Rosslyn could get a network of sidewalk-level protected bike lanes by 2030 if the plans imagined by the County come to fruition. Earlier this month, the County presented Concept 2 of the Core of Rossyln Transportation Study and the it includes 1.4 miles of cycletrack or protected bike lane, improved connections to the Custs/Mt. Vernon Trails and the potential for several bike boxes.
Concept 1 came out last October and it generated some negative feedback because it would decrease travel speed and increase wait time for drivers. It had slightly less bicycle lane miles.
transportation planners worry that these alterations will produce “significant increases in gridlock” over the next decade or so...In all, they’re projecting that the proposals will increase wait times at intersections in the neighborhood by a total of 19 minutes during the morning rush hour (with especially acute problems at the already jammed intersection of the Key Bridge, G.W. Parkway and Lee Highway) and a total of six minutes during the evening rush.
The designs included 14 new or improved crosswalks for pedestrians, and more than 1.3 miles of new protected bike lanes included in the design. The lanes, largely set to run along Fort Myer Drive, N. Moore Street and N. Nash Street, are designed to ease bike connections to the Key Bridge and Mt. Vernon and Custis Trails.
Concept 1 (C1) had protected bike lanes on Lynn, Fort Myer and Wilson, but at the street level. It also includes bike lanes on Nash.
Concept 2 (C2) has an additional 600 feet of protected bike lanes, placed at the sidewalk level and separated by a green buffer. They're calling them "one-way cycletracks" not "protected bike lanes." C2 also increases the low-stress bicycle routes by 34%, up from 26% in C1.
C2 still has an improved connection to the trails, but with a trail instead of a bike facility as in C1 and it only commits to bike facilities on Wilson not a protected bike lane.
Like C1, C2 removes the tunnel beneath Wilson at Fort Myer Drive, converts Fort Myer to two-way traffic, removes 17th Street access to N. Lynn and adjusts the intersection of Fairfax, Fort Myer and N. Lynn; but it manages to speed up traffic a little by retaining one-way streets on N. Lynn, keeping the bus tunnel, leaving the parkway access to Fort Myer alone and adjusting the intersections of Meade and the US 50 on-ramps.
The sidewalk level bike lanes on Fort Myer look awesome.
In the below image you can also see the protected bike lanes on 19th
Arlington wants your input on Concept 2. You can give that input by commenting online until April 3rd.
Also for more ambitious, but not official, ideas about how to change Rosslyn, see this.
You know, if it doesn't hurt (cost, time), people will never get out of their Single occupancy vehicles and try more community friendly ways of travel (i.e., transit, bike, etc.)
Posted by: Bike4Life | March 22, 2019 at 10:49 PM