Arlington Public Schools Should Evolve Bus Plan to Comprehensive Transportation Plan

Photo by afagen on flickr

My hometown of Arlington, VA has been embroiled in a minor controversy regarding bus transportation for school students since a few weeks prior to the start of school.  The school district made changes to bus routes and reduced the number of students eligible to ride buses by more rigorously enforcing the 1-mile and 1.5 mile walk zones.  Details of the controversy can be Googled, so I won't go into the details here.

My point of view, and this blog post, have to do with the overall transportation plan for Arlington Public Schools.

A visit to the web site under the transportation department reveals this statement:

More bollards in Arlington County

There has been a proliferation of bollards in Arlington County over the last few weeks.  I know of six that have been installed within one mile of my house, all of which are unnecessary.

From conversations with insiders, I have learned that these bollards are being installed without consensus among staff and against the recommendations of some staff with cycling expertise.  In any case, they are being installed without community input and without any input from the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee, of which I am a member.  I have previously posted about how bollards are mostly unnecessary and often create more problems than they solve.

(UPDATE: I made comments to the Arlington County Board on May 19.  Text of my remarks is here.)

The new East Falls Church bridge went into service last month, and about a week later four bollards were installed: three at one end and one at the other.  These three went in first:

Arlington County removing dangerous bollards from trails

Arlington County has been removing some of the dangerous bollards and collars that riders have identified on the bollard map, which is here:

View Arlington Bollards in a larger map

Last week I noted that the two bollards on the connector from N. Van Buren St. to the Custis/W&OD, just east of Lee Highway and west of the East Falls Church Metro station, have been removed and new pavement has been smoothly added.  I updated the Bollard map to show this change.  Please check out my previous post on why bollards are mostly unnecessary.

If you have noted other bollards or collars (or other similar hazards) on Arlington's trails, please add them to the map.  Please also note any bollards that have now been removed, as I did.

Kudos to Arlington for using the information provided through this public forum to improve cycling for all of us.
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Steve Offutt is a member of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee

Ped/Bike bridge replacement will improve connection from W&OD to East Falls Church

Arlington County is replacing the footbridge across Four Mile Run that connects the

Existing bridge as approached from the east

W&OD/Custis Trail east of Sycamore Street with the East Falls Church Metro station.  The current footbridge is very narrow, very old and has become obsolete. Its replacement is necessary for safety reasons. However, with input from the Arlington County pedestrian and bicycle advisory committees, the County has taken advantage of this opportunity to improve the bridge.  The replacement bridge will meet ADA standards, will be wider and is in a better location for reducing confusion among trail users.

How Capital Bikeshare is making D.C. a better place

Photo by M. V. Jantzen

 The Washington Post ran a Local Opinions piece last Saturday (How those red public bikes are changing D.C.) by D.C.-area blogger and founder of the Greater Greater Washington blog, David Alpert.  The article laid out all the great reasons Capital Bikeshare is doing well and should be supported and expanded.
Here's an excerpt:

Building roads or trains is expensive, while growing CaBi (usually pronounced “cabbie”) is one of the cheapest ways we have to quickly improve mobility. Consider this: Simply rebuilding the Gainesville Interstate 66 interchange will cost about 18 times as much as setting up the whole CaBi system.

New bike/ped bridge on W&OD over the Beltway is now open

The bridge that carries the W&OD trail over the Capital Beltway is now open.  According to the W&OD Trail Report, it opened on June 15.  I've been out of town for most of the time since then, so this was my first time using it.  The new bridge replaces the old one just to its south.  The replacement was necessary, because the highway is being widened, and the old bridge was not long enough to span the wider road.

See photos below.  The new bridge is wider than the old one.  There is still a little work to complete on the approaches and landscaping as well as the removal of the old bridge.

Approaching the new W&OD bridge from the east

Approaching the new W&OD trail from the west

The new bridge (looking west) being used.  Note the 12-foot width.

The partially deconstructed old bridge

As an aside, I was told that VDOT offered the old bridge to Arlington County.  Although staff at the county identified a possibly beneficial location for the bridge, it was determined that by the time it was taken down, all that would be left would be a couple of long, steel supports that would be very difficult to move anyway.  So they declined.