[CaseyKane50]

My commute is 25 miles round trip. I start from the west end of Alexandria on the Holmes Run trail to the Eisenhower Avenue trail and then through Old Town Alexandria up the Mount Vernon Trail, then turn on the Four Mile Run trail, cross over Glebe at Meade and then over to Army-Navy Drive and finally arrive in Pentagon City. I take Army-Navy Drive to get one hill into my commute. Usually, I am on the road by 5:30 am and because I am semi-retired I leave work around 2 pm. My ride takes about 60 minutes each way, which includes waiting at all traffic lights.

[CaseyKane50]

I think contractors should be required to maintain the existing bike infrastructure when they undertake projects that impact bike lanes. In a previous post, I had commented on some situations around Pentagon City that were clearly not ideal for bicyclists – bike lane taken by the contractor working on the Joyce Street project for a construction trailer, no warning that the bike lanes were gone on Hayes Street, damaged street on Army-Navy Drive and the conditions on Eads Street.

Arlington County should require that contractors working in areas where there is bike infrastructure to provide a plan with their permit request that would detail how they will maintain bike access and bicyclists safety during construction and what steps they will take to correct damages following construction. The actual repairs might need to be done by the County, but it should still be handled in an expeditious manner. Included in the plan should be how they will communicate to the biking community. The contractor should also be required to mark hazardous conditions throughout the duration of the project. Certainly bicyclists, should not have to take it upon themselves to mark these conditions.

The above mentioned damage on Army-Navy Drive involved the contractor digging a hole in the street to provide water service to a new house. That work was done in the spring, to date the patch and the sink hole remain. The patch obliterated part of the bike lane markings (no more than three feet), but take a ride down Eads Street and you can see what the patches have done to bike lane markings south of 23rd Street. Of course, the fact that the County has done absolutely nothing to maintain the bike lane markings on Eads probably doesn’t encourage a contractor to worry much about their patches.

With the Joyce Street project damage to the bike lane is not really the issue. However, in this case and others, the contractors should be required to post appropriate signage specifically addressed to bicyclists that the lane has been closed. Contractors should not be able to just close off bike lanes without providing some alternative routing. However, if alternative routing isn’t possible, perhaps the contractor should have to create a temporary bike lane and shrink the car access. I at least hope that Arlington County is charging rent for the Joyce Street project trailer and the cars that are parking in the bike lane. Ideally, money collected could be used to either repair existing bike infrastructure or add new biking facilities.

[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.

[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.

[CaseyKane50]

@Mike Hirrel 28081 wrote:

Can anyone tell me the safest way to get from the Mount Vernon bike path up Army Navy Drive to the Arlington Ridge? l

Mike, I am not sure where on Arlington Ridge you are trying to get to, but here is a route from the Mount Vernon Trail.
Head west on the Four Mile Run Trail, at Glebe Road (trail splits to the east and west), head west to Meade Street and cross Glebe Road (push Walk button and wait for light to change). Proceed up Meade Street to 28th Street and make a left turn onto 28th Street. Stay on 28th Street until you hit Army-Navy Drive. Make a right on Army-Navy Drive. You then can turn right onto 23rd, 22nd or 20th Street depending on where you want to be on Arlington Ridge Road (caution, these streets have fairly steep hills). Alternatively, you can continue up Army-Navy Drive to Lynn Street, which connects up to Arlington Ridge Road.

[CaseyKane50]

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.

[CaseyKane50]

South of the Four Mile Run Trail and just off the Mount Vernon Trail is the Washington Sailing Marina. Water fountains, restrooms, food and drinks are available. There is also a restaurant at the marina.

[CaseyKane50]

@KelOnWheels 27235 wrote:

Now see, I can get that AND the Alexandria water treatment plant! Awesome on a hot day!

On the other hand, there was the magical burger smell in Shirlington last night that was amaaaazing.

I suspect that you actually meant the Arlington water treatment plant on Glebe Road. There used to be a bike path between the Alexandria water treatment plant and the Beltway, but it was closed years ago.

[CaseyKane50]

I did a six-day solo ride in October 2009 (started on a Sunday and finished up on a Friday) on a Trek 7500 Hybrid. I rode from the west end of Alexandria, VA to Homestead, PA. I stayed in motels and B&Bs for the entire trip. Total trip length was 365 miles. I had plotted out my stops based on availability of places to stay. Most days were around 60 miles. The exception was the first day, I ended up with 77 miles with the last mile climbing up High Street in Harper’s Ferry. I had run out of gears by the time I got to the top of the hill. The B&Bs I stayed at were close to the trail and were all very friendly – food was good and in a couple of instances, they had laundry facilities to wash your clothes and all provided places to wash and lock up your bike. Even the hotels in Harper’s Ferry and Homestead allowed me to take my bike into my room. There was virtually no car traffic, except at the beginning and end of my ride and for a short detour on the C&O. The ride from Cumberland up to the continental divide was not nearly as daunting as you might have heard. It is simply a steady climb up for many miles, but not at all hard, plus there are plenty of places to stop along the way to take in the view.

I used two Arkel panniers mounted on my rear bike rack to carry clothes and supplies. One item that I did not take with me was chamois cream, but I corrected that oversight in Cumberland. I recommend you start with it. A headlight was useful for going through the PawPaw and Big Savage Tunnels. A couple of good resources are http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coTowpath/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Great_Allegheny_Passage/

If you go, you will almost certainly have a great time.

Casey

[CaseyKane50]

The trailer is still parked in the bike lane. Frankly, Eads as a posted bike lane is a joke. Lane markings have been obliterated by repeated road work and tour buses block the lanes north bound, especially in the morning.

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