it runs through Glen Carlyn Park and Bluemont Park. Because it runs alongside Four Mile Run exactly as this trail runs alongside Donaldson Run.

Also curious why you did not ask the people in the community or the bicyclists and runners who use it what they call it (the BAC, for instance). If we are trying to make a map as useful as possible, then referring to things as they are most commonly referenced is far more likely to be useful to a wide range of people than using a name that even Google has never heard of.

[rcannon100]

That is really a terrible cycling trail. It is directly behind a elementary school. The park regularly is filled with kids. The trail has multiple blind turns. Unless you are going to go SLOW, you are better off just staying on the roads in that ‘hood.

[rcannon100]

@Steve O 122844 wrote:

So what’s with the “Zachary Taylor” trail?? If there were three people on the planet (prior to it showing up on this map) who knew that the Donaldson Run Trail is actually called that, I will buy Henry a beer.
I suggest sticking with Donaldson Run Trail, because that’s what everyone knows it as.

What beer does henry like. Buy him a six pack.

[Tim Kelley]

@rcannon100 122866 wrote:

That is really a terrible cycling trail. It is directly behind a elementary school. The park regularly is filled with kids. The trail has multiple blind turns. Unless you are going to go SLOW, you are better off just staying on the roads in that ‘hood.

Yeah and college kids trying to Everest on it too!

[mstone]

@Steve O 122865 wrote:

So now I know that there is a Zachary Taylor Nature Area (what did he ever do for us Arlingtonians, by the way?).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9438[/ATTACH]

Tell me he’s not thinking “HTFU”

[Henry]

Steve, Yuengling or Stella Artois. Thanks.

Now here is the next quiz: Where is the George Mason Memorial Bridge? It’s where most people think the 14th street bridge is.

Henry

[dasgeh]

Some more nits: Langston is primarily a community center, not a school.
The hill on Quincy from Columbia Pike doesn’t merit arrows (given what does and does not have arrows).
The hill on 8th St S from George Mason heading east does merit arrows.
Around the Iwo Jima, if you didn’t mark the road that forms the circle around the memorial (left it white), the area would be more clear, as people would see that they have to take the trail to get to Rosslyn.
I would mark the Connector Road through the Pentagon parking lot to Boundary Channel Drive (which is mistakenly labeled “Boundary Drive”)
The highlighting of the Arlington loop makes it look like some trails/roads don’t connect to it. e.g. the new “trail” by the new development at Bergmans.
8th St N does not have a trail connection to the W&OD. Kidical Mass was already burned by this mistake once…

And less nit-y comments:
As was suggested on the Google group, if the key for blue-yellow-orange were “less stressful – medium – more stressful” (instead of “easy – medium – difficult”) and you had a more clear indication of hills (maybe 2 arrows for notable hill, like Custis out of Rosslyn, 3 for difficult hill, say significant length above 5% grade) then you’d have a better way to deal with streets like 41st St or Culpepper, which are low-stress streets (low speed, not a lot of cars) but steep hills. Both of the examples would be blue, but with 3 arrows.

It would be nice if there were a way to flag trail segments that are less than ideal. Most of the trails in Arlington are great, but, e.g., the trail along the southside of 50 beside the Foreign Affairs Training Center is not, and I wouldn’t want to send people there expecting it to be low stress. Maybe all trails get dots, and low-stress trails are blue with dots (as in the current version), then medium stress trails are yellow with dots.

[Tim Kelley]

@Henry 122873 wrote:

Steve, Yuengling or Stella Artois. Thanks.

Now here is the next quiz: Where is the George Mason Memorial Bridge? It’s where most people think the 14th street bridge is.

Henry

No Henry, according to Google that’s the Arland D Williams Junior Memorial Bridge! Or wait, is it the Rochambeau Memorial Bridge?

[Tim Kelley]

@dasgeh 122874 wrote:

Some more nits: Langston is primarily a community center, not a school.
The hill on Quincy from Columbia Pike doesn’t merit arrows (given what does and does not have arrows).
The hill on 8th St S from George Mason heading east does merit arrows.
Around the Iwo Jima, if you didn’t mark the road that forms the circle around the memorial (left it white), the area would be more clear, as people would see that they have to take the trail to get to Rosslyn.
I would mark the Connector Road through the Pentagon parking lot to Boundary Channel Drive (which is mistakenly labeled “Boundary Drive”)
The highlighting of the Arlington loop makes it look like some trails/roads don’t connect to it. e.g. the new “trail” by the new development at Bergmans.
8th St N does not have a trail connection to the W&OD. Kidical Mass was already burned by this mistake once…

And less nit-y comments:
As was suggested on the Google group, if the key for blue-yellow-orange were “less stressful – medium – more stressful” (instead of “easy – medium – difficult”) and you had a more clear indication of hills (maybe 2 arrows for notable hill, like Custis out of Rosslyn, 3 for difficult hill, say significant length above 5% grade) then you’d have a better way to deal with streets like 41st St or Culpepper, which are low-stress streets (low speed, not a lot of cars) but steep hills. Both of the examples would be blue, but with 3 arrows.

It would be nice if there were a way to flag trail segments that are less than ideal. Most of the trails in Arlington are great, but, e.g., the trail along the southside of 50 beside the Foreign Affairs Training Center is not, and I wouldn’t want to send people there expecting it to be low stress. Maybe all trails get dots, and low-stress trails are blue with dots (as in the current version), then medium stress trails are yellow with dots.

Yessss goood goood. Keep them coming.

[dasgeh]

@Tim Kelley 122875 wrote:

No Henry, according to Google that’s the Arland D Williams Junior Memorial Bridge! Or wait, is it the Rochambeau Memorial Bridge?

But according to Wikipedia, the span with northbound lanes is the Arland D Williams Junior Memorial Bridge, the center (HOV) is Rochambeau and the southbound lanes (and the path) are on the GM Bridge. But given the scale and confusion, maybe “14th Street Bridge” would be the better choice.

[elbows]

Thanks for the map. Great concept and very distracting at work today.
My quick thoughts, some of which have also been raised by others:
Would be helpful to indicate the trail connections like to the W&OD – perhaps with partial cutouts.
I think the Lee/Quincy intersection by Koons might deserve a caution symbol. Turning left from Lee when heading west can be kinda scary.
16th St (S) might merit a color.
You might be hard-pressed to use the map to ride from 14th street bridge to Pentagon Metro. That is largely because of the Pentagon and is not the fault of the map or its makers, but just mentioning it. Maybe one of those white lines on the south side of the Pentagon could be filled in.

Has the map already been distributed or are comments still being potentially incorporated?

[Tim Kelley]

@elbows 122880 wrote:

Has the map already been distributed or are comments still being potentially incorporated?

Thank you for the comments!

Yes, the map has been printed and mailed out in the Citizen Newsletter to 110,000 households in Arlington. It is also available at Car Free Diet Partners retail locations and by mail free of charge.

All comments will be taken and reviewed for inclusion in future reprintings.

[chris_s]

@Tim Kelley 122881 wrote:

All comments will be taken and reviewed for inclusion in future reprintings.

Which I expect will need to happen sooner rather than later because people are loving this thing.

[Author]

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