#SafeTrack: when WMATA made everyone a bicyclist

[Steve O]

@Henry 140449 wrote:

Expanded CaBi capacity will be added at both EFC & Ballston.

Wow! CaBi at EFC!! Who knew?

[Justin Antos]

Correct, rail service should be reasonably good after Ballston and points east. Trains will run from Vienna and Wiehle only every 18 minutes, meaning that they may be too full to board after a few stations. 10 trains per hour will turn at Ballston however, so the trains that enter service at Ballston will have capacity. East of Ballston, trains are scheduled to run every 4 minutes or so.

[KLizotte]

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[tnelson]

@tnelson 140365 wrote:

With a few tips from chris_s, I’m actually trying to build a (fairly simple) website where people can input the general route of their commute, and anyone who needs a buddy can look up routes and contact those folks. I’m not a pro, however, so it may take a bit of time to get up and running.

It looks like WABA is already on it, at least via a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wmatabikepool/ (Glad to see they’re reviving the #wmatabikepool moniker!) Anyway, I would recommend folks go there because it will surely be much more useful than anything I can cook up at the moment.

[Tania]

@Justin Antos 140695 wrote:

Correct, rail service should be reasonably good after Ballston and points east. Trains will run from Vienna and Wiehle only every 18 minutes, meaning that they may be too full to board after a few stations. 10 trains per hour will turn at Ballston however, so the trains that enter service at Ballston will have capacity. East of Ballston, trains are scheduled to run every 4 minutes or so.

I usually get on metro at Dunn Loring. That is, when I CAN get on at Dunn Loring, because the trains are more often than not standing room only after Vienna.

[huskerdont]

For those not on Facebook, WABA just sent out an email looking for Bike Buddies. Most here probably get their emails or are on FB, but if not, there’s one of those old fashioned website thingies:

https://docs.google.com/a/waba.org/forms/d/1v6HDDz8xpp1ydLT2XNza2Vel_JsYEjS6JWM0yyiOyWc/viewform

[bobco85]

I should be finished with the video I am making for the EFC to Ballston bike route sometime this evening. I’ll post here and on the FB page when all is said and done.

[eminva]

I will be leading a convoy from Vienna to Ballston to pick up the extra train capacity Justin mentioned for a mixed mode commute.

I have noticed in exchanging PMs with a few novice cyclists that they are very anxious about the five blocks on Fairfax Drive. Of course there are bike lanes, but mixing it up with traffic coming off the interstate and immediately having to cross Glebe is a bit intimidating for the uninitiated. If the Bike Arlington folks could ask the Arlington Police to have a presence at that intersection, given what will inevitably be a huge increase in foot, bike and auto traffic, it would be much appreciated.

Liz

[chris_s]

@eminva 140783 wrote:

I have noticed in exchanging PMs with a few novice cyclists that they are very anxious about the five blocks on Fairfax Drive. Of course there are bike lanes, but mixing it up with traffic coming off the interstate and immediately having to cross Glebe is a bit intimidating for the uninitiated. If the Bike Arlington folks could ask the Arlington Police to have a presence at that intersection, given what will inevitably be a huge increase in foot, bike and auto traffic, it would be much appreciated.

I’ve had some decent luck with 9th St as a Fairfax Drive alternative. Experienced cyclists will likely hate it because it’s slow – you have to interact with a lot of ped traffic and cross a lot of unsignalized intersections, but it’s SO pleasantly light on traffic.

There’s no perfect way to get there, but there are several decent alternatives. All are much more comfortable for the inexperienced. Green is my recommended route, yellow & orange are alternate options. The orange alt requires threading through a narrow gap next to a gate so I don’t recommend it for newbies.

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[huskerdont]

If there really are a lot of newbies coming out, the Fairfax Drive bike lanes are probably some of the best in the area for learning how to get yourself doored. A couple of places along there, especially westbound, vehicles like transit vans tend to park extending out into the lane itself. An experienced rider might check over the shoulder and go wide into the travel lane, but a new rider’s tendency is to fear the travel lane and maybe ride in the door zone.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Eminva, do you plan to come to Fairfax off the Custis or Bluemont?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[baiskeli]

Bike trains would make good media stories. I hope Bikearlington and WABA get some reporters out.

[VA2DC]

@chris_s 140784 wrote:

I’ve had some decent luck with 9th St as a Fairfax Drive alternative. Experienced cyclists will likely hate it because it’s slow – you have to interact with a lot of ped traffic and cross a lot of unsignalized intersections, but it’s SO pleasantly light on traffic.

There’s no perfect way to get there, but there are several decent alternatives. All are much more comfortable for the inexperienced. Green is my recommended route, yellow & orange are alternate options. The orange alt requires threading through a narrow gap next to a gate so I don’t recommend it for newbies.

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I take Fairfax Dr. past Ballston all the time. Around 7:30-8:00 am, I don’t find much of a problem with vehicles parked in the bike lanes or potential dooring from Glebe to Stuart. There are almost always buses in front of Ballston, and sometimes commuter buses dropping off just before Stuart. And there are a lot of cars entering Fairfax and turning right off of Fairfax into garages or onto the side streets.

The 9th St alternative can be tricky to navigate, there’s a lot of pedestrian traffic. Plus there are 2 long beg lights: first to cross Fairfax in front of the Holiday Inn, and then to cross Glebe at 9th. As an alternative comfort route coming from Custis, I suggest going north on N Wakefield, right on 11th St N, and then right on Stafford (or a block earlier at Stuart). Wakefield and 11th are pretty calm, although Stafford can be busy. Stuart requires cutting through the dead end, but that does have the advantage of cutting out almost all of the vehicle traffic. This route only requires 1 beg light to cross Glebe at 11th, but there are several stop signs along 11th.
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[eminva]

@ShawnoftheDread 140789 wrote:

Eminva, do you plan to come to Fairfax off the Custis or Bluemont?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are coming off the Custis.

We will ride on Fairfax Drive. Before we transition from trail to road I will stop and do a mini Traffic Skills101 briefing. I will discuss the pitfalls of bike lanes and where to position oneself in a bike lane (all things we cover in WABA classes).

Thank you for the alternative suggestions — I will mention these so they can try them out on their own if they don’t like Fairfax.

Liz

[VA2DC]

@eminva 140802 wrote:

We are coming off the Custis.

We will ride on Fairfax Drive. Before we transition from trail to road I will stop and do a mini Traffic Skills101 briefing. I will discuss the pitfalls of bike lanes and where to position oneself in a bike lane (all things we cover in WABA classes).

Thank you for the alternative suggestions — I will mention these so they can try them out on their own if they don’t like Fairfax.

Liz

My experience is that the sketchiest parts of that Fairfax segment are waiting to cross from the north side of the Fairfax to the south side at Wakefield in front of the Holiday Inn (the first light after coming off the Custis connector). Just a looonggg beg light, and lots of traffic that may or may not respect it going onto and coming off of 66. The other part that might concern a new rider is waiting in the bike lane to cross Glebe, where there are cars to your left waiting to go straight across and cars to your right turning right onto Glebe. When cars in the right lane have the green arrow (and even when they don’t), they tend to zip past you pretty quickly. Only pedestrians crossing Glebe will slow (sometimes) them down.

There’s a good-sized patch of gravel and debris as you start to cross Glebe at that intersection, and you have to swing into the through-lane or right-hand turn area to avoid it. Both maneuvers put you into the traffic flow. There’s also a lot of broken glass, gravel, and debris in the bike lane on the north side of the pedestrian island once you cross Glebe. Again, to avoid it, you need to stay in the car travel lane until you pass it and can swing back into the bike lane. I submitted a service request on both of these spots a week ago, but it still only shows up at “Submitted” on the county’s tracker.

[Author]

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