I don't attend these, so this is from the draft minutes, and are neither official nor complete.
Trail Maintenance Issues -
- Kevin Stalica with Arlington County Parks reported that the center crack in the
middle of the Custis Trail in Rosslyn is almost completely filled in.
Only a short section after the asphalt end needs to be completed.
Kevin requested that the BAC mark the tree root bumps with white paint and
give him the location of the nearest trail marker. You can
send the information to the Arlington County Trail site at trails@arlinton.va.us
. Arlington County employee David Patton discussed the trail cracks near Lee Highway. No one
really understands why they have occurred.
- BAC member Dwight Hlustick mentioned the
flooding on the Four Mile Run Trail under the Columbia Pike underpass.
Kevin Stalica believed this would be taken care of shortly.
- Dwight Hlustick also
mentioned the damaged asphalt on the FMR trail near Glencarlyn Park
which is long overdue for repair.
- BAC Chairman Randy Swart brought in an example of the sign he placed at intersection of
the Custis Trail and the W&OD. Kevin is working on a permanent
sign.
Spring Events: The ride and ribbon cutting ceremony on May 30th at the
Shirlington underpass was well attended. Three Board
members, Congressman Jim Moran, and the Mayor of Alexandria spoke at the
ceremonies. A group also stopped at the new covered bike rack at the
Shirlington Bus Terminal for photos.
Mark Kellogg will lead an Arlington loop ride to Shirlington at 4 PM on June 10. This is an open ride starting from the
County Office in Clarendon. The BAC approved a certificate of
appreciation for him on his retirement this month. It will be presented
to him at the ride.
The trail across the Wilson Bridge is scheduled to open at 1:00 PM on
June 10 6. Opening ceremonies are at 10:00 PM by invitation only. WABA
is planning rides across the Bridge from various locations. BAC member Ed Blanton
plans to lead a ride from the Shirlington bike shelter at noon. Check
the WABA web site for the rides.
Dedication of Columbia Pike parallel trail: David Goodman with Arlington County will report on this later.
Joint Meeting with Alexandria Ped-Bike Committee: Scheduled for
September 14 at 7:30 PM. The groups are looking for locations.
October Bike DC/ Arlington Ride - Many people were upset that the
Community Bike Ride was canceled this spring. The BAC will
investigate reinstating the Arlington Community Bike Ride next spring with
the use of more volunteers. A subcommittee will work on the project.
Death of Arlington Bicyclist: David Goodman spoke to the investigating
officer. The woman was hit by a car while she was going north on N.
Cleveland St across Lee Highway at a traffic light. According to the
driver she was crossing against the light, but no witness was listed in
the accident report which appeared to be inadequate. According to
David she had no lights and was wearing dark clothing. The accident
occurred about 2 weeks ago at abut 9:30 at night. The woman died two
days after the accident. There appeared to be major deficiencies in
the police report. BAC Vice-Chair Mark Blacknell will follow up. He and BAC members Allen Muchnick, Michael Raizen, Erik Bootsma and Randy Swart visited the intersection after the ride and
noted that the light stays green for only 5 seconds.
Update: From David Goldman
The police report was incomplete and the investigation is ongoing (as of June 12th).
Also, the fact
that the police report did not include witness statements does not mean
that there were no witnesses. I, in fact, mentioned that the
investigating officer told me that there were three witnesses, and that
all three stories corroborate with each other. The incompleteness of
the story is not the fault of the police or the witnesses, but with the
situation itself: Nobody saw this crash as it was about to happen, and
the one person who could fill in a lot of that information is dead.
ACPD is still working on piecing together more of the story.
In the
meantime, Arlington County bike/ped staff is working with Traffic
Engineering & Operations on addressing some important questions
that came up as a result of this tragedy. For instance: Are traffic
signals for cross streets with pedestrian-activated extended green
phases programmed to allow bicyclists enough crossing time during
regular (non-activated) cycles? Similarly, we're also continuing to
work through issues related to automatic bike detection at
intersections.
Staff Report and Issues:
Trail Counts: 50 volunteers were used in the last trail counts. Bad
weather kept some of the counts down. David Goodman handed out the draft
results. The next count would be scheduled some time around July 4.
Counting that week would likely inflate the counts which David said
was not a concern. The availability of volunteers during that week
could be a problem, however.
Lyons Village Switchbacks: A crash was reported here on Bike to Work
Day. David Goodman said he has investigated the use of a high friction coating
for the switchback. The coating is already being used by the County at
some bus stops including the bus stop on Clarendon Ave. in front of the
County Offices. The major purpose of the coating is color for the bus
stops. The high friction coating gets pounded into the road by
traffic, losing its high friction property. This would not be a
problem on the Trail where the only traffic is bicycles and
pedestrians. The cost for the installation would be $15,000 to
$18,000, but the County does not have the money for the project.
BAC members thought this was short sighted since it is only a matter
of time before an injured rider sues the County. Not putting down the
high friction coating appears to increase the County's liability. County staff will investigate getting bicycle safety funds for the
project. Allen Muchnick asked members to report accidents at the switchback to
websites which keep records of accidents.
Randy Swart thought that the BAC should develop a new Web page, having seen the Alexandria site at www.alexandriava.gov/localmotion
David Goodman said they are looking for ideas on how to improve the
existing County website. Eric Bootsma will help in developing some
options. He would welcome some help.
Stimulus Money: It is believed that most of the money went for trails down state.
Columbia Pike Form Based Code: The parking standard for bicycles is an
issue brought up by Columbia Pike developers. The Form Based Code (FBC) refers to numbers of bike parking "spaces". When the FBC
was created that language was lifted almost verbatim from another document except the word
"racks" was substituted for the word "spaces". Since each rack
represents two parking spaces, the FBC has effectively doubled the required parking on Columbia Pike relative to everywhere else in the county. Early FBC
projects seem to show that developments are putting in more bike
parking than might actually be used under normal conditions. This is creating problems with sidewalk space.
The developers feel that the standard of one
rack for every 60 feet is too rigid and they want to be able to group
the racks together. There is some flexibility allowed by the County in
the approval process. A motion to oppose changing the standard passed
by 5 to 1 with 8 abstentions, but the group agreed that a vote like
that should not be characterized as a definitive BAC position.
County Staff has since recommended elimination of any reference to the frequency of bike racks. The BAC is unlikely to support this, but might allow for clustering near doors at big box stores.
Alington County ordinances prohibit the use of parking meters for locking up a
bike, limiting the available locking spots, and no single stanchion
provides the supports for both ends of the bicycle that make the
inverted U locks work well.
Park planning at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run Trail:
Barcroft neighborhood has a park project to be funded by Neighborhood
Conservation that will include a loop trail for a turnaround. The
neighborhood is asking the County to look at paving the trail with
pervious materials.
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