South Eads Street workshop, Wed. May 21, 2014, 7-8:30 pm

[chris_s]

@PotomacCyclist 84986 wrote:

The announcement also mentions an online survey, but the link is not available on the website yet.

The link appears to be up now.

[KLizotte]

Ohhhhhhhhh!!!!!! It’s like Xmas today! S Eads could so use this!!!! I can’t wait!!!!!

[creadinger]

@PotomacCyclist 84986 wrote:

The South Eads Street Corridor Study is an effort to transform the street into a Complete Street, with better design for all transportation modes and users: pedestrians, cyclists, transit, cars.

The current road is pockmarked with temporary pothole patches. The lane markings are not that clear, or missing completely, on sections of the road. The repaving and cycle track will be a big improvement.

---

Thanks for the heads up. This will be interesting to see and a nice improvement. Probably will be much better to use than Crystal Dr., which is a circus on the best of days. Anyway, Eads is a mess and needs to be repaved from Army Navy, all the way to Glebe. I’ve been riding it while the 4MR closure is going on and it’s not fun.

The cycle track sounds nice, but I wish they would tackle some of the problems to the south of 23rd St first. Where they want to put the cycle track the road is super wide and there are two lanes, so if you take the right lane, cars can easily pass to the left. No biggie. South of 23rd St. the road narrows greatly and there’s little space to maneuver. Despite a semi-marked bike lane, both lanes feel narrower than usual. Often, even if I’m in the middle of the bike lane drivers hesitate to pass me so I think they feel it too. On the northbound side tour buses park back there, which take up the WHOLE parallel parking lane + bike lane if it exists, forcing cyclists into the only travel lane. It’s also a corridor that taxis and Metro buses use so it’s pretty heavily trafficked.

Anyway, not complaining. I look forward to the improvements. Survey completed.

[PotomacCyclist]

Crystal Drive will also change this year. The Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway (bus rapid transit) project should start up in the coming weeks or months, and finish up by next year. Much of Crystal Drive will change to include a bus-only lane. (I think a new lane will be added south of 26th St., replacing the narrow park between 26th and 29th St. The new lane might extend to S. Glebe Rd.)

The Transitway will eventually be converted to a streetcar system. [EDIT – As most people know, the streetcar projects were canceled.]

http://sites.arlingtonva.us/ccpc/transit-improvements/crystal-city-potomac-yard-transitway/

http://sites.arlingtonva.us/ccpc/files/2012/05/Transitway_Meeting_2014-04-22.pdf

*****

There could also be construction work on some of the east-west streets this year, including 15th and 18th Streets. Bell/Clark Streets from 12th to 18th St. could be redesigned too. (There are plans for 23rd and 27th Sts. as well, but those projects might not start this year.)

[PotomacCyclist]

There are now large wooden signs in the area, announcing the project and the workshop (this Wednesday).

[Terpfan]

Before I opened the thread, I thought this was what’s his name (can’t believe I’m blanking) from the forum doing his annual free maintenance class.

[Tim Kelley]

Bump. Workshop tonight!

If you can’t make it, take the quick and easy online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Eads

[consularrider]

Too many competing bike events tonight.

[PotomacCyclist]

Interesting presentation. While much of the info is also available online, I got a better sense of the approach and mindset of some of the staff members involved with Arlington County projects and planning. They do seem to take multimodal transportation very seriously, which is a good thing. They are not anti-car, which one attendee started to imply. They want to consider the needs of all people using transportation networks, from pedestrians and transit users to cyclists and car drivers.

Eads Street will be repaved by this fall. The temporary cycletrack will probably be marked with plastic bollards. Then the County will study the effects on traffic patterns and congestion. Will the cycletrack encourage more people to bike in that area? Will it be safer for cyclists? Will the reduction in car lanes cause congestion? Will some drivers detour onto other roads such as Clark St. or Fern St.? Will the new road configuration be more welcoming and safer for pedestrians? We shall see.

I’m glad that County staff are aware of some of the major safety problems along the road, including the drivers who take right turns on red at high speeds from Eads. I’ve seen this myself. It’s simply astonishing and frightening to see. I’ve seen a few drivers take those right turns on red, traveling at maybe 30-40 mph, without slowing down at all to see if there are pedestrians in the crosswalk. Such behavior displays a complete lack of concern for the safety and lives of others. Everyone knows that the area is busy, with many pedestrians on local sidewalks and crosswalks. Apparently County police have written up loads of tickets because of this, but they can’t be stationed at every intersection, every hour of every day. If there are fewer lanes and better marked lanes, maybe drivers won’t treat it as a speedway. Much of the traffic is at a more reasonable speed, but there are enough speeding drivers to create safety hazards, especially for pedestrians.

I’m also glad that the County is not going to rely on sharrows for key bike routes (unless there is no space for a bike lane or cycletrack). I don’t like riding on sharrows on busy roads. If you stay toward the middle of the lane, where the bike figures are located, some drivers will speed up from behind, with a few almost trying to ram cyclists. If you stay a little too close to the right side of the lane, some drivers will try to squeeze by, passing with only a couple inches of clearance. Neither situation is pleasant.

Eads St. can offer cyclists an alternative route between Four Mile Run and the future Army Navy Drive cycletrack, and connections to Pentagon City, Columbia Pike, the Pentagon, the Washington Blvd. Trail (next to the Pentagon) and Long Bridge Drive (with a future path to the Humpback Bridge and the MVT, without the detour through LBJ Grove). Crystal Drive and Clark/Bell St. are other north-south routes, but not as convenient for riding to Pentagon City, the Pentagon or Columbia Pike.

Be prepared for some short-term inconvenience this fall, when the repaving begins. After that, it will be nice to ride on smooth pavement, instead of the pitted and pockmarked road it is today.

[chris_s]

How was the attitude split among attendees? Mostly cyclists? Mostly nearby residents? Mostly pro-cycletrack? Mostly pro-parking / car lanes?

[Subby]

@PotomacCyclist 86245 wrote:

Be prepared for some short-term inconvenience this fall, when the repaving begins. After that, it will be nice to ride on smooth pavement, instead of the pitted and pockmarked road it is today.

Thanks for the great update.

This morning I almost wiped out on some terrible asphalt mangle on Eads about two blocks before 23rd Street. I am so excited about the repaving, because I really love this route as an alternative to getting on the MVT at the 4MR interchange.

[consularrider]

@Subby 86283 wrote:

Thanks for the great update.

This morning I almost wiped out on some terrible asphalt mangle on Eads about two blocks before 23rd Street. I am so excited about the repaving, because I really love this route as an alternative to getting on the MVT at the 4MR interchange.

Other than the road work on Eads starting at the Metro lot, my biggest issue has been the large number of tour buses parked blocking the northbound bike lane. This morning it seemed like the entire street was crawling with them. On Tueday I had a not so gentleman have a fit of road rage because I was taking the lane and he had to wait behind me (and then make a dangerous pass) making him all of five to ten seconds late for his coffee/big gulp/slurpee stop at 23rd where he promptly wasted even more time berating me for not being in the blocked bike lane. If they are going to allow bus parking there, I would much prefer to have sharrows than the bike lane between Glebe and 23rd. More heavy sighs.

[PotomacCyclist]

It was a relatively small group. Maybe 20 people or thereabouts. A few people had bike helmets and jerseys, including one family who had Crystal City bike jerseys (including the children). There was the one guy who got sort of angry. It seemed like he was trying to start up a outrage party, along the lines of “This is nice and all [an exact quote]” and “What about car travel times and congestion?” The staff member had a good response. Not discounting concerns about traffic conditions but also emphasizing that Arlington streets are supposed to be designed for all Arlingtonians, not just car drivers. I think there was also a mention about the fact that many of the car drivers are actually residents of Fairfax, Alexandria, DC, Maryland and other Virginia counties, not from Arlington, so they shouldn’t get absolute priority over people who live here.

One other guy sort of jumped on the outrage bandwagon, but more along the lines of concern that if Eads St. gets congested, then drivers might start to use other streets, such as Fern St. He brought a print-out of 7 email conversations he had had with staff about Fern St. traffic. The staff member said that they could discuss the matter separately. (Not too sure what any of that really had to do with the Eads St. project. Eads St. hasn’t even been remade yet, so any issues on Fern St. have nothing whatsoever to do with the Eads St. proposals.)

But no one else had that similar outrage. Others asked about pedestrian safety. I heard quite a few people talk about this, during the formal Q&A and in the informal discussions afterward, when we had a chance to put dot stickers on large print-outs of the various options for each section of Eads St. I also brought up pedestrian safety in an issue that isn’t directly related to the project, but still relevant. (At many intersections, if a pedestrian does not press the WALK signal button, then when the light turns green, the WALK signal will not light up. Some pedestrians will proceed in the crosswalk because they see the green light. But a driver turning left may think that the pedestrian doesn’t have the right to proceed, and then try to force out or run down the pedestrian with the car. This has happened to me, as a pedestrian. The traffic engineer said that people in the Signal dept. are responsible for that decision, to not have the WALK signals light up automatically with a green light. He didn’t seem to agree with that decision, but I think he didn’t want to get into any trouble for criticizing other depts. in the County. He suggested that I contact the Signals dept., which I will do.)

Anyway, I heard people talk about dangerous street crossings at various points along Eads, from the perspective of a pedestrian. It’s hard to say what the breakdown was of pedestrian, cyclist, transit user or driver was, or if many people fit into multiple categories like I do. If I had to guess, I would say that only the one guy seemed to be one of the traditional hardcore “don’t dare do anything to slow down cars” types. But I think the staff response might have made him think about the importance of pedestrian safety in particular. The other guy was more angry about car drivers switching from some other road to Fern St. It didn’t seem like he was blindly pro-car. If anything, it sounded like he was concerned about cut-through car traffic on other streets. (But as I said, I’m not sure how that is relevant at this point to an Eads St. project, which hasn’t started yet.) Maybe a third or more were cyclists. (I saw someone from the CC BID, who is in favor of multimodal transportation.) I think the rest of the attendees were looking at the project and the street from the perspective of pedestrians and transit users.

It may not be exactly representative of all interested parties in the area, but that’s who showed up at this particular presentation. I don’t think most of the recent college grads/20-somethings follow local government issues that closely. Or they work late and weren’t able to make it to the presentation, even though it didn’t start until 7 or 7:15 pm.

***
The staff referred to “DOT democracy,” which is the exercise of posting large print-outs of different proposals and handing out dot stickers to attendees. People can choose to vote for one option in each section of Eads or put all of their stickers on just one section. The project breaks down Eads into different sections: Four Mile Run to Glebe or Fort Scott, Fort Scott to 23rd, 23rd to 15th, 15th to Army Navy Drive, or something like that. Each section had four different proposals: no build, bike lanes, cycletrack, cycletrack and a raised median between the car lanes. I don’t think anyone voted for the no build option at all. I didn’t see a single dot on any of the sections. Or maybe there was one, but I don’t think so.

Most people voted for the cycletrack or the cycletrack with the raised center median.

Parking is not an issue because I don’t think any parking spots will be removed at all, unlike the King St. proposal in Alexandria. Existing parking would remain while the cycletrack would be built between the parking spaces and the existing curb, at least for now, and only in the pilot section. (I think that is between 15th and 23rd Streets only.) After County staff study the effects of the pilot cycletrack and lane configuration, maybe for 6 months or more, then they will determine how to proceed. One of the proposed cycletrack designs would put it off the road, outside of a new curb, but that decision won’t be made until later.

As you probably know, the southern section of the street is much narrower. A cycletrack wouldn’t be possible without removing parking spaces or the median. Or pushing the curb out to the side, but that would require taking some space from the ART bus facility. I don’t think that would happen. Plus the airport connector road has a ramp that runs right up to the existing sidewalk. I asked about this. Though the long-term sector plan calls for that road to be taken down, that is not going to happen for at least a couple decades, if ever. So some parts of Eads St. could look different from other sections. They will study whether the change in configuration from one section to another presents a safety issue.

Another interesting comment was that “dot democracy” doesn’t mean that these exercises define the final plans. They are advisory only. They pointed out that even if one option were clearly preferred by most, the County wouldn’t build it if it presented a significant safety risk. This wasn’t a comment about a particular option though, just a general statement.

***
This was the first time I’ve attended one of these County transportation presentations. I’m glad I went, mostly to get a better sense of how the process works and what some of the County staff are like. Nice to be able to put faces to names and staff positions, and also to hear about HOW the staff talk about proposals. Clearly, they were not just going through the motions. It’s good to see and hear that there is real thought being put into this, while also hearing about some of the competing motivations among other County departments. (One example was the pedestrian signals. Someone also mentioned the Intersection of Doom, even though that is not relevant for the Eads St. project. They recognized the ongoing safety issues there. This was in the informal discussions after the main Q&A. Or course VDOT, NPS and USDOT (?) are also involved with that intersection, so the County can’t act on its own there.)

[chris_s]

@PotomacCyclist 86303 wrote:

(At many intersections, if a pedestrian does not press the WALK signal button, then when the light turns green, the WALK signal will not light up. Some pedestrians will proceed in the crosswalk because they see the green light. But a driver turning left may think that the pedestrian doesn’t have the right to proceed, and then try to force out or run down the pedestrian with the car. This has happened to me, as a pedestrian. The traffic engineer said that people in the Signal dept. are responsible for that decision, to not have the WALK signals light up automatically with a green light. He didn’t seem to agree with that decision, but I think he didn’t want to get into any trouble for criticizing other depts. in the County. He suggested that I contact the Signals dept., which I will do.)

I’m on a bit of a crusade on this exact issue, and on signals policy (or lack thereof) in Arlington in general. I can give you (and anyone else who is interested) some suggested email addresses to contact and a couple of added talking points if you’re game. Private Message me if desired.

Also thanks for the meeting summary!

[PotomacCyclist]

@consularrider 86290 wrote:

Other than the road work on Eads starting at the Metro lot, my biggest issue has been the large number of tour buses parked blocking the northbound bike lane. This morning it seemed like the entire street was crawling with them. On Tueday I had a not so gentleman have a fit of road rage because I was taking the lane and he had to wait behind me (and then make a dangerous pass) making him all of five to ten seconds late for his coffee/big gulp/slurpee stop at 23rd where he promptly wasted even more time berating me for not being in the blocked bike lane. If they are going to allow bus parking there, I would much prefer to have sharrows than the bike lane between Glebe and 23rd. More heavy sighs.

A few people did complain about the tour buses and also about the Metro/ART bus drivers. One person said the public bus drivers were the most dangerous of any drivers in the area. Maybe, maybe not. I’ve had issues with drivers of those hotel shuttle buses. Those guys drive way too fast. They also drive down the existing center left turn lane at high speeds and cut back and forth between lanes in a dangerous manner.

The staff said that ongoing utility work south of 23rd St. means that part of Eads St. won’t be upgraded until after other sections. I don’t remember if they mentioned the timeline for that utility work. It might run into next year.

If you haven’t already, I’d suggest posting the specific observations and suggestions in the survey or an email, even though they are aware of the issues of the tour buses and transit bus drivers.

Before the meeting, I rode down Eads St., just to get a sense of what it was like. (Normally I’m more likely to cross Eads than to ride along most of it.) The bike lane sections were OK, although those lanes are in the door zone of the parked cars. The sharrows were not so nice. I drifted a little too close to the curb and some driver passed me, squeezing by with only a few inches of clearance. The road has two car lanes in that direction at that point, so it wasn’t entirely necessary for that driver to pass there. The intersection came up soon, so he only saved, well, I’m not sure he saved any time at all by making that pass.

I don’t like riding on that southern section of Eads. Well, I don’t like riding on any section of Eads right now, but if they add a cycletrack, the middle section will be better. If I’m heading south, I think I will still take Crystal Drive down to Potomac Ave. or FMR Trail.

[Author]

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