New "speed control" bariers at Roosevelt Island

[dasgeh]

@consularrider 24719 wrote:

As they were filling them with water at 8 am, I observed that there wasn’t a path through for pedestrians as there was previously.

I realized that as I was almost to TR Bridge. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t turn around and just ask them to allow a path through. Ugh.

[Dirt]

I don’t hate the barriers. The orange and white ones were hideously ugly. I am not thrilled with the double-90-degree turns, as Consularrider pointed out. I imagine riding through there on at busy times would be interesting. If people traveled through there while using their brain and some wisdom, I don’t think it would be a problem. We tend to not do that all the time though. To be fair, this is probably the safest configuration that can be done without serious repaving.

As for preventing people from hopping the curb, they didn’t really do that… they just changed WHERE people hop the curb. What it did do was make it so that foot traffic going to the Roosevelt Island pedestrian bridge didn’t mix with the bicycles so much, which is a good thing.

I usually travel through that area very early in the morning and very late at night, so the barriers were always just an extremely ugly annoyance.

[baiskeli]

@Dirt 24726 wrote:

I don’t hate the barriers. The orange and white ones were hideously ugly. I am not thrilled with the double-90-degree turns, as Consularrider pointed out. I imagine riding through there on at busy times would be interesting. If people traveled through there while using their brain and some wisdom, I don’t think it would be a problem. We tend to not do that all the time though. To be fair, this is probably the safest configuration that can be done without serious repaving.

Agree. The barriers were ugly, but temporary (as that word is used in DC, which could mean years). The 90-degree turns suck too. But it was better than hopping the curb.

As for preventing people from hopping the curb, they didn’t really do that… they just changed WHERE people hop the curb.

I don’t see it any more on that side. People still do it from the other end though.

[rcannon100]

I will just innocently observe that last time those plastic barriers were weighted down with water inside…. and in time the water seeped out…. and in time the barriers had no weight…. and could be moved.

The barriers were there to keep the construction trucks OFF of the bike path when they were renovating the island. Before they were installed there were several close calls.

Why do I hate them…. because the mid parking lot double 90 degree turn on a trail that is not wide enough for the turn, into a parking lot with idiot traffic…. is evil 😡 If they truly dont want bikes in the south end of the parking lot, fine, whatever… but fix the damn double 90. And make better curb cuts up to the trail… the current curb cuts are ADA curb cuts… not bike path curb cuts.

temporary

Sure. They have been there what 2 years? How long ago did the construction on the isle end??

[Dirt]

This time of year I ride through there once per week at most. It took me 3 days to notice the barriers were even gone. One thing I like about warm weather is that it makes it really nice to mix up the routes a little. Winter when it is cold, I’m more likely to take the 13 or 15 mile route to and from work. When it is nice out, I’d rather spend more time on the bike and put in more miles. Not riding through Rosslyn and its death zones is a big bonus.

[baiskeli]

@rcannon100 24731 wrote:

The barriers were there to keep the construction trucks OFF of the bike path when they were renovating the island. Before they were installed there were several close calls.

Hmm. I thought it was to prevent curb-jumping. Do we know this for sure?

[NickBull]

@baiskeli 24737 wrote:

Hmm. I thought it was to prevent curb-jumping. Do we know this for sure?

That’s what they claimed at the time, but I always thought it was BS and the whole thing was just to establish a barrier. And that seems to be exactly what they have done.

I’ve ridden through that area every work day for about a decade, and I never once had issues with either pedestrians or cars riding through the parking lot.

The current configuration results in many near misses. If it is their intention to make this permanent, they need to spend money to make a proper, safe trail, not a 4-foot wide curb cut that forces oncoming cyclists to have to try to avoid each other while simultaneously checking two directions for auto traffic.

They should have speed bumps on each side of the “trail” (not just on one side) with stop signs for cars before the first speed bump they get to. It’s just a matter of time before some driver who is distracted by his 4-year-old runs into a cyclist crossing the street there. Who would be expecting cyclists to suddenly come out from behind a tree to cross the road right there?

[rcannon100]

Do we know this for sure?

The barriers were installed at the beginning of construction, after several us had close truck-experiences, and after several construction trucks were found wandering up the bike path along the parking lot. Several of us contacted NPS about the problem with the trucks, and the barriers magically appeared (as did the original speed bump – which we got moved 10 feet).

Do I know for sure, no. I know a time correlation that I contact NPS about keeping the trucks off of the trail – and the barriers emerged.

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 24776 wrote:

The barriers were installed at the beginning of construction, after several us had close truck-experiences, and after several construction trucks were found wandering up the bike path along the parking lot. Several of us contacted NPS about the problem with the trucks, and the barriers magically appeared (as did the original speed bump – which we got moved 10 feet).

Do I know for sure, no. I know a time correlation that I contact NPS about keeping the trucks off of the trail – and the barriers emerged.

As my imperfect memory goes, some of it was to keep cyclists out of the way of the trucks going through the parking lot and over the island connector bridge.

And I do regularly see northbound cyclists hop off the curb by the barrier to ride through the parking lot, but less so than when the barriers were originally installed.

Finally, it was interesting how few riders took advantage of the short time the barriers were gone to avoid the right angle turns.

[Drewdane]

Aaand, after several months of blissfully unimpeded traversal of the TR Island parking lot, the damned barriers were back again this morning. Argh.

Back to jumping the parkway-side curb again…

[baiskeli]

@Drewdane 44019 wrote:

Aaand, after several months of blissfully unimpeded traversal of the TR Island parking lot, the damned barriers were back again this morning. Argh.

Back to jumping the parkway-side curb again…

It’s too bad there isn’t a trail going past the parking lot that you could use instead.

[Drewdane]

@baiskeli 44042 wrote:

It’s too bad there isn’t a trail going past the parking lot that you could use instead.

Too bad the trail going past the parking lot is unsuited to cyclists’ practical needs for reasons mentioned upthread.

[dasgeh]

@Drewdane 44491 wrote:

Too bad the trail going past the parking lot is unsuited to cyclists’ practical needs for reasons mentioned upthread.

Too bad the trail going past the parking lot is UNSAFE for reasons outlined above.

[baiskeli]

@Drewdane 44491 wrote:

Too bad the trail going past the parking lot is unsuited to cyclists’ practical needs for reasons mentioned upthread.

The trail works fine. It’s not optimal, but it works. You simply have to slow down a little to use it. It’s not a dirt road, or a busy highway, or a narrow strip full of broken glass. It’s a trail. It’s usable.

[baiskeli]

@dasgeh 44494 wrote:

Too bad the trail going past the parking lot is UNSAFE for reasons outlined above.

I think it’s not as safe as it could be, but I don’t get how going through a busy parking lot is safer.

[Author]

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