[Kolohe]

Came across this in my twitter feed (via)
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This ‪#‎DCtaxi‬ hit and ran from my son this morning i]Tues Dec 17[/i . Peter’s bike was totalled, but thankfully so far he seems to have just bumps and bruises. The taxi went into the bike lane to hit him. A passerby took this picture at 8:30 AM. Contact me i]John Schans[/i) if you see this taxicab.

[Kolohe]

Keeping out ‘those people’? On Four Mile Run Drive? Really?

I’m out.

[Kolohe]

I’ll admit, I’m kinda ambivalent on this project. It’s difficult for me to come up with a good heuristic that specifies why certain charities can get this kind of consideration, but others can’t. i.e. you’re not going to be able to grant county land to everyone who asks for it – or even who’s deserving – so you’re going to need a system. And the system for this is ‘having board membership in common’

(and that’s putting aside the fact that cutting down a bunch a trees on the side what is arguably the most environmental blighted 2-3 blocks in the county is kinda quirky is a negative way)

[Kolohe]

Though, at this rate, the Silver Line may not be open until we all have hoverboards anyway.

[Kolohe]

another thing to watch out for is people that have not turned off their lawn/garden sprinklers for the winter. Yesterday morning the path/sidewalk around the Key memorial pocket park ark (DC side) was full of icy patches (and the shrubbery covered by a beautiful, but probably deadly, icy glaze)

[Kolohe]

about a year and a half ago, I came up on a police officer driving a 4 wheeled vehicle on the 4mr trail between the creek and the sewage plant (during the day). He was going along, probably about 10 mph, until he got to that one dip, where it is also narrow, and completely stopped (and apparently, flummoxed on what do next)

In fairness, when I walked my bike around him, he did say something like ‘sorry about that’

[Kolohe]

once upon a time, the rocks in pic 3 provided a barrier to wider than 2 wheeled vehicles, and it looks like they moved them during the repaving.

Or maybe I’m thinking of the rocks on the other side going towards the pool.

[Kolohe]

less problematic url than the site that sells a line of boutique fountain pens.

[Kolohe]

From the DelRay Patch today (h/t froggie)

Four Capital Bikeshare stations will be installed in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood this winter and the locations will not require the removal of any street parking.

2213 Mount Vernon Ave. — This station will be installed in the loading zone in front of Bean Creative across the street from Del Ray Pizzeria. “It’s in the heart of Del Ray,” Sanders said. “We’re excited about that.”
501 E. Monroe Ave. — This station will be installed on the north side of the intersection of E. Monroe and Leslie Avenues, across the street from Swing’s Coffee and adjacent to Simpson Stadium Park. E. Monroe Avenue is slated for bike facilities improvements, including the installation of bike lanes with no net loss of parking.
1504 Mount Vernon Ave. — This station, which will be a little smaller than the others that will be installed in Del Ray, will be installed on the sidewalk in front of Al’s Steak House.
Intersection of Commonwealth and Mount Vernon avenues — The exact siting is to be determined, Sanders said, as to accommodate the solar-powered station.
The city will install a smaller station in the no-parking area on Potomac Greens Drive near Buzz Bakery, Sanders said. The exact locations of three Carlyle stations are to be determined.

http://delray.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/alexandria-to-double-its-capital-bikeshare-station-network-this-winter

[Kolohe]

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just a view from above to set the stage
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and another view from the penultimate turn by the ball field. The foreground used to have a set of jersey barriers (though normally turned aside) and occasional a fence-type barricade. The new sidewalk begins at the turn to the left on the far side of this leg.
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this is all new, sidewalk, grass and curb.
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and a view back on the street with the new sidewalk.
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and the nearest curbcut.

I totes get what your saying, PotomacCyclist. “Express” traffic should probably follow Crystal Drive around as it becomes 12th street and then turn onto Long Bridge Road if one is going on to the Pentagon and etc.
(btw, for the reverse trip, it’s not entirely clear if there is a sensor under Long Bridge Road capable of detecting a lone cyclist that wishes to make a left with the light onto 12th.)

But for the ‘scenic’ or otherwise more casual cyclist, this configuration actively encourages people to either ride on the sidewalk (something we should try to nudge against) or go over the grass to the street. The grass in the foreground of the truck in the first pick (i.e. to the trucks right) looks to be the DMZ between the existing park and the truck driveway for the next phase of construction. (you can see the truck about to turn into this driveway in the second pic). So there still be some room to complete the street, as it were, while they complete the next phase of the park/aquatic center. (and work towards the future when the path on the esplanade goes all the way through to MVT) (and the science fiction future when the path on the south end of the humpback bridge is able to connect to Boundary Channel Drive)

[Kolohe]

I did a little CaBi loop yesterday getting groceries yesterday (based on the notification in the other thread of the new station off the park)

The sidewalk on Long Bridge Road (old Old Jefferson Davis Hwy) is finally complete and connected with the ramp path that goes up to the esplanade (the path that overlooks and is parallel with the railroad tracks). The road itself is pave quite nice with good bike lane markings Yay!

But, I feel they made a mistake with the current design and/or execution. I didn’t bring my camera with me, or this would be easier to describe, but here it goes. Going downhill from the esplanade to the street, at the very end, the sidewalk makes a sharp left turn to parallel the street. Which is fine for walkers and joggers. But between the sidewalk and the street is newly planted sod&turf, and a curb – the nearest curb cut is a good 200-300 yds back towards the parking lots. Moreover, they’ve also planted sod in the old Shel Silverstein portion.

So what’s going happen, imo, is that people (particularly on bikes) that are going further north (i.e. under Shirley highway to Boundary Channel Highway) are going to cut across all that new grass and create unsightly ruts, something that could have been avoided with a little curb cut right at the junction.

[Kolohe]

@chris_s 69622 wrote:

4) Improve the connection from the Iwo Jima to N. Meade Street

This would seem to fit in perfectly with many of those goals of the sector plan. Can you/others outline the problems with this connection as you see them now?

It’s somewhat a similar problem to the intersection of doom, in that the bike ‘thruway’ goes right in the middle of a major highway interchange. (though maybe more like the Memorial bridge connections on both sides of the river?)

The (newish) bike lane on Meade goes away just before this point http://goo.gl/maps/8LlWY and you’re then on the left of relatively high speed traffic coming off the ramp from eastbound 50.

Then you got to get over to the right again at this ramp from westbound 50 http://goo.gl/maps/e2KPq – though the bollards help a little as well as the traffic backups that come from the light at the intersection of Fairfax drive which slows things down.

what has helped it that they occasionally put a temporary traffic light here http://goo.gl/maps/GJ05I (I think a couple weeks before the July 4 fireworks – or it may have just been for construction and resurfacing last year) which slows things down too.

I am perhaps missing the hyperliteral reading of this point, though it is correct – when coming around the Iwo Jima circle, there’s a narrow ADA ramp here: http://goo.gl/maps/Ytnu3 but otherwise one has to go all the way around to the side of the circle http://goo.gl/maps/oU4MH, closest to the Netherlands Clario…, Calrio…, Carli… … – the Dutch Big Bell Thing. Or go all the way up John Marshall to the Ft Myer gate and then onto Meade. So a better way of cutting through would save a good many minutes and some distance.

[Kolohe]

Is there a concrete plan to improve the ‘intersection of death’ (Lynn & Lee Highway)? It’s not entirely clear from the supporting docs you link (and that intersection is either right at the edge or outside some of the drawn boundaries on the various slides)

Or is the vision to just obviate the need for improvements by creating a new connection to the MVT (and TR Bridge) via the 19th/Ridge Road master project?

[Kolohe]

@jnva 69407 wrote:

Here’s how to do this.

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You know, it’s taken me almost a week to realize that this isn’t a joke about how putting a bag over one’s head improves one’s pulchritude. 😮

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@mstone 69466 wrote:

(I refuse to believe that people are refusing to stop at that crosswalk because they don’t know it’s there; if they miss all the giant crosswalk signs they’ll probably also miss the light).

I find the blinky light that marks the crosswalk that crosses Braddock road next to the eponymous Metro station to be hecka useful, as people coming from Yates corner go under the railroad bridge(s) and have a hard time seeing if anyone is at the crosswalk until one’s car is right on top of it.

Though on the other hand, I find the blinky light that crosses Shirlington Road at the end of the W&OD to be widely ignored (and frequently inoperaple) so I almost always use the intersection & traffic light to cross.

but, as you say, both of these are places where traffic is going (or should be going) a lot slower than on the GW parkway. I just find the addition of a blinky light – especially at night – not entirely useless.

(and so far, I’m finding obedience to the new HAWK on Crystal Drive just south of 23rd to be somewhat uneven)

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