S Fillmore between Walter Reed and 50 – A rough ride

[Tim Kelley]

I’ll pass it along.

[EasyRider]

After you cross 50, you could take the immediate right onto the service road and then an immediate left on Fenwick or Garfield. Garfield is better. You can take south it past the jog on 2nd Street to Fenwick and that’ll dump you out on Walter Reed where the bike lane begins. This way you’re also skipping the light at Fillmore and 2nd street.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12741[/ATTACH]

[Judd]

@Tim Kelley 148913 wrote:

I’ll pass it along.

Will it be to “Top Men” though?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tim Kelley]

@Judd 148916 wrote:

Will it be to “Top Men” though?

This one has a cape, actually.

[chris_s]

@elbows 148911 wrote:

Recently, the sidewalk on the west side was widened. I’m sure I don’t fully appreciate why that was necessary. I was always hoping that section would get a continuation of the bike lane, and with the blowout of the sidewalk, the space appears to be gone.

Once Dominion gets around to removing the utility poles, the widened sidewalk will finally be fully ADA-accessible. There is a resident who lives on Fillmore St with mobility issues. There was never enough space to continue the bike lanes up to 50 without narrowing one of the sidewalks or emininent-domaining people’s yards. The narrower travel lanes should slow cars down a bit, that’s probably the most we can reasonably get out of that stretch of Fillmore unfortunately. I expect it will be repaved as soon as is feasible. Feasible may mean this month, it may mean when paving season kicks off in the Spring.

If I’m heading west-ish I’ll go to Irving. If I’m heading east-ish I’ll take Wayne down to the Washington Blvd Trail. Fillmore freaks me out during rush hour.

[scoot]

@elbows 148911 wrote:

I am not going to enrage drivers who have just turned off 50 by taking the lane during rushhour.

Where have you been riding? I can’t imagine riding through there without taking a lane.

[Tania]

I hate Fillmore too – it’s not too bad super early in the am (6ish) but otherwise I’ll avoid it. I asked about avoiding Fillmore a few weeks ago and Irving and Wash Blvd Trail seemed to be the consensus. Both are great and I ride them once or twice a week now, it just depends on your final destination.

If I’m going to my friend’s place (near Barton), then I’ll take the WBT. You do have to cross some on/exit ramps but they’re well-marked with great sight lines and I find drivers here to be polite and cautious around bikes. Then I’ll either get on 2nd or 6th Street to head west. 6th has a bike lane, I can’t remember if 2nd Street does (pretty sure it doesn’t) but that’s not an issue.

If I’m just biking home with my friend, then we’ll take Irving so that I can continue on to the W&OD. (Uh, ignore that wrong turn I made on 8th…)

Way, WAY nicer than Fillmore. Once it’s repaved and we can keep up better with traffic it might be an option again (outside of rush hour).

[elbows]

Thanks, all for the helpful responses. I will look into EasyRider’s suggestion. I am an avid user of WBT and Irving, but I have a lot of trips between Clarendon and Walter Reed where I’m running errands/carrying groceries/rushing and I just want the most direct route and it’s annoyed me that Walter Reed/Fillmore are great except for 2 blocks.

The ADA sidewalk blowout makes sense. I’ve rarely see that sidewalk in use, but that makes for an understandable explanation.

[scoot]

Might these two blocks be a candidate for traffic calming? A few speed humps, like the ones north of 50, could help to chill out drivers.

[Tim Kelley]

From my inbox, Top Men report:

“We moved the tape and cones that blocked the push buttons, but I’ll have to say that there will be a lot changing out there over the next 6 months as we are upgrading the signal. Additional ped areas will follow but those may not get done til the Spring. We also have Washington Gas working on the north side of the intersection for the huge gas main replacement that will last at least another 9 months (this is really big because it is the main that serves Arlington, DC, Alexandria, and Falls Church).

We also have a project in the design stage to improve the trail on the south side of Arlington Blvd between S Irving and S Fillmore, but construction on that is farther away.”

[vern]

But why doesn’t Bike Arlington ever engage the services of Top Women in any of its projects?

[Tim Kelley]

@vern 149050 wrote:

But why doesn’t Bike Arlington ever engage the services of Top Women in any of its projects?

The Top Women always seem to get their projects right the first time!

[Author]

Posts