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I like how this message encourages people to be reflective without admonishing those aren’t. I always wear reflectors while riding, especially because I ride mostly in streets, but there’s a slippery slope toward victim-blaming that we don’t want to travel down. There is not and should not be a requirement for pedestrians to wear reflectors.

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@Steve O 150789 wrote:

they probably raise awareness of BikeArlington and WalkArlington, which is good in and of itself.

Even better: wear a BikeArlington reflective vest and take the lane everywhere you ride

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Seriously though, even when it isn’t blocked, that part of ABT is fraught with perilous ramp crossings right next to a speedy highway. I would instead recommend Pershing west to Fillmore south.

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@chris_s 150698 wrote:

It’d be charitable to even call that a sidewalk.

I disagree: it’s definitely wide enough to walk sideways!

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@annoyedindc 150255 wrote:

This was a fun one.

😮

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@TwoWheelsDC 150168 wrote:

Current code is § 14.2-65(e): Riding on sidewalk. Persons of any age may ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk, except for those sidewalks, designated by the County Manager on which bicycle riding is prohibited. Signs indicating such prohibition shall be conspicuously posted in general areas where bicycle riding is prohibited.

While there do exist plenty of Arlington sidewalks crowded enough to discourage bicycle riding, the County Manager has never deemed it necessary to designate legal prohibitions anywhere AFAIK.

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@gibby 150049 wrote:

And while they’re at it, a pedestrian education course would be very helpful, since the general practice closer to union station is ‘come bolting out of the metro tunnel, don’t look left or right, throw quick glance over shoulder when you’re halfway into bike lane, express shock that there is a bike crawling up your back’

This is a general problem with distracted pedestrians. Many step into roadways without glancing up from their phones, especially if what’s next to the curb is a bike lane. Expect it anywhere, not just Union Station.

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@chris_s 150018 wrote:

The consultants are dreaming big.

Great stuff. Any chance the trail spur from the eastern part of 4MR to the W&OD trailhead could be re-routed between the Exxon and the cement plant, to eliminate conflicts with vehicles entering and exiting Exxon?

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Based on your criteria, I think you will prefer Bobco’s route (less traffic, more residential back streets) vs. mine (more direct, gentler slope), but I’ll share it anyway.

If riding to this area, I typically go SW on Walter Reed, then left on King, right on Hampton, left on Braddock, right on Van Dorn, left on Kenmore. Taking the lane for two blocks of King Street is much tamer than it sounds, because by turning from Walter Reed, you avoid the main herd of traffic. They’re all stuck at that light. The same effect works in your favor on Braddock and on Van Dorn too.

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@cvcalhoun 149397 wrote:

They couldn’t seize and sell the cars instead of crushing them? Throwing out perfectly good cars seems an odd way to penalize bad drivers.

Perfectly good cars? Don’t you read the news?

One dead in Richmond after group of cyclists hit by car
Car hits bicyclist in Muskegon
Bicyclist Struck by Car on Key Boulevard
Cyclist Struck in Two-Car Wreck

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@Steve O 149293 wrote:

Given that numbered streets ought to be parallel. . .
I like 16th & 18th Streets north.
Or the 3-way intersection of 20th St. N, 20th Rd. N and 21st St. N.
Or the intersection of 23rd St. S & 26th St. S.

I live very close to the intersection of N. Roosevelt St. & Roosevelt Blvd., which just a few blocks away is N. Sycamore St.

This is, in fact, a thing: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Arlington&defid=5764666

Here’s the kicker though: all these oddities exist because Arlington came up with an addressing scheme and stuck by it consistently in spite of the difficulties. And because of this, it’s actually extremely simple to find any existing street address in Arlington County (excepting federal properties such as Fort Myer and DCA) without consulting a map at all. All you have to know is the alphabetical and numerical grid layout, the address numbering system, and the exceptions to the naming rules (which are mostly just the arterials but also include other pre-existing road names such as Dittmar/Franklin/Fort Scott).

With this knowledge alone, you can zero in on the immediate neighborhood of any address (although you might not necessarily choose the most efficient way to get there). Locating the exact spot then would involve a bit of trial and error in some cases, especially given the curves in some of the hilly neighborhoods. For instance, one might meander trying to locate the 3300 block of N Vernon St, since the same block exists on N Vermont St, and there are other two-syllable V streets nearby as well. Or you might not know where the 3200 block of 1st Pl N is, relative to 1st St N and 1st Rd N. But these are challenges that are quickly resolved on-site with a minute or two of exploration.

The result? Arlington is much easier, not harder, to navigate than other jurisdictions. (DC is comparable, but it has far more exceptions to its schema than does Arlington)

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@lordofthemark 149193 wrote:

Any common household uses for the 2016?

I think it’s the most common battery for wristwatches. Also some medical devices use them.

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@Judd 149197 wrote:

Cause there are some bad hombre cyclists not yielding to pedestrians when they’re not busy taking all of our jobs.

Bike Arlington is simply trying to make the 4MRT great again.

Cyclists who fail to yield will be deported south of Four Mile Run, at Alexandria’s expense.

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@bobco85 149113 wrote:

Clearly they need better signage so this doesn’t happen again. :rolleyes:

I do think it would help to paint something on the pavement at the entrances and exits to this intersection. Directional arrows?

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Well, the two locations published do imply that motorist enforcement is the focus. Lee and N Edison is an unsignalized crosswalk, while Columbia Pike and S Frederick is that new flashing beacon crosswalk. Neither location likely sees much bicycle traffic.

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