July 2017 Road & Trail Conditions

[ursus]

I guess that nothing much has happened this month.

A few things to report. I will do them individually.

Does anyone know why they introduced a very short detour just west of the Belmont Ridge Road intersection on the W&OD? I know of course that they are building an overpass for BR Road, but this goes around a hole west of the intersection. They even paved the detour and painted a line.

Topic

[zsionakides]

@Crickey7 162715 wrote:

River Road in MoCo now has bike lanes starting at Little Falls Road and extending all the way to the Beltway ramps, striped as part of recent repaving projects. Note that in Maryland, these are MANDATORY for cyclists.

You would think one would not need to say for a posted 45 mph road with a nice, smooth shoulder, but I saw a cyclist riding slowly uphill outside the bike lane just this morning.

They striped most of that in last year, though the bike lanes abruptly “end” at every single intersection where the right turn lanes are. It’s not a good design as they should have painted in sharrows or merge stripes on the turning lanes. Instead they just put a closed off solid line.

[bentbike33]

@Erin Potter 162780 wrote:

I’m headed a different direction this evening, but share what you see if you do roll by! I think you’re right in thinking it will change– county staff was planning to be on-hand when the workers took off for the night, to supervise any changes to the travel flow.

All was well this morning. Newly poured concrete section was wide open.

[Erin Potter]

@bentbike33 162799 wrote:

All was well this morning. Newly poured concrete section was wide open.

All clear by 6 PM yesterday — thanks to dagesh and the PAL Ambassadors for reporting and to DES staff for working to set things straight with Washington Gas and VDOT![ATTACH=CONFIG]15136[/ATTACH]

[dbb]

Arlington DES made some changes to northbound Eads at 23d near Crystal City. They took a few parking spaces by the 7-11 to create a dedicated turn lane. There are some flex posts to help with motorist training. Cyclists will now be near the flexposts to the left of the right-turning motorists.

Motorists are likely to be a bit confused. Keep your head on a swivel and as Marko Ramius suggests, “Give them a wide berth”

I observed a couple of motorists succumbing to confusion and turning right from the center lane.

[bentbike33]

@Judd 162782 wrote:

IF they do put down a sheet of plywood, I suggest that we call it the “Steve Offutt Memorial Bike Ramp” similar to the excellent Wayne F. Anderson Bikeway.

Be careful when you spar with Steve O, he is more powerful than you may have realized.

[streetsmarts]

Steve owns an Air Force base??

[Judd]

@streetsmarts 162813 wrote:

Steve owns an Air Force base??

Yes. Purchased with his family’s Potato Fortunes.

[ursus]

Good news, the exit ramp from the 14th Street Bridge to Maine Avenue eastbound, west of the Fish Market, is closed. Bad news, the sidewalk crossing that probably most people use to cross that ramp has been cordoned off. Maine Avenue eastbound is down to one lane which makes it difficult for a westbound cyclist to go through even after getting off the curb. Eastbound one can go with the slow moving traffic. I was unable to figure out exactly what was going on.

[ursus]

@ursus 162834 wrote:

Good news, the exit ramp from the 14th Street Bridge to Maine Avenue eastbound, west of the Fish Market, is closed. Bad news, the sidewalk crossing that probably most people use to cross that ramp has been cordoned off. Maine Avenue eastbound is down to one lane which makes it difficult for a westbound cyclist to go through even after getting off the curb. Eastbound one can go with the slow moving traffic. I was unable to figure out exactly what was going on.

It is fine now. They repaved the ramp including where someone riding on the sidewalk crosses the bottom of the ramp.

[anomad]

The intentionally broken glass on the bridge by DCA and ramp at Gravelly Point was present this morning. Corona this time

I emailed NPS.

Happy Monday regardless. I hope everyone has a good week.

[bobco85]

The Eads Street bike lanes on the south end have returned, and they now extend all the way to Glebe Rd!

Another thing to note on Eads Street: taking a page from the M Street cycletrack, the configuration of NB travelers at 23rd St S has a crossover between bike lane and right turn lane. This is a spot where drivers like to park/stand, so instead of blocking the bike lane, they’re blocking the right turn lane which forces right turning drivers into the bike lane (thus blocking it again). As mentioned previously on this thread, drivers are confused and are sometimes turning right from the center lane, so be wary.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

@anomad 162870 wrote:

The intentionally broken glass on the bridge by DCA and ramp at Gravelly Point was present this morning. Corona this time

I emailed NPS.

Happy Monday regardless. I hope everyone has a good week.

Glass on Humpback this morning too on the side headed into DC. Can someone refresh me on the e-mail address for NPS to report?

[bentbike33]

Kudos and thanks to the rider sweeping up broken glass from the Custis bridge over Spout Run Parkway this morning.

Sounds like it is time to start the campaign to ban the packaging of alcoholic beverages in glass containers.

[anomad]

Just got a note back that they’ve cleaned up this morning.

[scoot]

@bobco85 162873 wrote:

3 out of 5 drivers think that the addition of bike lanes means they no longer need to park near the curb.

@bobco85 162873 wrote:

The paint seems to encourage right hooks. The dashed lines should open up much further north, allowing turning drivers to merge with bicycle traffic earlier.

[Author]

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