[dasgeh]

@davidcowan 189797 wrote:

I want to advocate for free, healthy and exciting recreation within Arlington. Specifically, I want to see some sanctioned mountain biking trails.

Welcome and great timing! While recreation biking is not central to the BAC’s work, we have discussed is recently, because Arlington is updating its master plan for parks (the “Public Spaces Master Plan”). It’s been a long process and the plan will be considered by the County Board NEXT THURSDAY, April 25 at 7pm at 2100 Clarendon Blvd (3rd floor board room). There’s a big effort to make sure MTB, CX and pump tracks are included in the plan.

You can help:

– Email the Board now: https://p2a.co/1dClECT
– show up on 4/25 7pm 2100 Clarendon Blvd to tell them in person

[dasgeh]

@zsionakides 189764 wrote:

I went down Columbia Pike this morning and it looks like the rush hour lights to the 27 ramp are now permanent signs and the right lane must exit onto 27. The road has been re-marked and the confusing stripes are gone.

Since there is only one lane through, there is no reason to maintain 2 lanes eastbound past Queen St; though there wasn’t a need before either. In the interim, a pop-up cycle track could be installed from Queen to Joyce or better down to the Pentagon entrance.

Great idea. You should send it to des-teo@arlingtonva.us

[dasgeh]

@ltierstein 189743 wrote:

I’m sure this intersection has been the subject of previous threads, but this close call happened to me earlier this week.

I was bicycling toward Pentagon City on the wide sidewalk on the north side of Columbia Pike (this is being called/treated like a bike/ped path) just before where Washington Blvd crosses the pike. It was around 7 AM on a weekday. I got to the corner where the exit ramp from southbound Washington Blvd hits Columbia Pike. I checked the ramp, nothing was coming, I had the green light, so I started to cross. In the time it took me to get 2 feet into the road, a car coming down the ramp almost ran into me. I guess he looked to his left, didn’t see any oncoming traffic, and decided to make a right-turn-on-red. Luckily, I was going slowly (and riding defensively) and was able to stop before I hit the side of his car. AARGH. That intersection should be marked “No Turn on Red.” Hmm, I wonder what the speed limit is on that exit ramp — he must have been going faster than whatever it is.

And later that same morning, I had another incident! It was on Veitch St, heading toward Courthouse from Lee Highway. There’s a separate bike path there, next to the sidewalk, with cars parked to the left of the path. A woman was putting her garbage cans IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BIKE PATH. I said, I thought politely, “Excuse me, please don’t put your garbage cans in the bike path” and got criticized for being negative. MORE AARGH. But she did move the cans, to between the parked cars.

As a first step, ACPD could enforce the stop-before-turning-on-red law. I would write des-teo@arlingtonva.us and police@arlingtonva.us and describe what happened, then ask for immediate enforcement, and a change to no-right-on-red in the near future.

[dasgeh]

Yep, I’ve been saying this for a while. There are rare circumstances where I’ll push hard for painted bike lanes.

[dasgeh]

@Rockford10 189662 wrote:

Thanks for the help! When I went through Monday, I did scoot to the front of the cars and proceed through the intersection quickly and turn into the Northside parking lot while dodging rubble. Mid-intersection, a car two behind me honked and zoomed around, clearly on their way to the hospital with a life-threatening emergency, which is the part I’d never had before there. I guess I’ll just grit it out as needed. I still don’t understand why Arlington has a major bike thoroughfare with an enormous gap in the middle. What do the planners think I’m supposed to do? Weaving through the back streets, while a good backup plan, doesn’t seem like the right response.

In all seriousness, am I supposed to cross the street at Highland and go the wrong way to cross Washington Blvd at Clarendon (sort of the reverse way to go in Northbound)? I saw another cyclist do that.

There’s a (pretty ok, but not great) plan once the construction is done. It doesn’t fix the issue WB at the corner of Fairfax and Kirkwood and 10th, but it’ll be ok for Clarendon Circle.

There’s just no plan to keep it safe during construction.

[dasgeh]

Yeah, the construction sucks. I would definitely avoid, which is easy. Steve describes the route to the north (* though it’s more straightforward to take either Veitch to Key (Barton, Edgewood, and Fillmore also go through, but less directly, or if you want to go to Highland or west, I’d take 13th instead of Key))

To the south, 10th St is ok for the hardy, 9th St to 10th St is a little better, 9th to 7th is a lot better, if you’re going that far south.

[dasgeh]

@dbb 189524 wrote:

If you know who in Arlington has or will receive the counts for the MVT from this week, please share. What frequency do you think the data is provided? Is the data public or proprietary?

I do not, but mobility@arlingtonva.us does. They’ve been very responsive and they are eager to work this out because they see scooters as a transportation option to cars (i.e. good) but recognize that there are issues to be worked out.

[dasgeh]

@dbb 189512 wrote:

Let’s count scooters along trail segments and post those counts to the forum.

The scooter companies have and shared all of the geocoded data on the location of scooters with the localities. It’s not perfect – e.g. it’s not good enough to tell if a scooter is properly parked on a sidewalk v in someone’s yard beside the sidewalk – but it’s good enough to narrow whether the scooters are in the vicinity of the trail. I’m not sure what citizen-led counts get us that a data query wouldn’t show quickly, with no volunteer time…

@ChristoB50 189517 wrote:

2 scooter riders traveling in front of me parked their 2 scooters immediately at the end of the concrete paving just as it meets asphalt, on the VA side of the crossing… as parking jobs go (compared to the dangerous examples consuming precious space on the 14th St. Br. walkway) — their parking choice was stellar — they used a thin strip of grass about 8 inches wide, to lean the scooters against the metal fencing there, thus keeping the scooters entirely off the trail’s asphalt; even if just barely.

Did you ask them why they were parking there? It just seems odd…

@ChristoB50 189517 wrote:

I’d be stunned if any of the scooter companies had the resources (human labor force), or the desire/motivation, to daily go find and move/collect “troublesome” parked scooters. They don’t seem to me to make any attempt at training or even etiquette guidelines for their renters, such as “never park your scooter on a bridge… never park your scooter across a sidewalk or trail pathway… survey your parking location and ensure it is not a blind spot for any oncoming traffic… ” etc. Nor I suspect, do they have any effective means of delivering such training/guidelines to the whole of their renter population, let alone any chance of enforcing it… a “Tips and Hints” page displayed within the riding app would be looked at in earnest, I suppose, by what, a minuscule fraction of renters?

The companies have very small labor forces, but rely on the “gig” economy to do the finding, moving and collecting. Honestly, if you have a proposal for taking an ebike+trailer (or something) to grab all these trail-abandoned scooters, pitch it to the companies with your price, and see what they say.

The companies do attempt training for their riders (some more than others), but honestly, it’s just going to take a second for norms to settle and ideas to catch on. There are some places that seem like good parking spaces from one angle, but not from another. Or would be a good spot, until the scooter is blown down. Personally, I think more needs to be done to encourage parking in street-parking spots and off of the sidewalks.

[dasgeh]

@Steve O 189482 wrote:

We could call that the “upstream” side and the other one the “downstream” side, like we do with bridge sidepaths. That would be totally and completely clear to everyone, I’m sure.

And yet unlike the Potomac*, Rte 50 flows in both directions.

* I know the Potomac is tidal, but it basically flows into the Bay.

[dasgeh]

If you really want to cut out hills, and don’t mind the extra distance or riding on 10th, you could do Rte 50 Trail (north/west side*) –> 10th –> Fairfax

* We really need better names for our trails.

[dasgeh]

If this results in an ebike ride with Captain Kirk in Arlington, I’m all for it.

[dasgeh]

@bentbike33 189337 wrote:

OK, so I will guess VDOT trails in Arlington include the Route 50 sidepath, and Custis Trail.

I had those two, plus the 27 Trail (both segments), and the 110 Trail.

[dasgeh]

@Judd 189319 wrote:

Captain James T. Kirk trolled Arlington DES on Twitter yesterday: https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1110950688635260928

Not the first time.

[dasgeh]

@LhasaCM 189095 wrote:

The ticket is dated Tuesday. Is that when you found it on your bike, or did it just get lost/blown around/tossed there today? (That plate has 5 other unpaid tickets for the past month in DC.)

Also, is your bike a 4-door Nissan? Because maybe we need to have a conversation…

[dasgeh]

@zsionakides 188933 wrote:

I would also consider from that map:

Boundary channel from Long Bridge to the connector from the MVT
Oak St in Rosslyn for PBLs to connect with Wilson and Key
Randolph Rd in Shirlington – PBLs or a cycle track to replace the current bad bike lanes
Campbell in Shirlington would be nice for a cycle track, but a row of parking would have to be taken.

Thanks for these.

Re: Boundary Channel, there’s this project, which will install a sidepath that connects to a new trail to the east side Humpback Bridge underpass (in other words, a really nice alternative to the wooden bridge route). But I’ll bring up the possibility of bike lanes in the interim.

[Author]

Posts