There goes the neighborhood – Pentagon City

[CaseyKane50]

There is lots of activity going on in the Pentagon City area, but none of it is currently good for bicyclists. The widening of the sidewalks on South Joyce Street underneath 395 brought construction trailers to the climbing lane and bike lane on Army-Navy Drive. (I do hope that Arlington is collecting rent from the contractor for using the road.) Heading north on Army-Navy Drive, just before the Ridge Road overpass, a contractor is building a house. To get water to the house, a hole was dug in the street. It just so happens that the hole landed in the bike lane. Though the steel plate is long gone and the hole has been patched, a nice sink hole has developed in the bike lane. Continuing north on Army-Navy Drive, we next encounter the construction on Hayes Street. Arlington has a project to improve the streetscape and to provision for the future street car line along Hayes Street. The project currently involves digging up the street between Army-Navy Drive and removing some of the existing infrastructure. To accommodate this, Hayes Street was narrowed to two lanes and the bike lane was blocked. Moving along Hayes Street, you next come to the Eads Street bike lane. Long ago, it truly was a bike lane, but south bound between 23rd Street and Glebe Road, the bike has effectively ceased to exist (except that the Arlington County Bike Map continues to show a bike lane), there are still some signs and symbols along the road, but the bike lines have faded along long stretches of the road or have been patched over. Coming north on Eads, stretches of the bike lane have been taken over by tour buses, putting the bicyclist out in the road.

Last night, the news came from Metro – the bike lockers at the Pentagon City Metro stop were to be permanently removed at the end of August. I have to vacate my locker by next week. Hardly the lead time I would have wanted, but not surprised that there wasn’t better coordination on this.

There have been other posts and comments about similar problems in other parts of Arlington regarding maintenance and construction of roads and biking infrastructure. It is too bad that Arlington can’t do a better job of accommodating not only cars, but bicyclists and pedestrians with these projects. Part of a contractors responsibility on these projects should include how they will accommodate all modes of transportation. For the Hayes Street project, signs could have been posted to detour bicyclists onto Joyce Street. No doubt many bicyclists would figure that out, but why not require the contractor to include detour signs?

Topic

[paulg]

You can take Four Mile run trail from the MVT at the south end of the airport and head West on four mile run. Just before the water treatment plant and just after the electricity sub station you take a right onto South Eads St. This road has a bike path but the markings could do with some fresh paint. Cross over Glebe and head north on Eads.

From Eads turn left on either fort Scott drive or 26 th street both of which are low traffic (but some steep hills). from there you can climb up 23rd to Arlington Ridge or 20th which is a bit less trafficky.

Most of the roads in the Aurora highlands and arlington ridge ‘hoods are quiet except for a couple such as 23rd.

[Mike Hirrel]

Thanks, dudes, this is good advice and I’m going to give these a try. I don’t fancy being killed on Army Navy Drive by an idiot in an SUV yakking on his celfone. My mom would miss me. Mike

[PotomacCyclist]

+1 on those streets becoming very steep, especially as you approach Arlington Ridge Road from the side. Be prepared for some hard work on that last block going west on 23rd or 20th Streets. For other challenging but short climbs, there is Fort Scott Drive from Eads. Embrace the pain!

[5555624]

@Mike Hirrel 28177 wrote:

Thanks, dudes, this is good advice and I’m going to give these a try. I don’t fancy being killed on Army Navy Drive by an idiot in an SUV yakking on his celfone. My mom would miss me. Mike

Because your mom’s more careful when talking on her cell phone? Oh, you mean she’d miss you becuse you were killed — never mind.

[CaseyKane50]

@CaseyKane50 27825 wrote:

Chris,

Thanks for the contact information. I have reported the pot hole problem and the bike lane markings to DES and also reached out to the project manager for the Hayes Street project. DES has logged both issues and the project manager will be meeting with the contractor to discuss the issues I raised. She has promised to get back to me with a response and any actions that will be taken.

I did get a response back from Katherine Youngbluth, the Arlington County Capital Project Management Coordinator for the Hayes Street Project. She promised to look into my concerns and several days later did respond to my message. Several steps were taken to improve the situation for pedestrians and she provided the following response to my specific concerns about the bike situation “… the contractor would “order “bicycle lane ends” signage and would place them on either end of the lanes to inform bicyclists. Bicyclists are still permitted to ride either on the sidewalk or in the travel lane so there is no need to post a detour route for bicyclists. I confirmed this with our bicycle operations staff yesterday afternoon.” As of Saturday, the signs were still not up. I will follow-up with her again.

Regarding my complaint about Metro providing short notice that the lockers would be removed, Katherine told me that Metro had been notified in May and early June of the schedule. The failure to provide notice to locker users was clearly placed on Metro. Metro did call me to alert me that they would like me to vacate my locker by the 16th, but that I would need to be out no later than the 27th. I confirmed this with the contractor doing the work. So imagine my surprise when I went to get my bike out of it’s secured locker on the afternoon of the 17th, it was gone! Somebody had removed my bike. I called the Bike Locker coordinator and left her a message that my bike was gone and then reported it to the Metro police. An office responded within 20 minutes and took my report and even offered to assist me in getting home. Today, the Bike Locker coordinator called me to tell me that Metro had indeed taken my bike. She reminded me that she had previously told me that Metro would like me to vacate the locker by the 16th. I replied that her message had not indicated that I must vacate by the 16th, but rather that I had to be out no later than the 27th. After we discussed this a few times, she wanted to know when I could come pick up my bike. I told her that I expected Metro to return it to me. She said she would get back to me. I got a call from another Metro employee at 3:40 today that I could come pick up my bike, but not until after 7 pm. I told the caller that I expected Metro to return my bike to me. Well, that caused a problem, as they can only return it by using Metro, there is this rule that says bikes can’t be on Metro during rush hour (apparently, Metro does follow their rules regarding bikes on Metro) and I wasn’t going to hang around the office until after 7 pm . We finally worked out that the employee who took my bike will return it tomorrow at the Pentagon City bike lockers.

[KLizotte]

Wow, I’m so sorry you had to go through all this pain and agony. I hope you get your bike back and it is unharmed. I rather doubt they would do this with cars.

[KelOnWheels]

Yeah, that is so not okay. I hope you get your bike back safe & sound!

[CaseyKane50]

@KelOnWheels 28881 wrote:

Yeah, that is so not okay. I hope you get your bike back safe & sound!

Bike was returned yesterday, safe and sound.

Katherine Youngbluth followed up with the contractor on the bike lane end signs. They are on order and should be installed within a couple of weeks.

[Author]

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