Send a Quick Email in Support of Washington Blvd Bike Lanes

[Steve O]

@Judd 156680 wrote:

Looks like the party is at Mad Fox and Caboose this Thursday, but I’ll try to throw together a Westover Happy Hour next week.

Bollard Busters is integrating/infiltrating in with Team 10 at Caboose. So no Mad Fox tonight.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Sunyata 156678 wrote:

I will totally buy you a beer if you show up in jorts.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14201[/ATTACH]

Nathan Fillion auditioning for Airborne?

[dasgeh]

Deadline for comments extended to the 17th. But write in today.

@OneEighth 156628 wrote:

chris_s,
Why do you believe the bike lane proposal is in danger?
Might help with messaging to know what argument is putting it on play.

Neighbors who think that they have a right to the parking spaces that are currently there. I was at the public meeting, and there was a lot of support for the pedestrian improvements to the street, and theoretically for bikes, but people don’t want to lose the parking. Even though neighboring streets are under-parked.

Lots of “but bikes can use the trail” (the ride from EFC Metro to Westover Beer Garden is 50% longer and much more hilly on the trail v via Washington Blvd). I don’t think there was much traction for “but cars could use Lee Hwy – let’s just make it a pedestrian/bike focused street, only allowing local traffic for parking”. But if someone else wanted to suggest that via email…

[chris_s]

The deadline is Friday! There’s still time to send in comments if you haven’t had a chance yet!

[AFHokie]

@Judd 156663 wrote:

OMG WSGFABR to Westover Beer Garden. I don’t think I’ll ever go to Cap City again no matter how many of my bike friends are there.

Did something happen at Cap City?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[Judd]

@AFHokie 157087 wrote:

Did something happen at Cap City?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

Yes. They will no longer split checks.

[Judd]

@Judd 157096 wrote:

Yes. They will no longer split checks.

And generally they started out having shitty service to begin with. Combining having to trip the wait staff to get a beer with having to do a complex set of math and negotiations to pay, it’s just not worth it for me anymore.

[Birru]

@AFHokie 157087 wrote:

Did something happen at Cap City?

@Judd 157097 wrote:

And generally they started out having shitty service to begin with. Combining having to trip the wait staff to get a beer with having to do a complex set of math and negotiations to pay, it’s just not worth it for me anymore.

So basically, Cap City happened.

[chris_s]

Hopefully you are all on the WABA alert list and saw this already, but Arlington has capitulated to the vocal minority freaking out about parking and the “final” striping plan has a bike lane only in the westbound direction. Guess how many USED parking spaces this keeps? TEN. The other 29 or so that are “saved” were never in use during the County’s parking utilization study. There is plenty of parking capacity to handle those 10 “displaced” cars either across the street or around the corner.

If you haven’t already, make some noise on this. This is about more than Washington Blvd; this is potentially precedent-setting. 10 parking spaces are not more important than safety and enabling a car-free or car-light lifestyle for thousands of Arlingtonians.

Take action through the WABA Alert, or email countyboard@arlingtonva.us and countymanager@arlingtonva.us or reach out directly to some County Board members if you have any sort of relationship. Capitulation to a vocal minority is not the political environment we want surrounding the process for updating Arlington’s Bike Plan (set to kick off by the end of next month, FYI)

[Drewdane]

@chris_s 158726 wrote:

Hopefully you are all on the WABA alert list and saw this already, but Arlington has capitulated to the vocal minority freaking out about parking and the “final” striping plan has a bike lane only in the westbound direction. Guess how many USED parking spaces this keeps? TEN. The other 29 or so that are “saved” were never in use during the County’s parking utilization study. There is plenty of parking capacity to handle those 10 “displaced” cars either across the street or around the corner.

If you haven’t already, make some noise on this. This is about more than Washington Blvd; this is potentially precedent-setting. 10 parking spaces are not more important than safety and enabling a car-free or car-light lifestyle for thousands of Arlingtonians.

Take action through the WABA Alert, or email countyboard@arlingtonva.us and countymanager@arlingtonva.us or reach out directly to some County Board members if you have any sort of relationship. Capitulation to a vocal minority is not the political environment we want surrounding the process for updating Arlington’s Bike Plan (set to kick off by the end of next month, FYI)

Duplicating my post from the other thread:

Does anyone have any more specific info about the process surrounding this change in plans? It would be useful if we can contrast that with the transparency of the original process that came up with the plan to include bike lanes.

Also, if (like me) you are not a resident of Arlington, please write in anyway. I spend a fair amount of money in Westover’s restaurants and bars, and am likely to spend more with better bike access. Actively deciding to limit access for cyclists will definitely affect my decision next time I want to go out to eat or have a drink.

[huskerdont]

I wrote, not that it will do any good. Arlington only tackles the low-hanging fruit. They do not deserve Gold-level cycling status.

A couple hundred cyclists a day going through there taking the lane would certainly get some attention. I can add it to my route on the way home once or twice a week.

[scoot]

@huskerdont 158758 wrote:

A couple hundred cyclists a day going through there taking the lane would certainly get some attention. I can add it to my route on the way home once or twice a week.

+1

This decision sabotages an otherwise useful transportation facility so that ten people can have a slightly shorter walk from their homes to their cars. Obviously the County Board (and the community at large) need to hear the message that it is NOT OKAY to sacrifice public safety just so that a few vocal people can appropriate the public right-of-way for the storage of their private property.

I can swing by there every now and then, but it is far out of my way. Nonetheless I do hope that most eastbound cyclists will take the lane there instead of shunting off to some second-rate ill-conceived detour. Especially the slowest riders

[DismalScientist]

I am disgusted by the county’s actions on this project. Somehow bike advocacy groups were actively involved in this months before neighborhood groups. How does one get a reasonable sampling of opinion in this way? I ride Washington Blvd every day and sent the following email that was not reflected in any summary.

I have been solicited by WABA to send you an email. * I am a daily bike commuter living in the Westover area and a member of the Lutheran Church. *I frequently ride on Washington Blvd and find it safe. *(Actually I find the western part safer than the farther east part with the bike lanes in the gutter; drivers tend to give a wider berth when bikes are viewed as not in a bike lane.) *The part of Washington Blvd that needs bike facilities is between Sycamore and Lee Highway, but I realize there is no space in the roadway.
The church losing spaces will cause problems on Sunday mornings as we have a lot of older members. *The church owned property on Ohio that was to be a parking lot, but that was sold because of the adequate street parking, which now looks like it is going away. *As it looks like this plan is going through, *I suggest you consider leaving the parking situation on the north side in front of the church as it currently is, with diagonal parking only on Sundays and have Monday through Saturday westbound bike lane and Sunday sharrows.*
As for parking in front of residences, that is a battle for the affected homeowners. *That said, while biking, I prefer cars pulling away from the curb over them backing out of driveways.*

Mark Williams

PS: Many of the “saved” parking spaces are used on Sunday morning as they are across the street from the church.

[huskerdont]

@huskerdont 158758 wrote:

A couple hundred cyclists a day going through there taking the lane would certainly get some attention. I can add it to my route on the way home once or twice a week.

So I rode this each direction last night. For me, sticking to Washington without the bike lane is better than the proposed bike route, but I could see how it would make some nervous. The hills are easy rollers except maybe coming right up from Sycamore. Really seemed easier/safer than George Mason between Washington Blvd and Lee Hwy, where there are sharrows but it seems like death is overtaking you with every vehicle that passes. I’m going to try to ride it a couple of times a week from now on, especially after the restriping, but it’s going to take more than one chump to bring any visibility to the situation. Lots of people would need to ride it every day, and some organized rides with dozens of riders would be best.

[Judd]

@huskerdont 158788 wrote:

Lots of people would need to ride it every day, and some organized rides with dozens of riders would be best.

Group ride for beer!

[Author]

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