Introducing the Arlington County Bicycle Comfort Level Map

[Tim Kelley]

@chris_s 122884 wrote:

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

We have 25,000 at our distribution center. With the regular bike map, we usually do about 50,000 in a year.

[mstone]

suggest running the pdf past the forum first next time

[Steve O]

@rcannon100 122867 wrote:

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

Who are the three people? They had to have known this in, say, 2014, not since we started this discussion or since they started working on the map.

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 122877 wrote:

“14th Street Bridge” would be the better choice.

+1

[americancyclo]

14th St N from Rhodes deserves 3 arrows uphill
10th St north from the ABT is black on your map, but a ‘recommended’ route on Google Maps. Can you reconcile? I wouldn’t call it easy, but its the most direct way from the ABT to Virginia Square.
East Falls Metro “M” symbol obscures the trail connections. recommend moving it up just a bit to obscure the grayed out portion of I-66

[chris_s]

@Steve O 122865 wrote:

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.

It’s the “official” name (it is called that in County Board meeting minutes from 1985 for example), but without a sign, how would anyone know the name? Clarendon wasn’t commonly called Clarendon until somebody named the Metro Station and so it became common usage. A couple signs along the trail calling it the Zachary Taylor Trail and within a couple years that is what it would be called. Doing so along ALL of our trails would help everyone with wayfinding – it’s ridiculous that we currently have to try to differentiate between the North Side Arlington Boulevard Trail and the South Side Arlington Boulevard Trail.

Actually now that I think about it, the County has an official process for naming this stuff, we should use it. The BAC should go through our trails, get a list of what (if any) official name they currently have from the Parks & Rec Department and propose whatever new names are required to be able to have a useful set of names that we can all settle on and use going forward and get Parks & Rec to sign them all so that people start using the names.

Just a couple of months ago the Bluemont Civic Association renamed a portion of a park for a similar reason – so it could be easily distinguished from the rest of the park for wayfinding purposes (specifically for emergency response purposes).

[Tim Kelley]

@americancyclo 122897 wrote:

14th St N from Rhodes deserves 3 arrows uphill
10th St north from the ABT is black on your map, but a ‘recommended’ route on Google Maps. Can you reconcile? I wouldn’t call it easy, but its the most direct way from the ABT to Virginia Square.
East Falls Metro “M” symbol obscures the trail connections. recommend moving it up just a bit to obscure the grayed out portion of I-66

Good comments thanks!

I think 10th St was colored black because it has motor vehicles coming from a highway or heading to a highway at a fast speed. While it doesn’t have as much traffic as some other roads, it moves pretty quickly. We’ll take it under review for next time–Washington Blvd in that area could probably fall under the same consideration.

[dasgeh]

@americancyclo 122897 wrote:

14th St N from Rhodes deserves 3 arrows uphill
10th St north from the ABT is black on your map, but a ‘recommended’ route on Google Maps. Can you reconcile? I wouldn’t call it easy, but its the most direct way from the ABT to Virginia Square.
East Falls Metro “M” symbol obscures the trail connections. recommend moving it up just a bit to obscure the grayed out portion of I-66

I would say 14th from Rhodes is a 2 arrow hill, personally.
Key Blvd from Rhodes west deserves 2 arrows.
Lorcom east from Spout Run deserves 2 arrows.
The ZT/DR trail shouldn’t have arrows until the paved part. In fact, the northern most part (close to Military) isn’t paved, which should be noted.
14th St from Kirkwood West is candidate for 3 arrows, if you go that route.
On the R-B inset, you’re missing the arrows on Irving coming off of the Custis
N Stafford from I66 to Old Lee and Old Lee from Quincy to Thomas deserve 2 arrows
21st St (not currently a marked route) from quebec to Stafford deserves 3 arrows.
Highland coming south before Key probably deserves 2 arrows

Military isn’t marked where it changes names from Quincy, or where it “turns left” or changes names from Nelly Custis. Given how popular of a route that is for training, leaving it could be confusing.
13th St N from Highland to Washington should be blue – it’s a good alternative to Wilson.
Harrison north from 16th St deserves 2 arrows
Patrick Henry north before 16th St probably deserves 2 arrows
Quincy St by 20th st doesn’t deserve arrows
Military between Lee and the turn probably deserves arrows.
16th St east of the hospital probably deserves 2 arrows
11th St west before Patrick Henry deserves 2, if not 3 arrows.
The arrows on the Bluemont Trail should be moved west, closer to the W&OD
I suspect you need more arrows on those side trails coming off WOD/FMR in Glencarlyn and north of 50.

10th from 50 — while the 1st block may warrant black, the rest should be orange, maybe even yello, and it should connect to Fairfax.
Washington from Pershing to 50 should be orange.
Old Lee is probably a yellow.
The Metro label for Rosslyn could be moved north and made smaller on the inset, allowing people to see the confusing intersections on Wilson.
Fairfax Dr from Meade to the ABT is yellow, I think.
It looks like 14th from Fairfax to Courthouse is yellow and orange? I would rate that yellow
Culpepper probably just shouldn’t be colored at all. Instead, color Dinwiddie blue, but mark it with 2 arrows.
Manchester south of 50 should be blue or yellow (it’s now white)
Army Navy Dr by 395 is a yellow in my book and deserves some arrows. (It is yellow on the inset)

9th st n between Stuart and Glebe isn’t a trail. It’s a bunch of sidewalks through courtyards. Maybe that makes it a yellow trail, but even that seems misleading.
The trail through Bon Air park ends in a parking lot, and on the current map, it seems to end in a green space. I’d just connect it to Lexington St
The trail right above that, on the south side of 66, paralleling the beginning of the Custis on the north side of 66, deserves 2 if not 3 arrows, and should probably be yellow. (#anotherplacekidicalmasshasbeenburned)

The intersection of Park Rd and George Mason deserves an exclamation.
I don’t know what the intersections of the Custis with Scott or Quinn have exclamations. But maybe leave them so we can get these improved.
Crossing 50, it seems like you’ve marked a couple of places oranges instead of putting in exclamations (Manchester, which probably needs a label, and Henderson, Park is yellow?). This seems odd

What’s up with the “ only” yellow stretch of Arlington Mill Dr near Shirlington?

[dasgeh]

And the MVT from TR Island to Rosslyn deserves 2 arrows

[americancyclo]

@Tim Kelley 122899 wrote:

Good comments thanks!

I think 10th St was colored black because it has motor vehicles coming from a highway or heading to a highway at a fast speed. While it doesn’t have as much traffic as some other roads, it moves pretty quickly. We’ll take it under review for next time–Washington Blvd in that area could probably fall under the same consideration.

10th could also use at least some sharrows. it’s a great connector to the heart of the corridor, just needs some traffic calming!

[rcannon100]

how would anyone know the name?

What makes anyone here think that “no one knows the name”???????

Have you asked anyone in that ‘hood where Taylor Park is (ya know, the park right next to TAYLOR elementary schoo). You guys are being terribly provincial, declaring yourselfs the authority of a park’s name when apparently you dont live in the neighborhood or use the park or have children who go to TAYLOR elementary school.

without a sign

What makes you think there is no sign?

[dasgeh]

@rcannon100 122906 wrote:

What makes anyone here think that “no one knows the name”???????

Have you asked anyone in that ‘hood where Taylor Park is (ya know, the park right next to TAYLOR elementary schoo). You guys are being terribly provincial, declaring yourselfs the authority of a park’s name when apparently you dont live in the neighborhood or use the park or have children who go to TAYLOR elementary school.

What makes you think there is no sign?

I live in the Taylor assignment zone, and have taken the trail a fair number of times. I’ve always thought of it as the “Donaldson Run Trail” and have never seen a sign naming the trail.

And to be fair, the OP was a question – “how would anyone know the name”? Did you know the name? How? Honest questions.

[Tim Kelley]

@dasgeh 122907 wrote:

Did you know the name? How?

Because it’s on the Comfort Map! (And will be on the regular bike map in the next revision!)

[americancyclo]

@dasgeh 122907 wrote:

I live in the Taylor assignment zone, and have taken the trail a fair number of times. I’ve always thought of it as the “Donaldson Run Trail” and have never seen a sign naming the trail.

And to be fair, the OP was a question – “how would anyone know the name”? Did you know the name? How? Honest questions.

Also, because STRAVA!!!!!!

[h=1]Zach Taylor Park CX Loop[/h]
Jeremy Cannon

KOM 3:57 · May 27, 2015

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dasgeh 122907 wrote:

I live in the Taylor assignment zone, and have taken the trail a fair number of times. I’ve always thought of it as the “Donaldson Run Trail” and have never seen a sign naming the trail.

The sign up by Marymount just says “Donaldson Run.” The sign on Military Rd. says “Zachary Taylor Nature Area.” Based on those two pieces of evidence, I must conclude that it is the Donaldson Run trail, as the trail more closely parallels Donaldson Run and extends beyond the boundaries of the park. Given more evidence, I’d be willing to adjust my conclusions, but regardless I will always refer to it as the “Donaldson Run trail.”

[Author]

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