!Meeting Update! Attendees Needed! Washington Blvd Bike Lanes Meeting 3/1 5pm-8pm

[chris_s]

VDOT will be repaving Washington Blvd from East Falls Church to Westover this Spring. The County has developed a new striping plan for after the repaving that would introduce bike lanes throughout the repaved stretch, often with 2-3′ of buffer between the lanes and moving traffic. This would stitch together a number of existing pieces of bike infrastructure in the area – the new lanes on Washington Blvd near 66, the Sycamore Street lanes, Ohio Street lanes as well as connecting a number of important places – the East Falls Church Metro, Swanson Middle School, the Westover Library, and the Westover Commercial District & Farmer’s Market.

What’s the catch? A fair amount of on-street parking on Washington Blvd would be removed. Most of the adjacent homes have driveways and there is ample on-street parking available on the side-streets, but you know how people feel about the parking in front of their house…

A public meeting is being held on Wednesday January 18th from 5pm-8pm at the Westover Library. Please come out and speak-up for better bike facilities! Spread the word!

Chris

Topic

[chris_s]

@OneEighth 158756 wrote:

If I remember correctly, some of the houses on that stretch do not have driveways.

ONE. ONE doesn’t have a driveway.

[Steve O]

@OneEighth 158756 wrote:

If I remember correctly, some of the houses on that stretch do not have driveways.

I just looked at street view. Along the section without the bike lane, all the houses west of Ohio have driveways. I counted 4 just east of Ohio without. That’s it.

[OneEighth]

@chris_s 158760 wrote:

ONE. ONE doesn’t have a driveway.

Ah—certainly wasn’t portrayed that way. Makes it a good question to harp on.

[Steve O]

@Birru 158759 wrote:

I’d much rather take the lane in that stretch and perhaps traffic calming measures would have been a better compromise.

These kinds of solutions are what the BAC and advocacy groups are trying to move beyond. They (maybe) work for people who already ride bikes. Shoot, I’d ride along Washington as is if need be. The point is that we need to build infrastructure that serves those who don’t feel confident or safe riding their bikes in these areas. Even the original plan fell short, IMO, in reaching that goal, but our aspiration must be to build infrastructure that serves Isabella, not Steve O.

[Tim Kelley]

@Steve O 158763 wrote:

These kinds of solutions are what the BAC and advocacy groups are trying to move beyond. They (maybe) work for people who already ride bikes. Shoot, I’d ride along Washington as is if need be. The point is that we need to build infrastructure that serves those who don’t feel confident or safe riding their bikes in these areas. Even the original plan fell short, IMO, in reaching that goal, but our aspiration must be to build infrastructure that serves Isabella, not Steve O.

[Birru]

@Steve O 158763 wrote:

These kinds of solutions are what the BAC and advocacy groups are trying to move beyond. They (maybe) work for people who already ride bikes. Shoot, I’d ride along Washington as is if need be. The point is that we need to build infrastructure that serves those who don’t feel confident or safe riding their bikes in these areas. Even the original plan fell short, IMO, in reaching that goal, but our aspiration must be to build infrastructure that serves Isabella, not Steve O.

These are all really good points. I agree that the original plan fails the “Isabella test” as well.

@Tim Kelley 158764 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVp7Vok1C4s

LMAO you must have that in your pocket at all times.

[Steve O]

@KLizotte 158727 wrote:

I am only heartened because I saw a ton of cyclists around Pentagon City

So that would be 12 or 15, right?

[KLizotte]

@Steve O 158767 wrote:

So that would be 12 or 15, right?

Yeah but in a fairly small area and I was dock blocked for the first when I arrived home on Cabi.

[bobco85]

Didn’t think about it until I read this comment on the Greater Greater Washington article about this, but there’s a specific structure that the potential bike lanes are being rerouted around. (I’ll give you a hint before you read it: what starts with a “c” and is related to reduced bike infrastructure?): https://ggwash.org/view/63150/arlington-may-scrap-new-bike-lanes-on-washington-boulevard#comment_339296

No bike lanes because we need to keep street parking in a neighborhood where everyone has a driveway or a garage.
The detour is so the church can keep its diagonal parking. Parking for a few hours a week is greater than cyclist safety.

When I read it, I immediately looked at Google Maps and BAM! there it was, a block of diagonal parking with signs saying “45 degree parking only on Sundays”

While it’s not proof, it certainly SEEMS to fit with past experiences :rolleyes:

[chris_s]

@bobco85 158775 wrote:

When I read it, I immediately looked at Google Maps and BAM! there it was, a block of diagonal parking with signs saying “45 degree parking only on Sundays”

While it’s not proof, it certainly SEEMS to fit with past experiences :rolleyes:

The angle parking fits just fine even with the full bike lane plan, it’s just the parking across the street from the church that has to go. That said, there was a LOT of concern expressed about losing that parking across the street on Sundays…even though only half of it is generally in use on the Sunday and the plan would create a couple of additional parking spaces directly in front of the church by removing an under-utilized bus stop.

[DismalScientist]

@chris_s 158777 wrote:

The angle parking fits just fine even with the full bike lane plan, it’s just the parking across the street from the church that has to go. That said, there was a LOT of concern expressed about losing that parking across the street on Sundays…even though only half of it is generally in use on the Sunday and the plan would create a couple of additional parking spaces directly in front of the church by removing an under-utilized bus stop.

The new plan keeps roughly the same number of spaces as now. It only adds spaces relative to the initial plan, which needlessly eliminated them for a bus stop which only conflicted on Sunday mornings.

[Birru]

Sounds like things were locked in, so this was more of “this is how things are gonna be” informational meeting. The bike lanes are essentially what they can pull off with for “free” as part of repaving and repainting, so the mentality was basically “at least you’re getting something.” I rode what I thought was the detour on the way in. It’s not my preferred way to go. Crossing Ohio kind of sucks. It is what it is. The detour is actually slightly more convoluted though. Here’s what they displayed at the meeting:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14624[/ATTACH]

[Author]

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