[zsionakides]

@Judd 190964 wrote:

Taken two days ago. The poles for the crosswalk buttons are going up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They added beg buttons to the W&OD crossing. They better not be planning to actually turn them on, as that would be a big downgrade in service for trail users.

[zsionakides]

Now that the crosswalks are striped, you can see that the SW corner of Walter Reed and 4 Mile Run requires either navigating a chicane or going outside the crosswalk to actually get to/from the shared use path on Walter Reed. This would be hard to properly navigate on a regular bike and not possible with a trailer

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20095[/ATTACH]

[zsionakides]

@zsionakides 189881 wrote:

I didn’t get photos, but it looks like the crossing of the slip lane on Arlington Mill Drive to the refuge area will be at road grade and not a raised crosswalk like shown in the project documents. That means the school buses and other trucks who currently don’t stop for pedestrians and bikes can continue their practice without having to slow down in the future.

I took photos of the “raised” crosswalk and it’s basically not raised at all. If I had to guess, there’s about 3″ of grade difference and it’s over such a long distance, you could drive through there at full speed without slowing at all for the crosswalk. They also appear to have made the area wider to drive through since the plastic bollards were taken down. Approaching the slip lane, drivers can now cut across the striped, non-bollared area before the refuge which happened to me while I was crossing.

I already wasn’t impressed by the execution of this project, but the County has actually made that crossing less safe and more burdensome to cross than it was before.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20093[/ATTACH]

[zsionakides]

I hope they take a second look at the NE corner connection to the Walter Reed northbound bike lane. Right now a cyclist must either merge into the traffic lane to get around the curb or jump the curb to get in the bike lane.

[zsionakides]

@Judd 190417 wrote:

It might be Shirlington and Kenmore. I’m hardly ever that way these days.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Shirlington/Kenmore has beg buttons much of the time, though sometimes at random times the pedestrian light comes on its own.

[zsionakides]

@Subby 190080 wrote:

effing rounded corners strike again

The county recently rebuilt this crossing, but did it with a bunch of half baked safety measures, so the results aren’t surprising. They could have raised the crossing and painted it as a bike path instead of a crosswalk, particularly since the Custis trail has the majority of traffic there, but didn’t. That means at some point in the future this crossing, along with a bunch of others recently rebuilt, have to be rebuilt again to actually be safe.

[zsionakides]

@Judd 190062 wrote:

There’s a significant drop off from the curb that seems to indicate that the raised crosswalk shown in the plans will be installed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what I saw today it’s a half raised crossing. It’s not fully raised like the recent change on T.R. Island’s parking lot crossing. There’s still a chute to navigate through and a rather abrupt turn on the refuge area, particularly challenging if you have a trailer.

[zsionakides]

@chris_s 189891 wrote:

I expect that the raised crosswalk will be built the same time that the new refuge island is built (the next construction phase).

When I ran by there yesterday you could see the new curb cut from the Arlington Mill trail side and it went to road level, not raised. The refuge has been shaped out and is in progress.

[zsionakides]

If bicycle safety and comfort were actually a priority, they could run a detour through the fire station’s service road. It could be coned off so cyclists didn’t interfere with emergency responders getting out either.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19974[/ATTACH]

[zsionakides]

I didn’t get photos, but it looks like the crossing of the slip lane on Arlington Mill Drive to the refuge area will be at road grade and not a raised crosswalk like shown in the project documents. That means the school buses and other trucks who currently don’t stop for pedestrians and bikes can continue their practice without having to slow down in the future.

[zsionakides]

@Steve O 189852 wrote:

For through cyclists, I suspect they will learn it’s better to go one more block south to Columbia, cross Washington at the light and take Columbia all the way to Van Buren, then left to the trail.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19970[/ATTACH]

That route looks much better, though it would help if it was signed for infrequent users. It looks like eastbound you could also take the pedestrian detour route and it would all be on-road.

[zsionakides]

Are the Lee Hwy detours full time or during certain construction periods. If it’s full time that will be really bad for trail users. A year and a half on that detour is really long and it’s not a good route on the Lee Hwy part.

[zsionakides]

I didn’t get a pic, but they only fixed the crosswalk part. The chute still exists and the turn is still challenging going eastbound.

On the NE corner, they did it right, and it will be quite easy to navigate.

[zsionakides]

Will they move the intersection at the Custis I-66 overpass further away from the highway wall. Going west bound on the Custis, it’s a blind corner even with the stop sign.

[zsionakides]

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.

[Author]

Posts