TAKE ACTION: Arlington Capital Improvement Plan Survey

[chris_s]

Arlington is gathering input on priorities for their Capital Improvement Plan. This is essentially the 10 year budget for all of our bike infrastructure (as well as parks, schools, paving, sewers, IT systems, community centers, etc).

This is a quick, easy survey and very important. For one of the first times that I can recall, Arlington is straight up asking “How important to you is X? How important to you is Y?” including

4. How important to you is funding for bicycle and pedestrian safety and connectivity projects (e.g., sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, etc.) in the next CIP?

There is a free-form comment section at the bottom. Please share your suggestions with the group so we can all feed off of each other’s suggestions. Here are a few:

• The CIP should include a new Capital Program for the capital projects required to implement the new Bicycle Element of the Master Transportation Plan, funded at 2.5 million per year. That amount brings Arlington parity with Montgomery County.
• The County should abandon plans, at least for now, for the planned bicycle-pedestrian bridge between Alexandria and Arlington over Four Mile Run. This is a “nice to have” project that is primarily aesthetic and should not be a priority when there are so many other projects that would provide critical new connections or drastically increase safety. This would free up funds for the new Bicycle Element projects.
• This CIP must include projects to fully complete end-to-end safe Bicycle Accommodations on Columbia Pike, addressing the gaps at Four Mile Run, Glebe Road and George Mason Drive.
• Build the “Army Navy Emergency Access Drive” (also known as the Hoffman Boston Connector) as soon as possible and ensure a safe, comfortable, convenient connection for pedestrians and cyclists between it and Washington Blvd Phase 2, paying careful attention to the crossing of Columbia Pike.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Topic

[dasgeh]

@chris_s 175282 wrote:

TAKE THE SURVEY

It’s a quick survey. Please take it.

I would personally be fine with lumping the Hoffman Boston project in with other bike improvements if we could get sufficient funding to implement a low stress network in a reasonable time period. Then we could use a prioritization matrix to decide when it makes sense to build it (i.e. now).

[creadinger]

Is there any benefit for non-Arlington resident to do the survey? Will they take the opinions of a lowly Alexandrian into account? Haha. Or more likely they may do the opposite.

[Judd]

@creadinger 175287 wrote:

Is there any benefit for non-Arlington resident to do the survey? Will they take the opinions of a lowly Alexandrian into account? Haha. Or more likely they may do the opposite.

It looks like the survey asks which neighborhood you live in but doesn’t appear to be a required answer. So my short answer is… yes. Highlight how much more money you will spend in Arlington if you can get there by bike. #BikesMeanBusiness

I’d also appreciate if you’d consider providing some comment about how nice it would be if Columbia Pike had dedicated bike/bus lanes.

[LhasaCM]

@Judd 175294 wrote:

It looks like the survey asks which neighborhood you live in but doesn’t appear to be a required answer. So my short answer is… yes. Highlight how much more money you will spend in Arlington if you can get there by bike. #BikesMeanBusiness

I’d also appreciate if you’d consider providing some comment about how nice it would be if Columbia Pike had dedicated bike/bus lanes.

You know – I was thinking yesterday while going east on Columbia Pike from Courthouse with the #kidical that it would be nice if there were a dedicated lane and I didn’t have to keep repeating silently in my head “please, driver, keep being patient behind us before you floor it to get on the freeway.” I imagine that would’ve made it a bit less stressful. I also imagine it would’ve been even more stressful during normal commuting hours (as opposed to post-lunch)

And yes – as a DC resident (I admitted it with my zip code) – I did respond to the survey making points along that line, and how improved safe infrastructure in general would encourage us to visit Arlington more often (and spend more money).

[Judd]

@LhasaCM 175296 wrote:

You know – I was thinking yesterday while going east on Columbia Pike from Courthouse with the #kidical that it would be nice if there were a dedicated lane and I didn’t have to keep repeating silently in my head “please, driver, keep being patient behind us before you floor it to get on the freeway.” I imagine that would’ve made it a bit less stressful. I also imagine it would’ve been even more stressful during normal commuting hours (as opposed to post-lunch)

And yes – as a DC resident (I admitted it with my zip code) – I did respond to the survey making points along that line, and how improved safe infrastructure in general would encourage us to visit Arlington more often (and spend more money).

I frequently get to make a left into my complex when going uphill on Columbia Pike and play the game where a car will hug my fender and wait to start passing me only after I’ve signaled that I’m changing lanes. A dedicated bus/bike lane would fix that pretty well for me.

[chris_s]

Last chance! Survey closes tomorrow!

[Author]

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