Arlington County Staff recommends no bike lanes on Glebe in Ballston

After a series of studies, Arlington County Department of Environmental Services (DES) staff have recommended not to place bicycle facilities along North Glebe Road in the Ballston area between Fairfax Drive and Henderson Road; instead, they recommend the creation of a neighborhood network of parallel bicycle routes that provide opportunities to cross North Glebe Road, connect to surrounding streets and the regional network.

Last summer, the County Board instructed DES "to review bike facilities on Glebe Road from North Fairfax Drive to North Henderson Road and report within 12 months whether Glebe Road can be modified to safely accommodate bicycles and if so, what the design of a facility would be.”

Staff collected data, modeled several types of bicycle facilities, and analyzed outcomes for a build-out year of 2020. Staff determined that bicycle facilities placed on North Glebe Road would create dangerous bicycle-vehicle conflicts, increase vehicle delay at intersections, lengthen crossing times for pedestrians, and cause the elimination of on-street parking on North Glebe Road (currently permitted during off-peak hours)

You can read the full report here. 

The report recommends a set of 6 smaller changes to make biking better in the area. They can be seen on the image below. This includes:

• extending the Bluemont Trail along Lubber Run and then east a block to Wakefield
• Extending Wakefield Street  a block north
• Widening the sidewalk along Wilson Blvd for a block
• Signing an alley to allow for contraflow bike traffic
• Restripe North Tazewell to allow contraflow bike traffic
• Install bike lanes or sharrows on part of North Henderson Street
• Add  a protected bike lane on N. Quincy.

In addition

Of particular note is proposed bicycle access to 750 North Glebe Road. This is the location of the site plan project that generated the Arlington County board’s concern regarding bicycle access on North Glebe Road. A Capital Bikeshare station is proposed for the site, as is parking for cargo bicycles (for grocery shopping) as well as outdoor (sidewalk) and indoor (garage) parking for 222 bicycles.

I'm not sure if this creates a great alternative or if, as they claim, the best facility possible would not be very good or worth the cost; but there you have it.

Comments

[drumz]

Granted when I lived in the area I usually took Quincy when I had to go that way but the road probably doesn't need to be 6 lanes through here. The only backups are from where the lanes decrease.

[barry vance]

I agree with Drumz. I ride Glebe everyday. IDKY it expands to 3 lanes each way in the Ballston area but it 2 lanes outside of it. Even when it's rushhour, there's never enough traffic to justify a 3rd lane.

[DE]

Arlington appears to no longer be willing to do any bike infrastructure if it is at all difficult. Their attitude seems to be that there's a trail or lane over there somewhere that you can use. If you're not a vehicular cyclist or willing to go out of your way through hilly neighborhoods, you're out of luck. I'm willing to do either, but it's no way to build cycling in the county. They really don't deserve to be upgraded to Gold status (League of American Bicyclists), and I hope they won't be since mediocrity should not be rewarded.

Still, it could be worse. It could be Montgomery County.

[Uptowner]

In short:

Arlington County thinks the convenience of people in cars is more important than the safety of people on bicycles. There is no other way to read this.

[MB]

Indeed, Arlington County is suffering a real crisis of leadership when it comes to backing up the all the Bike Arlington marketing with the rest of the five E's.

They've got Encouragement down, and do alright with Education. Evaluation and planning, once a strength, is languishing. Engineering is losing, left and right. And Enforcement, of course, remains pretty much non-existent.

The County Manager doesn't care, which means DES leadership doesn't care. Could the County Board change that? Well, they could. But . . .

[drumz]

Though Glebe might be one of the rare VDOT controlled roads so maybe it'd be too much hassle to ask them to do a study to try and convince them to do a lane diet.

[Kolohe]

I'm also guessing if they're ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about Glebe north of Henderson/Quincy, trying to improve Glebe between there and Rt50 is even more of a shrug. One signalized intersection in a near mile stretch (Pershing) which itself is an erratic design.

[Kolohe]

(sorry, that should be "a bit over a half mile stretch"), I looked at google maps incorrectly at first)

[DE]

They made clear that the Washington Blvd. bike lane half-measure was being done only because VDOT was restriping. From the email I received from J. Fisette:

"As we continue to expand on transportation choices in Arlington, we will be faced with difficult trade-offs. It is important to recognize that this improvement is only happening because VDOT is repaving and restriping the street and Arlington is attempting to piggyback on their work to improve the roadway, which is allowing us to advance County goals at no real cost. Currently, the project is geared towards striping the existing right of way – not to be confused with a substantial capital project that might entail realigning the curb to further advance adopted master plans."

So it's low-hanging fruit all the way. A lot of this is due, I think, to a noisy minority pushing back against spending and bike infrastructure in the county (c.f., ArlNow comment section) and the election of folks who do not share Arlington's traditional approach toward a livable, walkable, bikeable community.

Anyway, as I've stated elsewhere, I won't use their planned detours through neighborhoods but will take the lane on the main roads, and I hope many others will do so as well.

[Ellen M.]

DE is exactly right.

Taking the lane, though, while I appreciate the idea and practice, is still too scary for me. Especially since law enforcement doesnt really support cyclists.