N. Harrison on a Road Diet!

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Tim Kelley 53584 wrote:

Anyone been on Harrison Street by the Harris Teeter/Safeway/Elevation burger recently?

http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/news-events/blog/n-harrison-street-goes-on-a-diet/

I was up there on Tuesday getting a haircut and groceries and saw this…they’ve been working on the ped crossing for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the bike lanes replace the sharrows as well. The road through there was much wider than necessary.

[thucydides]

Multiple times per day. In fact I’m in Jhoon Rhee right this second. If only there were better bike parking at the Harrison shops. The new pattern is better for biking (though I’ve never had problems there) and marginally better for pedestrians. The impact on car traffic is neutral to negative, but I think mainly negative. The problem is with people trying to turn left out of the Harrison shops onto Harrison. That was always a problematic situation but the new pattern seems to have made it worse because the lane backs up all the way past the Harrison shop entrance/exit. But so far this sort of situation seems fairly rare and probably will resolve itself as people learn the new pattern.

The big problem with Harrison, though, was not this spot but the Harrison-26th Street intersection. At certain times of day that place is a nightmare for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars trying to cross Harrison.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@thucydides 53587 wrote:

If only there were better bike parking at the Harrison shops.

I can’t think of any actual bike parking…the times I’ve biked up there I had to lock up on the fence in front of Harris Teeter. And across Lee, at the Petco/CVS/Advance, there isn’t even any place to lock a bike…no signs, no fence, nothing.

[thucydides]

There is now a tiny serpentine rack immediately north of Harris-Teeter. So that’s an improvement, I guess. It’s always full. Today when I made the earlier post it was impressively crammed. The parking garage isn’t a good option I admit, but I don’t think some genuine bike parking on the surface lot is too much to ask especially given how the lot is overwhelmed with cars. Small increases in biking to the shops would help the parking situation for cars a lot. It’s been a while since I tried to lobby that center for bike parking. It’s time to try again perhaps.

[chris_s]

Huge improvement for bikes & pedestrians! The drivers already seem to be adapting and more are exiting from the northern parking lot exit rather than the southern exit so as to avoid the somewhat longer backup at the light.

Thucydides, let’s definitely get some photos of the full rack together and lobby the plaza owner (AJ Dwoskin) for more bike parking. That parking lot is such a zoo that the only way to increase traffic to that shopping center is to encourage walking & biking. My wife owns a business in that shopping center – I think it’ll have a good impact to have business owners & customers together making the request.

[runbike]

@chris_s 53644 wrote:

That parking lot is such a zoo

Seriously, why is it that at almost any time of day that parking lot is slammed with cars (most of which slowly cruise up and down looking for the closest spot)? I always tell my wife that I refuse to go to Harris Teeter between the hours of 4 and 7:30pm on weekdays when the percentage of inattentive soccer moms driving huge SUVs through that parking lot exceeds all known safety parameters.

[thucydides]

chris_s: will do on the photos. I have plenty of opportunities.

run/bike: I think it’s all part of the same thing that’s causing the schools and sports programs in North Arlington to burst at the seams, i.e., a huge increase in the number of kids in the area. It’s really been profound demographic shift and the absolutely incredible success of the Jhoon Rhee program — hundreds of kids showing up during the hours you mention — is a big part of the traffic chaos in that parking lot.

They can’t expand the parking which means either the problem will self-correct as people take their business elsewhere or the problem can correct (or at least stabilize) in a positive way by making walking and biking viable and perhaps rethinking traffic flow a bit. Right now biking through that lot isn’t the most pleasant experience, even if there was parking.

[TwoWheelsDC]

A partial solution to the problem that my wife and I came up with is to just shop at Safeway…

[vvill]

Totally awesome. While I don’t shop there much we do go through that area fairly frequently (District Taco!) and it’s great to see the bike lane option taken seriously.

[Tim Kelley]

@chris_s 53644 wrote:

Thucydides, let’s definitely get some photos of the full rack together and lobby the plaza owner (AJ Dwoskin) for more bike parking. That parking lot is such a zoo that the only way to increase traffic to that shopping center is to encourage walking & biking. My wife owns a business in that shopping center – I think it’ll have a good impact to have business owners & customers together making the request.

Hey Guys–include Rob Cannon on this as well. He may be interested. I might also suggest that you talk to Harris Teeter’s corporate office to let them know that their bike parking at store across the county is quite poor.

Chris S will remember the Grocery Story Parking Guide we did–you can use that for a reference if needs be too.

[baiskeli]

@run/bike 53648 wrote:

Seriously, why is it that at almost any time of day that parking lot is slammed with cars (most of which slowly cruise up and down looking for the closest spot)? I always tell my wife that I refuse to go to Harris Teeter between the hours of 4 and 7:30pm on weekdays when the percentage of inattentive soccer moms driving huge SUVs through that parking lot exceeds all known safety parameters.

Go downstairs and you’ll see why. The place is twice as big as it looks.

[dasgeh]

@baiskeli 53804 wrote:

Go downstairs and you’ll see why. The place is twice as big as it looks.

Yes, and many of the businesses downstairs play to kids. Parents want to park as close to the entrance as possible because transversing that parking lot with kids is dangerous — there are so many people driving around looking for closer spots!

[baiskeli]

@dasgeh 53809 wrote:

Yes, and many of the businesses downstairs play to kids. Parents want to park as close to the entrance as possible because transversing that parking lot with kids is dangerous — there are so many people driving around looking for closer spots!

The smart parents know about the underground garage in the back and the back entrances to “kid city.” Don’t tell anyone though.

[dasgeh]

@baiskeli 53813 wrote:

The smart parents know about the underground garage in the back and the back entrances to “kid city.” Don’t tell anyone though.

The smart parents sign up for classes at Lubber Run — great bike access and no hill to climb (unlike Langston).

[chris_s]

@baiskeli 53813 wrote:

The smart parents know about the underground garage in the back and the back entrances to “kid city.” Don’t tell anyone though.

Sorry, the county actually requires us to tell all of our customers about the garage and back entrance to the lower level; part of our Use Permit.

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