Memorial Bridge lane closures will be "permanent" through 2021

Our Community Forums Commuters Memorial Bridge lane closures will be "permanent" through 2021

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  • #920693
    chuxtr
    Participant

    As opposed to intermittent overnight/on weekends. Effective this Monday.

    I posted in Road and Trail Conditions, but figured I should cross-post here too.

    https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l…496994071.html

    “The NPS said for the next two years, there will be one constant eastbound lane and one constant westbound lane, with a third lane that will reverse to accommodate rush hour traffic. That lane will run east into D.C. from 4 a.m. to noon and west toward Virginia from noon through overnight.”

    Article also says one sidewalk will be closed, but doesn’t say which one.

    #1090440
    KWL
    Participant

    There is a good video on the changes here.

    #1090463
    chuxtr
    Participant

    @KWL 181840 wrote:

    There is a good video on the changes here.

    What could possibly go wrong???

    #1090467
    baiskeli
    Participant

    @KWL 181840 wrote:

    There is a good video on the changes here.

    In Phase 1, some cyclists and pedestrians will cross on the near side, at the dirt trail. That’s dangerous. The rest will cross properly at the already dangerous crossing where cars are coming off the bridge too fast and taking the blind turn just before the crossing. That’s dangerous. So, in conclusion…dangerous.

    #1090468
    LeprosyStudyGroup
    Participant

    If you’re headed to the MVT that’s one illegal and highly dangerous crossing vs, an extra half mile of 1 highly dangerous + 2 moderately dangerous +2 low danger crossings, all to reach the same place. Gooooooood luck having positive outcomes there folks.

    #1090489
    chuxtr
    Participant

    @baiskeli 181870 wrote:

    In Phase 1, some cyclists and pedestrians will cross on the near side, at the dirt trail. That’s dangerous. The rest will cross properly at the already dangerous crossing where cars are coming off the bridge too fast and taking the blind turn just before the crossing. That’s dangerous. So, in conclusion…dangerous.

    @LeprosyStudyGroup 181871 wrote:

    If you’re headed to the MVT that’s one illegal and highly dangerous crossing vs, an extra half mile of 1 highly dangerous + 2 moderately dangerous +2 low danger crossings, all to reach the same place. Gooooooood luck having positive outcomes there folks.

    Yup. This is just an accident waiting to happen.

    #1090490
    DCAKen
    Participant

    @chuxtr 181893 wrote:

    Yup. This is just an accident waiting to happen.

    #NotAnAccident

    #1090491
    dasgeh
    Participant

    Ah, but they’ve added flags at the highly dangerous crossing.

    Flags.

    #1090492
    chris_s
    Participant

    @dasgeh 181895 wrote:

    Ah, but they’ve added flags at the highly dangerous crossing.

    Flags.

    They make it easier for the park police to locate your corpse so they can more quickly re-open the roadway.

    #1090495

    Inbound commute this morning, I took one of the vehicle lanes across. Speed limit is 20 MPH and traffic was heavy so I moved right along on pace with the cars who weren’t coming close to the speed limit anyway. No problems.

    #1090498
    SarahBee
    Participant

    I took the bridge this morning. Coming from Arlington cemetery, I stayed on the North sidewalk to bike across the open, northern pathway. It was a little out of the way ending up on the north side of Lincoln monument and crossing the crosswalks at 23rd Street to parallel the reflecting pool, but not awful. We’ll see how the evening commute fares.

    #1090500
    Steve O
    Participant

    @LeprosyStudyGroup 181871 wrote:

    If you’re headed to the MVT that’s one illegal and highly dangerous crossing … Gooooooood luck having positive outcomes there folks.

    I’ll just get this out of the way now:


    Traffic snarled when cyclist struck on GW Parkway

    A cyclist was struck and badly injured on the GW Parkway this morning at 7:45am. Traffic was tied up for 2 1/2 hours and backed up almost to Old Town Alexandria while officials cleared the scene and investigated. The driver, who stayed on the scene, said, “He came out of nowhere. I was sipping my coffee when suddenly he was where I’d never seen anyone cross before.” The cyclist appeared to be taking a non-authorized shortcut to avoid construction detours on the Memorial Bridge. The driver was not cited.



    Now taking the over/under on when this article first officially appears.

    #1090507
    SarahBee
    Participant

    @SarahBee 181903 wrote:

    I took the bridge this morning. Coming from Arlington cemetery, I stayed on the North sidewalk to bike across the open, northern pathway. It was a little out of the way ending up on the north side of Lincoln monument and crossing the crosswalks at 23rd Street to parallel the reflecting pool, but not awful. We’ll see how the evening commute fares.

    Memorial Bridge is garbage in the evening commute. North sidewalk was packed. Drivers speeding off the bridge to get on the parkway have no visibility of pedestrians or cyclists coming off the bridge from the North crosswalk. Flags at the intersection are ineffective. I waited for at least 10 cars before anyone stopped and only after I yelled and angrily shook my fist. Wishing there was a “non-elite” button.

    #1090510
    Yule
    Participant

    It appears that some regular Memorial Bridge bicycle traffic may be self-diverting onto the sidewalk along Roosevelt Bridge.

    Roosevelt Bridge is too narrow along most of its span and is flat-out not meant to accommodate heavy bicycle traffic. Bike-on-bike accidents waiting to happen. It has “just enough” space for two bicycles abreast, if neither one makes the slightest error. In fact, any time two bicycles pass each other going opposite directions on Roosevelt Bridge, at anything above walking speed, I’d say it meets the technical definition of “near collision;” and with cars racing by just to the other side of the low-railing…

    Besdies the narrowness problem, Roosevelt Bridge is not an adequate work-around for most Arlington-DC trips because of its indirectness: It lets you off on the DC side at the Kennedy Center, out of the way for most people’s destinations and not in an particularly bicycle friendly area, and on the Virginia side onto the limited-access Mount Vernon Trail, totally unlit at night and potholed, making it dangerous at low-light times on multiple levels and a small commute time sink.

    The best alternative to/from North Arlington was formerly Memorial Bridge, now looking unattractive thru circa 2021. That leaves Key Bridge. I use Key Bridge, but I believe it to be the most dangerous crossing of all (more than Roosevelt) if one goes to/from downtown via M Street, as most seem to. M Street is probably the most bicycle unfriendly street I regularly use. Add to this that Key Bridge will presumably have more car traffic through 2021 due to the Memorial Bridge project.

    Disappointing, but it seems to mean that DC-to-Virginia bicycle movement is to be at its most difficult in years. Or is there a solution I am overlooking? 14th Street Bridge will be fine again for commutes or other runs to/from South Arlington and Alexandria, once its own construction project is done soon. That leaves Chain Bridge and Wilson Bridge, both of which are, I presume for most reading this, between “way out of the way” and “way, way out of the way.”

    North ArlingtSolution: A nice-and-wide, pedestrian- and bicycle-only bridge from Rosslyn to Georgetown Waterfront. Stay off M Street, stay off Key Bridge, no need for use of Roosevelt Bridge, less pressure on MVT to hit the other bridges.

    #1090520
    VA2DC
    Participant

    @Brendan von Buckingham 181900 wrote:

    Inbound commute this morning, I took one of the vehicle lanes across. Speed limit is 20 MPH and traffic was heavy so I moved right along on pace with the cars who weren’t coming close to the speed limit anyway. No problems.

    I dunno. Bridge traffic was bumper-to-bumper this morning, and there is no bailout eastbound. Just temporary jersey barriers in the right lane and oncoming traffic in the reversible middle lane. Plus the rear-ender that I saw in the outbound lane this morning confirmed that I’ll stick to the sidewalk despite the foot traffic, construction barriers, etc. I’d rather put up with that inconvenience than end up sandwiched between two cars. The sidewalk was faster than the vehicle lanes anyhow.

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