Protected Bike lane on Quincy pursued as first step towards a Bike Friendly Ballston

WABA’s Action Committee for Arlington County is working on a more Bike Friendly Ballston, and in October they announced their first project towards that, making Quincy Street a welcoming entrance into a more walkable, bikeable Ballston.

The existing Quincy Street bike lanes are uncomfortably close to frequent and fast moving traffic. The bike lanes disappear at a major intersection forcing people on bicycles to merge with drivers already navigating a tricky intersection.  Delivery vehicles and double parked cars frequently block these lanes creating more merging conflicts as drivers and bicyclists try to share the same space. A redesigned Quincy Street with protected bike lanes would make a safer and more inviting place to ride. It would create a low stress connection to the nearby Custis trail. Finally, it would be the first step in a protected north-south route through central Arlington.

They held a walk along Quincy to kick off the Bike Friendly Ballston effort in late October. 

In November, they moved into Phase II, which was to create a petition, which is still accepting signatures. 

Please sign the petition to support a protected bike lane on Quincy Street connecting Ballston to the the Custis Trail

Next up, they plan to present their ideas to the County Board at their regular meeting on Saturday January 23rd at 8:30am. They would love to have cyclists come out and support them as they address the board.

Making Ballston more bike friendly is just one part of what is needed to get Arlington to Gold on the Bike League's ranking system.

Comments

[Froggie]

I had a bit of a back-and-forth with Chris Slatt on this when he wrote a piece for GGW on it a couple weeks ago. While I am in favor of a PBL, it's worth noting that doing a proper PBL would require taking out a lane of parking north of Washington Blvd, and likely something similar south of Washington. I understand that the lane on the southbound side is not often used, so that may be a possibility for that section, but the street width gets tighter south of Washington.

Chris sent me detailed street widths for the corridor which I have yet to go through, but the point is that it'll require taking something from the existing roadway to make them fit. The question becomes whether it'll survive whatever opposition to the take-away that crops up.