Brand New Sharrows on Walter Reed in Arlington

On Walter Reed between Glebe and Columbia Pike (tip/photo by Deb)

Comments

[Scott F]

Awesome! I've been biking Walter Reed near-daily for almost a year and am glad to see it finally getting attention. The climbing lane (uphill direction) from Four Mile Run Drive to Pollard Street was also a welcome addition.

My remaining wish-list for Walter Reed:
1. Sharrows from Glebe to Pollard.
2. Fix the misplaced sharrows between Arlington Mill Dr and King St. (they are still in the gutter, even though contradictory "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs were posted to mitigate this.)

Already though, it's become much more bike-friendly in the short time I've been riding. I'm impressed.

[Eric]

Why not a formal bike lane? There appears to be plenty of space.

[Eric_W.]

Scott: You are going up that monster hill between Four Mile Run Drive and Pollard Street every day? Wow!

I climb that hill sometimes when I ride by and it is tough. I noticed the "climbing lane" the other day...

Isn't it great to see progress happen as we bike?!

[Chris]

Awesome! Glad to see a new climbing lane, every little thing like this is a great step forward

[Scott F]

Climbing lane's been there a few weeks now (maybe over a month? not sure). It was a GREAT add, makes me much more likely to actually bike the hill instead of taking the wimpy choice of walking my bike. Which I used to do sometimes. It was just freaky to go so slow in a vehicular lane.

[Deb]

@Eric - there is room for a formal bike lane only if they take parking away. They painted parking boxes (empty, but you can see them on the right), so it seems they are not planning on taking those away at this point. The parking used more in other parts of Walter Reed in this section, and I don't think the community (Commons of Arlington, the condo community bordering Walter Reed and 13th Street and 13th Road) would be in any way favorable to removing that parking. There are lots, which are pretty much at capacity, and the other streets bordering the condo community are also near capacity, so removing the parking along this stretch would cause issues for the people living in the condo community.

It's not a busy road or a fast road, I think the sharrows are appropritate.

[Michael H.]

I ran up that lane today during my long run. It's a great workout running or cycling up that hill. Maybe not such a good idea to do it in 90F heat but it wasn't too bad.

And then you get some practice at downhill running on the way back down.