King St (Alexandria) Bike Lane Impressions

[bobco85]

I decided to check out the progress of the new King Street bike lane yesterday while doing my errands, and I must say it is quite the improvement. I only went uphill, but it was during rush hour so I think I got a good sampling of the situation for cyclists. It is not complete, but the signs and some of the lines are there. Also, the pedestrian crossings look a lot better and are more visible than before. Haha, I should mention that the “Bike lanes will kill people or whatever” signs are still on display in some of the residents’ yards, too!

The only dangerous part of that stretch, in my opinion, was the few hundred feet where the bike lane ended and I was forced into traffic because of a few parked cars and many empty parking spaces (you know, the ones that the residents fought so hard to keep because they NEEDED them). The rest of the time, I felt pretty safe because going uphill I was a lot slower than the cars that were passing me, and the cars had no trouble

All in all, I find the whole thing a major improvement. What have everyone’s experiences been of the new bike lane? I didn’t go downhill on King St, so I’m interested to hear how things are on the downhill side.

Here’s my video of the trip:
[video=youtube_share;MBgF1HU9H6A]http://youtu.be/MBgF1HU9H6A[/video]

P.S. – Between the danger of the gap in the King St bike lane and the gap in the M Street NW cycletrack, it seems to be a running theme that compromising on bicycle infrastructure to better serve motorists also makes it more dangerous.

Topic

[chris_s]

My experience is similar, both uphill and downhill. It’s good until it disappears on you. I’d call them great, but they are on the narrow side for bike lanes. In retrospect, a wide uphill bike lane and sharrows coming down might have been the better configuration to go with, but I know there are/were good reasons to go with lanes on both sides.

[CaseyKane50]

I have gone up twice and down once. On the uphill climb, it is much improved with the new bike lanes. Both times, cars allowed me to merge when the bike lanes ended. When the bike lane ends just before Janney’s Lane, I had to get over to the left turn lane, again in both instances, cars let me over.

I used the downhill bike lane in morning rush hour traffic. The lane is ok, but it ends too soon. I chose to merge in behind the cars to wait my turn to get through the Russell/Callahan intersection, rather than squeezing past the cars on the right.

Small sample, but the traffic going uphill did seem to be staying close to the posted speed limit.

[scorchedearth]

I’ve been up and down a few times so far. On the uphill section, it is a vast improvement. Downhill leaves a little to be desired with the width of the lane and riding over manhole covers and curb cuts however, I think that it is an improvement overall.

I, too, have observed that cars going uphill seem to be slower however the city will perform studies to determine whether my observations are correct.

[PotomacCyclist]

Before the bike lanes, Alexandria stated that among car drivers on that section of King Street, the 85th percentile westbound speeds were 33 mph, 85th percentile eastbound speeds were 35 mph, before the bike lanes were added. (The terminology is confusing. I’ve read other statements that Alexandria found 85 percent of drivers to be speeding there. Doesn’t it actually mean that 15 percent of drivers are going faster than 33/35 mph? I think so. If so, that is insane. I guess it doesn’t really say how many drivers are going faster than 25 mph.)

The 3/15/14 document includes these stats. I was just looking at the PDF, but now my browser is throwing a fit. (It’s telling me that it can’t find Adobe Acrobat on my computer. I don’t have Acrobat but I do have Adobe Reader, and I was just looking at the PDF 5 minutes ago.)

http://alexandriava.gov/localmotion/info/default.aspx?id=74320

OK, I can look at PDFs again. The stats are on page 5 of that document.

[Jerry King]

Excellent video bobco! I have taken a ride several times and it certainly is an improvement. So far we only have positive comments about the safety of adding the bike lanes.

[chris_s]

@PotomacCyclist 87428 wrote:

Before the bike lanes, Alexandria stated that among car drivers on that section of King Street, the 85th percentile westbound speeds were 33 mph, 85th percentile eastbound speeds were 35 mph, before the bike lanes were added. (The terminology is confusing. I’ve read other statements that Alexandria found 85 percent of drivers to be speeding there. Doesn’t it actually mean that 15 percent of drivers are going faster than 33/35 mph? I think so. If so, that is insane. I guess it doesn’t really say how many drivers are going faster than 25 mph.)

Yes, that means 15% of drivers were going faster than 33/35 in a 25mph zone. Think how much faster those would be if traffic didn’t back-up in the downhill direction every morning… 😮

[bobco85]

I didn’t want to start a new thread with this, but I did finish a video of the current King Street bike lanes (heading southeastward/downhill). I used a couple of 2012 historical images from Google Earth’s street view to show the improvements that have been made since the fight for the bike lanes had begun. I’m getting back into cycling infrastructure videos (further cementing my geek status which I fully accept and am proud of), so in the next few weeks I should have some videos on the Potomac Yard trail, Eads Street protected bike lane, and later I will show Commonwealth Avenue.

[Author]

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