#SafeTrack: when WMATA made everyone a bicyclist

[dasgeh]

As you know, SafeTrack is coming. WMATA will start closing parts of MetroRail lines and significantly reducing service in less than 2 weeks. The first closure will see continuous single tracking between Ballston and East Falls Church in Arlington from June 4 to June 16. During that time the entire Orange and Silver lines (and the Blue, where it shares a track with Orange and Silver) will see a 28%-70% reduction in service. That’s a lot fewer people being moved by MetroRail.

And yet, those people still need to get around. Arlington County has started planning for how to move people. County staff is focusing on transit solutions, but they’ve asked for our help identifying bike-based solutions. In other words, what can be done or at least tried relatively quickly and easily to get more people to bike during #SafeTrack?

I think it would be helpful to organize our thoughts around the 6 E’s: Engineering (infrastructure); Education; Encouragement; Enforcement; Evaluation; Equity.

Please comment below with any ideas, and I’ll organize them and deliver to the County.

Topic

[bobco85]

My new video for biking around the upcoming Metro SafeTrack Surge 12 (Rosslyn to Pentagon) is finally complete!

Surge 12 will run from this Saturday, February 11, through Tuesday, February 28, and will have the following disruptions:

• The Blue Line will be completely shutdown
• There will be no train service between the Rosslyn and Pentagon stations
• Arlington Cemetery Metro will only be accessible using free shuttle buses running from the Pentagon station
• Yellow and Yellow Rush Plus Lines will run all day.

Here are pics of the Metro map that I made to illustrate this (left: normal service; right: during Surge 12):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13570[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13571[/ATTACH]

Here is the video I created:
[video=youtube_share;NuyiQ59LrgI]https://youtu.be/NuyiQ59LrgI[/video]

I originally was not going to create a video for Surge 12 until I discovered how much of a disruption would take place. I also had a cold while I was trying to do the voiceover, so I hope that I don’t sound too congested (I took to a neti pot just before recording so I’d be as clear as possible).

I split the routes into 2 groups: Foggy Bottom/Court House to Pentagon City and L’Enfant Plaza to Pentagon/Crystal City. I hope this helps folks needing to get around those areas.

[bobco85]

@bobco85 154330 wrote:

My new video for biking around the upcoming Metro SafeTrack Surge 12 (Rosslyn to Pentagon) is finally complete!

Surge 12 will run from this Saturday, February 11, through Tuesday, February 28, and will have the following disruptions:

• The Blue Line will be completely shutdown
• There will be no train service between the Rosslyn and Pentagon stations
• Arlington Cemetery Metro will only be accessible using free shuttle buses running from the Pentagon station
• Yellow and Yellow Rush Plus Lines will run all day.

Here are pics of the Metro map that I made to illustrate this (left: normal service; right: during Surge 12):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13570[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13571[/ATTACH]

Here is the video I created:
[video=youtube_share;NuyiQ59LrgI]https://youtu.be/NuyiQ59LrgI[/video]

I originally was not going to create a video for Surge 12 until I discovered how much of a disruption would take place. I also had a cold while I was trying to do the voiceover, so I hope that I don’t sound too congested (I took to a neti pot just before recording so I’d be as clear as possible).

I split the routes into 2 groups: Foggy Bottom/Court House to Pentagon City and L’Enfant Plaza to Pentagon/Crystal City. I hope this helps folks needing to get around those areas.

Giving this thread a bump because SafeTrack Surge 12 starts tomorrow. FYI for those trying to avoid the Metro service interruptions.

[bobco85]

Hey there, I’m on vacation, but I managed to finish my video for the SafeTrack Surge 13 that runs from this Saturday, March 4, through April 9.

Here is the video I created:
[video=youtube_share;M0Rrv8LmzeA]https://youtu.be/M0Rrv8LmzeA[/video]

I hope everything works. See you all when I return to the DC area on Tuesday!

[bobco85]

New Surge, new video!

Quick notes:

• Surge 14 will run from Saturday, April 15 through Sunday, May 14
• No Yellow Rush Plus service
• Phase 1 (April 15-29)
  • Greenbelt & College Park stations closed
  • Free shuttle buses between Greenbelt, College Park, and Prince George’s Plaza stations
• Phase 2 (April 30-May 14)
  • Greenbelt station closed
  • Free shuttle buses between Greenbelt and College Park stations

I made a bike route video to show how to get around the affected stations using routes on the west and east sides of the tracks, so hopefully that will help with wayfinding. I did routes between Greenbelt, Beltsville, College Park, Prince George’s Plaza, and West Hyattsville for this. The nice thing is that there is a lot of bicycle infrastructure to be used to get around.

Here’s the video. Enjoy!
[video=youtube_share;KurxQcE0ZOg]https://youtu.be/KurxQcE0ZOg[/video]

[bobco85]

Surge 15 starts Monday, and my video is now up for biking around it!

Quick notes:

• Surge 15 will run from May 15th through June 16th
• All Orange Line stations east of Stadium-Armory will be closed (New Carrollton, Landover, Cheverly, Deanwood, & Minnesota Ave stations all will be closed)
• Free local shuttle buses will replace Orange Line trains
• Express shuttle buses will connect a few Orange Line stations to a few Blue/Silver Line stations

This bike route video uses parts of the route that I took folks along for the Purple Line, and it should show a couple of connections between the stations that aren’t very easy to figure out.

Here is the video. With Bike to Work Day approaching, I hope this helps those who are less experienced.

[video=youtube_share;HwKtaZcg_mU]https://youtu.be/HwKtaZcg_mU[/video]

[MFC]

@bobco85 160029 wrote:

Surge 15 starts Monday, and my video is now up for biking around it!

Quick notes:

• Surge 15 will run from May 15th through June 16th
• All Orange Line stations east of Stadium-Armory will be closed (New Carrollton, Landover, Cheverly, Deanwood, & Minnesota Ave stations all will be closed)
• Free local shuttle buses will replace Orange Line trains
• Express shuttle buses will connect a few Orange Line stations to a few Blue/Silver Line stations

This bike route video uses parts of the route that I took folks along for the Purple Line, and it should show a couple of connections between the stations that aren’t very easy to figure out.

Here is the video. With Bike to Work Day approaching, I hope this helps those who are less experienced.

[video=youtube_share;HwKtaZcg_mU]https://youtu.be/HwKtaZcg_mU[/video]

Metro liked your videos so much, they are coming out with SafeTrack II https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/06/01/metro-to-shut-down-parts-of-green-red-and-yellow-lines-in-next-round-of-maintenance-blitzes-once-safetrack-ends/?hpid=hp_local-news_metro-155pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fdb10da92b75

[bobco85]

@MFC 160954 wrote:

Metro liked your videos so much, they are coming out with SafeTrack II https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/06/01/metro-to-shut-down-parts-of-green-red-and-yellow-lines-in-next-round-of-maintenance-blitzes-once-safetrack-ends/?hpid=hp_local-news_metro-155pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fdb10da92b75

So, they can’t call it SafeTrack because that’s supposed to end in June, but they still need to do multi-station line shutdowns.

So, it’s SafeTrack but not SafeTrack even though it will operate very very VERY similarly to SafeTrack?

Yeah, I’m going to continue to call it SafeTrack.

[bobco85]

Alright, life happened and I ended up being late on this, but I did finally finish my bike route video for the final SafeTrack Surge 16 from Shady Grove to Twinbrook!

Quick notes:

• Surge 16 is running from June 17th through June 25th
• The Shady Grove and Rockville stations on the Red Line will be closed
• Free shuttle buses will replace train rides between the Shady Grove, Rockville, and Twinbrook stations
• This is the final SafeTrack Surge, even though there are other smaller closures that will occur throughout the next year

Since the video is late, the video might not be as useful for dealing with this week-long surge, but I think that this video could be useful for those looking for bike routes along the Shady Grove end of the Red Line. The north end of Rock Creek Trail is not too far from the Shady Grove Metro, the Carl Henn Millennium Trail is a loop that riders can use to go literally around Rockville, and the Bethesda Trolley Trail is another great trail for getting north-south especially to access the Capital Crescent Trail.

Here is the video. I’m glad to be able to contribute to finding good biking routes throughout the DC area, and I plan to contribute to biking around Seattle when I get there. Enjoy!

[video=youtube_share;455tnNZbilQ]https://youtu.be/455tnNZbilQ[/video]

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