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The worst part of this design is the placement of the contraflow lane in the middle. With two lanes going one direction and one going the other way, the contraflow lane should be on the outside. Since we drive on the right in the USA, it should be on the left side of the image above.

The traffic design in this image, flawed as it is, could be substantially improved just by switching the positions of the car parking lane with the MUP. That would also enable vehicles to be parked in the most common method, with the passenger side against the curb, improving drivers’ visibility.

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Given that the repair work blocks traffic on that roadway, the trail actually looks safer than usual.

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@mstone 219893 wrote:

I’m not familiar with the road and it’s hard to tell scale from the picture, but is it actually marked as a bike lane? VDOT sometimes marks shoulder lines to visually narrow the road for traffic calming, without marking them as an actual bike lane (typically because they’re substandard). If that’s the case, there is no standard to argue. If it is marked as a bike lane then you might be able to argue standards (or they might just un-bikelane it as a low-effort solution).

Note that this is yet another thing for people with a windshield perspective to complain about: “that cyclist isn’t even using the bike lane that the stupid bicycle lobby took away from my wide luxurious car lane!!!!” “it isn’t a bike lane, it was because too many of you jerks were speeding.”

This one is unambiguously marked as a bike lane: The view looking southbound, just south of LRT

It’s hard to imagine anyone is thrilled with this design. If I’m going to ride on that road, I have to take the lane for my own safety. Given that, sharrows would be better than an unusable bike lane. At least they’d communicate the expectation to motorists that cyclists have a good reason to be in the lane.

Much better would be a road diet dropping to one motorist lane each way, coupled with other traffic calming measures. That could increase the number of AHS students riding to school and decrease the number of teen drivers speeding through a heavily populated area. Plus the street clearly can’t support so much automobile capacity for thru-drivers anyway, given the small fraction of green time it gets from the traffic light duty cycle at LRT.

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@mstone 219834 wrote:

that detour around quantico to avoid the death zone that are the roads between quantico and the river is also quite the thing

And the detour is very hazardous as well.

For instance: Minnieville Road. From Tackett’s Mill to Fowke, at least there’s a wide sidepath and a low turn volume that is mostly residential. South of there it’s an utter disaster. 45MPH stroad with a lot of speeders AND a lot of turning traffic. With a sidewalk and poorly engineered curb cuts. Anyone considering this route would do better to bail out at Fowke, to Jenny / Rollingwood / Smoketown / Beaver Ford / trail / Chinn Park to avoid that stretch.

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There is a public meeting about Beach Drive tonight 6:30-8pm. Public comments can also be submitted on the NPS website:

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=121986

More details in the WJLA story that Mark has linked above.

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Amazing how topography that is too hostile for a trail can somehow be conducive to a four-lane divided automobile raceway.

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Seven months AFTER killing one cyclist and injuring multiple others while driving impaired, the same driver was arrested for DWI on a suspended license and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage:

https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6320BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6330BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6340BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6350BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6360BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6370BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6380BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=6390BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF
https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=63B0BL8&loc=27&detailLoc=ODYTRAF

[scoot]

I’ve done this only once, perhaps about five years ago. I don’t even remember my travel destination. It was a 1-2 day trip and I only carried a backpack, using the front rack. The most challenging part was navigating the walk between the CaBi station in Crystal City and the airport terminal.

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@consularrider 210898 wrote:

The detour used to be marked, Little Falls to Fairfax Dr/Lincoln St to West St and back on the W&OD

Even when the W&OD is open, this is a nice alternative to be familiar with. Since I first learned about Lincoln Ave, I have never returned to the official route (aka the stop sign olympics) through there again except for group rides.

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The speed limit on S Kings is 35 MPH. Per § 46.2-924.3, a driver on S Kings is legally required to stop and yield to a pedestrian crossing at that location.

Also: the nearest traffic signal is a 7-minute round trip on foot, and part of that trip provides no sidewalk.

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Is that a CaBi in the second photo?

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So the surviving parties are blameless and the deceased individual suddenly self-destructed? I’m curious to learn what witness perspectives this story has been drawn from. Also whether each traveler was acting legally (complying with traffic signals, operating with required lights/reflectors, obeying speed limits, etc.), and if any participant was under the influence of drugs/alcohol.

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Sounds like an improvement. That two-inch curb offered insufficient protection from speeding freeway traffic.

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Parked cars are in fact part of the physical separation between southbound bicycles and automobiles, in addition to the buffer, if I interpret the design docs correctly. The design resembles Wilson Blvd west of Oak for cyclists heading up the hill. Encroachment (and thus dooring hazard) from parked cars could be a similar issue here if the buffer is not maintained somehow. Otherwise the climb looks more comfortable with the new design than the existing street.

The downhill bike lane does appear to have been replaced with parking. Because surface-level storage of private property is surely the most efficient use of public ROW in a dense urban neighborhood with premium transit options and thousands of garage spaces.

If my travel patterns are remotely representative, this block of Nash will see far more bicycle traffic heading uphill than downhill. It’s my preferred route from Key Bridge to the Wilson-Fairfax corridor, but I have always used Clarendon to Lynn the other direction.

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Was the south side of the street considered for the dock at Eisenhower & Ike? People using that station will most likely be heading to/from the Eisenhower trail.

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