TheWashCycle

Updated Status of Arlington Bike and Trail projects

Arlington County recently released an updated status of the items in the Bikeway Facility Project List from the County's Master Transportation Plan. You can read it here, but I have some of the future highlights below. I've attempted to put them in chronological order (except for the bike lane projects, there are just too many of them).

• The first implementation of the Columbia Pike Parallel Bike Route is planned for late 2011.
• Installation of bike parking at Clarendon Metro station in 2011 and Rosslyn Metro station in 2012.
• Extension of the bike lanes on Crystal Drive from the existing lanes at 23rd street to Potomac Avenue. in late 2011 and early 2012
• Addition of bike lanes to the reconstructed Jefferson Davis Highway between 12th and Boundary Channel Drive as part of the first phase of the Long Bridge Park project which is to be completed in 2012
• Construction of a bike trail on the east/south side of Arlington Blvd From N. Pershing to Rolfe street has started. They studied the possibility of extending that south, all the way to Columbia Pike, but deemed it infeasible. However, the trail on the West side of Arlington/Washington Blvd is being extended to Columbia Pike with Construction planned for 2012
• Arlington would like to build a trail around the Boundary Channel basin that would connect on one end to the Humpback Bridge underpass and the MVT and on the other end to the Columbia Pike at S. Rolfe Street. They are negotiating with DoD and FHWA on the Humpback Bridge connection.  In the meantime, they have re-envisioned the project as a cycletrack along Army Navy Drive/Joyce Street. The portion under I-395 is under design with construction planned for 2012.
• The county has sent to VDOT for review a new 50% design of the Rosslyn Circle Area. This will include the elimination of a travel lane on Lee Highway westbound, the widening of the Custis Trail between Oak Street and Fort Myer Drive, and improvements at Fort Myer and N. Lynn Street. VDOT has expressed concern about removing the travel lane. Design does not include a tunnel.
• The Route 110 Trail project is currently at 50% engineering design and requires and Environmental Assessment. The project requires complete trail reconstruction, new highway ramp crossing and a new retaining wall.
• The county needs approval from DoD and VDOT to build a 1.2 mile trail around Arlington National Cemetery from Memorial Drive south to Southgate drive (near the Air Force Memorial)
• Hoffman-Boston Connector needs funding
• Arlington wants to build a sidepath along Wilson Blvd to connect the W&OD trail at Bluemont Park to Upton Hill Park, but the Dominion Hills Recreation Association won't grant the needed easements.
• Widening the Mount Vernon Trail requires NPS approval.
• The Potomac Yard-Four Mile Run Trail connector

Unfortunately, there is no update on the Iwo Jima Memorial Connection to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, the Mount Vernon trail extension north to the Fairfax County line, The MVT-Roosevelt Bridge southside connection (which is even listed twice B-24 and B-37), and many other sought after projects. Patience.

Columbia Pike Bike Boulevard report almost complete

Here is some fo the new information to be reported at the April Arlington BAC meeting

• The county hopes to use $100,000 to do some repaving of the Custis trail
• The contractor has completed the report and drawings for the Columbia Pike Bike Boulevard and the county plans to take them to the public.  The boulevard will end at George Mason Drive instead of Jefferson Street. The project is funded by the Columbia Pike Implementation Plan funding.
• A bridge is being replaced on a connector trail near North Sycamore Street this spring. [I assume this is related to the W&OD Trail]·
• A wayfinding project is underway for Rosslyn /Ballston
• The County is considering a bridge over Four Mile Run near S. Ninth Street which could complement the Columbia Pike Bike Boulevard. [There are already two low water crossings here, so I'm not sure if it is an enhancement to the existing infrastructure or a replacement or what]
• Sections of George Mason Drive and Wilson Blvd will be repaved soon and the new pavement will be marked with sharrows.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Orange it is

Good morning

• All right guys, who among you is a Prince William look-alike
• Logan Circle bike theft victim is still looking for thieves
• Sweet, another bike trail in Rock Creek? (just kidding)
• Alexandria hotel offers Civil War bike tour.
• May is bike month in Arlington (and everywhere else too).
• The trees planted along the MBT last week include fruit trees like apple, pawpaw and persimmon for an urban orchard. And so it begins squirrels. [I was all excited because we used to call papaya "pawpaw" in Cameroon and I love papaya, but that's now what this is]

Work Begins on Route 50 Interchange and trails

Dr. Gridlock reports that work has begun on the improvement of the Route 50/10th Street/Courthouse Road interchange. This project includes building a new trail on the Ft. Myer side of Route 50, and improving the "trail" - which is really just a sidewalk - on the opposite side. 

Tales from the Sharrows has kindly put together a drawing of the trails on a map and, from my reading, it looks like he got it right, but who knows? I disagree with him that the Ft. Myer-side trail won't get used. For those currently passing through the Fort, this may become preferred. It doesn't close and you don't have to stop and show a badge. What would make it more usable would be a connection from the south end of 12th to Meade. But you'd have to punch it through private land.

Tales also took a bunch of photos of the current condition. He should keep taking pictures of it from the same spots and go all jdland on it.

Arlington can do more to support cycling

Mark Blacknell writes in the Patch.

While new bike lanes and Capital Bikeshare have been able to encourage more people to take to the streets on bikes, the County has cut its budget for cycling education in half.

Initiatives to improve critical intersections – like that of the Custis trail at Lynn Street near the Key Bridge – languish for lack of staff time to implement already-funded projects. 

The County has also consistently underfunded the maintenance of its trails. This means that the same cyclists encouraged by the County to commute on these trails are faced daily with buckled pavement. This is to say nothing of the uncertainty brought by snow, where the lack of clearing resulted in 15,000 to 20,000 fewer trips along one section of the Custis trail in a three week period last year. 

Again a county is being pennywise and pound foolish (it's a theme day)

Every person that rides to Clarendon for a night out is one less driver to compete with for a parking space. Every bike commuter on the Custis trail lowers the traffic congestion on the roads passing through Arlington or eases the load on Metro. This approach to increasing transportation capacity is far more efficient – dollar for dollar – than creating new bus lines or providing more on-street parking.