King St. Improvements

[JustinW]

Minor improvements are better than none. Right now that is not a pleasant place to ride most of the time. The proposed improvements will help, some. Not sure if there is

[JustinW]

(sorry, got cut off)

…any ability to lobby for more serious bike infrastructure improvements. Don’t know that the current or anticipated bike traffic along that road warrant a more thorough approach.

[lordofthemark]

Those are significant improvements. Larger improvements (probably not bike lanes, IIUC) will await the City implementing a complete streets project from 28th street to Bradlee. That is a high priority in the new,bike ped chapter of the transportation master plan, but actual implementation will depend on funding. Completell Streets funding competes with state of good repair funding, and both are impacted by the City funding WMATA needs out of the transportation improvement fund. Council members have said they are committed to funding WMATA differently, but with school deficits, repair issues on other City facilities, and continued weakness in the commercial property market, that may be difficult.

[bobco85]

While I am excited for the potential improvements for safer crossings of I-395 on King Street, there are a lot of areas on which we need to focus:

• Lane width reduction
  • wide lanes lead to faster traffic, and the lanes look too wide already (I’m guessing 12 feet)
  • they could do with a lane width reduction to slow traffic down
  • another benefit would be that it would give enough room for protected/buffered bike lanes
• Median sidewalk
  • widening from 4′ to 8′ is awesome, maybe it will be paved, too
  • while I would like there to be bike lanes, I think the median sidewalk will still serve a significant number of cyclists wanting to cross the bridge
  • the thin strip approaching the King St/Park Center Dr intersection needs to be widened, given a ramp, and given some sort of indication that it’s actually a place where people are supposed to walk/bike (some of this seems to be in the improvements) – for reference, look at this and ask yourself, “How is the average person supposed to figure out that this median is actually the only sidewalk for crossing the bridge over I-395?”: https://goo.gl/maps/ZTjSLDsNxBJ2
• HAWK signal at WB King St/30th St S
  • this will work if they can get speeds down on King St, otherwise I imagine there will be numerous instances of drivers running the red light like at the one on Eisenhower Ave
  • the intersection is where King St goes from 3 lanes to 2 lanes (it then expands back to 3 lanes again)
  • my big concern is drivers coming fast off I-395 who will be looking to merge and will likely not be expecting a stoplight
• “Replacement of bridge railings will increase outside shoulder widths to 4’-0” which allows future on road bike accommodation.”
  • just put the bike lanes in as part of the construction; there’s no need to wait until after to do this

To conclude my explosion of thoughts: I appreciate that VDOT going to be putting in the much-needed repairs and improvements, and I just want to make sure that the needs of pedestrians and cyclists are best addressed in conjunction with those of drivers.

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