This summer, VDOT is going to repave Washington Boulevard between N. Frederick Street and N. McKinley Road and might extend the bike lanes on Washington a block west. Bike lanes on Washington currently extend from Harrison to Longfellow, and the section up for extension is between Longfellow and McKinley where the road currently has a brick paver centerline. The project is still accepting comments.
Brick pavers at crosswalks and in medians are currently being phased out in Arlington County because the materials are costly to repair and require frequent maintenance.
To use the space currently occupied by the brick pavers in the median, the County is considering several restriping options, including high visibility crosswalks, bike treatments, and a limited change option. The goal is to provide better access to the Westover Library, Post Office and retail areas.
There are three concepts for that block, two of which add bike lanes. Concept 2 had front-in parking and concept 3 had back-in parking. The back in parking is expected to increase driver's ability to see oncoming bikes, pedestrians, and vehicles; but will result in the loss of 6 parking spaces.
The engineers seem to be saying that option 3 is the safer option, but provides less car parking. So I don't even know why that's a decision.
There's an opportunity to improve things east of here too. Between Longfellow and Patrick Henry there may be room to reconfigure the street and put the bike lanes between the parking and the sidewalk. Those are wide bike lanes after all.
It would also be useful if they could figure out a way to extend the bike lanes east to Frederick, though that would also require removing parking. But there is a CaBi station at the corner of Washington and Frederick and it makes sense for the bike lanes to extend to that.
Comment here.
Backing out of angled parking spots into a bike lane is asking for trouble. Just wait until the first person driving a small sedan hits someone because a van or truck is parked next to them.
The best solution that won't be taken up is to just remove the front side parking spaces. There's a parking lot in the back or plenty of side streets if you want to visit and you could then enlarge the sidewalk. Or have parallel parking like on the other side of the street.
Posted by: drumz | March 06, 2019 at 10:21 AM
As someone who lives in the area and grew up going through this area, option 3 is not the safest or best option. the area is very congested already and narrow. Squeezing in dedicated bike lanes and back-in parking on this extremely busy thoroughfare is a recipe for accidents. Some would like you to think that this is a neighborhood street and shopping area. It's not. It is a main route through Arlington made busier by the toll system enacted on I-66. The best course of action is to add clear markings on the road and install a flashing pedestrian cross-walk signal (like that found at N. Utah St. and Wash. Blvd) at the cross walks between the two lights where most of the traffic wants to cross. Paint bike symbols on the ground to remind users that it is a shared road.
Posted by: George Kirschbaum | March 06, 2019 at 02:16 PM
Why would tolling I-66 lead to more traffic? Didn't it just allow people to use I-66 who previously were not?
Which is the best option?
Posted by: washcycle | March 06, 2019 at 02:55 PM
It led to more traffic because scofflaws that were violating HOV restrictions without enforcement are now taking local parallel streets to avoid the tolls
Posted by: I forgot | March 06, 2019 at 03:51 PM
Regardless of the reason for the traffic volume, it is a neighborhood thoroughfare, not a highway. The speed limit (I believe) is 30 mph. This is not Route 50.
There has been a lot of back and forth on the Washington Area Bike Forum about this section. Some want PBLs and some want the vehicular cycling. I think there's so much going on through here that it's best for any cyclist to take it easy, so I don't mind the PBLs here. I like Option 3, but any option is going to require cyclists to be careful simply because of all that's going on.
Posted by: huskerdont | March 07, 2019 at 08:40 AM
Maybe info has been updated but the last data I've seen from December-ish hasn't really pointed to a big traffic increase on parallel roads.
And it is a neighborhood street and shopping area. Rather, if this doesn't qualify as one, then what does?
Posted by: drumz | March 07, 2019 at 10:24 AM
Keep wide bike lanes wide. Don't narrow them and hide them from visibility and prone to right hooks.
Posted by: Brendan | March 13, 2019 at 02:23 PM