Portland Feeling Threatened by Bike Investments in Other Cities?

[Mark Blacknell]

This is something Arlington should note. It wasn’t so many years ago that Arlington was, by far, the best biking jurisdiction in the Washington area. And look at things today – the District is where it’s at, from cycletracks to MUT expansion to improving the law/enforcement.

[dasgeh]

@Mark Blacknell 54463 wrote:

This is something Arlington should note. It wasn’t so many years ago that Arlington was, by far, the best biking jurisdiction in the Washington area. And look at things today – the District is where it’s at, from cycletracks to MUT expansion to improving the law/enforcement.

I agree Arlington should think about this theme, though I get the impression that the issue in Arlington is different than “lost fire”: we’ve taken most of the low hanging fruit (e.g. bike lanes on roads that needed a road diet anyway), and we’re entering the phase where, to make more progress, we’ll have to make hard choices (fights with VDOT, more resources dedicated to cycling). So the Arlington activists still have lots of fire, but the County Board (and other decision makers) will be tested on how much they’re willing to stand up and give up for cycling.

[KLizotte]

@dasgeh 54485 wrote:

I agree Arlington should think about this theme, though I get the impression that the issue in Arlington is different than “lost fire”: we’ve taken most of the low hanging fruit (e.g. bike lanes on roads that needed a road diet anyway), and we’re entering the phase where, to make more progress, we’ll have to make hard choices (fights with VDOT, more resources dedicated to cycling). So the Arlington activists still have lots of fire, but the County Board (and other decision makers) will be tested on how much they’re willing to stand up and give up for cycling.

In general I agree with what you are saying but there are still lots of non-controversial marginal improvements that could be made. Some examples:

1) repaving the remaining bumpy sections of the Custis,
2) repainting the bike lanes on S Eads St in Crystal City,
3) widening the bike lanes heading north on S Joyce Street by Pentagon Row (they should also be painted green since they are used as parking spaces every freakin’ day),
4) widening the bike lanes along Crystal Drive heading south (too narrow to stay out of the door zone), and
5) installing a usable mirror in the Crystal City – MVT connector tunnel (the existing bubble one doesn’t do the trick).

Just some ideas….

[dasgeh]

@KLizotte 54488 wrote:

In general I agree with what you are saying but there are still lots of non-controversial marginal improvements that could be made. Some examples:

1) repaving the remaining bumpy sections of the Custis,
2) repainting the bike lanes on S Eads St in Crystal City,
3) widening the bike lanes heading north on S Joyce Street by Pentagon Row (they should also be painted green since they are used as parking spaces every freakin’ day),
4) widening the bike lanes along Crystal Drive heading south (too narrow to stay out of the door zone), and
5) installing a usable mirror in the Crystal City – MVT connector tunnel (the existing bubble one doesn’t do the trick).

Just some ideas….

I agree with all of these, and think it’s a matter of resources. I.e. I believe the County would do all of these if it had the money available. That’s where the resources question comes it.

I do hope that we can take advantage of increasing revenue as we come out of the recession, to get a higher percentage for cycling.

[PotomacCyclist]

It’s actually good that cities are competing to be the “best bike city” in the U.S. That means that bike infrastructure and support is seen as a positive (by enough people to matter).

As for Arlington, I’m not too worried. It’s not perfect but overall it’s a good place to ride and it is getting better every year.

– Eads Street: The County is studying the northern section of Eads in preparation for repaving the road and extending the bike lanes north of 23rd St. (or wherever the current bike lanes end). I believe all of this work is scheduled to take place this year. Maybe this fall, or early next year?

– Crystal Drive: This road will become easier to use for southbound cyclists very soon. Both the north end (around 12th/15th St.) and the south end (between 23rd and 26th St.) will be converted to two-way travel. The south end could be converted as soon as next week (June 15). It was supposed to be converted this weekend, but they postponed the switch because of the tropical storm. It’s inconvenient to head south on Crystal Drive past 23rd St. because of the one-way road. But by the end of the month, southbound cyclists will have a better route. I don’t know if there will be bike lanes on that section of Crystal Drive, but I think there will be.

– VDOT projects: I’m actually surprised and pleased to see cycling incorporated into the large-scale VDOT projects in Arlington, including the 10th St.-Arlington Blvd. intersection, the Washington Blvd. bridge over Columbia Pike and the announced Washington Blvd. bridge over Rte. 110 (to the north of the Pentagon). All of the projects will include accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians. They will include wide sidewalks (10 ft. or wider?) that should be suitable for bike/pedestrian use. The Columbia Pike project will make bike travel much better between Pentagon City and Courthouse Rd. (and onto Clarendon), in conjunction with new bike/ped paths along Columbia Pike from Joyce St. past the Air Force Memorial and over to Courthouse Rd. and beyond.

NOTE: I haven’t seen any sort of timeline for the Columbia Pike side paths (from Joyce St. west). The Navy Annex demolition should be complete by mid-summer. The land will be graded and man-made improvements will be torn up and removed before the land is turned over to Arlington National Cemetery for expansion. Since the land should be smoothed out already, it seems like it would be a good opportunity to go ahead and build the bike/ped path along that stretch of Columbia Pike sooner rather than later. There could be issues with the transfer of land between DOD and Arlington County. But if they can work that out, then maybe the County could get started with those bike/ped paths. A big lump of asphalt in the sidewalk (in front of the Navy Annex site) was cleared out over the past month or two, but that’s only a minor improvement. The sidewalk is still in rough shape and it’s far too close to the car lanes. (I was riding eastbound the other day as a Metrobus was traveling west. I had the pleasure of getting a cloud of dirt particles blown right into my face by the air from the bus. Real nice.) I wrote them an email to ask about any possible timeline for those side paths but I haven’t received a response.

For more info about the Navy Annex demolition, check their website, including the “News” section: http://www.whs.mil/NavyAnnex/index.cfm

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