Monday, September 25, 2017
Merrifield Bike Lanes Meeting in October
The new bikeway will consist of wayfinding signage, sharrows, bike lanes and buffered bike lanes on Merrilee Drive from Prosperity Avenue to Strawberry Lane. The project is limited to striping changes, and the proposed striping plan will be available soon.
FABB encourages members to attend the hearing and support this cost-effective approach to adding bike facilities to the Merrifield area. If you can’t attend, you can still provide your comments on the project by using the comment form on the FCDOT project page, by writing the FCDOT Bicycle Program at 4050 Legato Road, Suite 400, Fairfax, VA 22033, or by calling 703-877-5600. Even a short message stating your support for and appreciation of FCDOT efforts to expand biking infrastructure in the county helps build and maintain momentum for better bicycling in Fairfax.
Labels: dunn loring, FCDOT, merrifield, mosaic district, public meeting
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Successful Bike to School Day Ride at Stenwood Elementary
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| Joel's bike train and FCPD escort. |
Stenwood Elementary in Vienna was the scene last week of a great Bike to School Day event. As on of the 78 FCPS schools participating, parents and students, with some help from Fairfax County Police Department officers, set up a bike train to safely bring a record number of student riders to school.
Joel Guzman, who has been running a weekly bike train to Stenwood for the past two months, reports that on Bike to School Day he had 24 kids and 7 adults participate. The FCPD provided 2 bike patrol officers to ride with the students and another officer in a patrol car to assist with traffic control for the ride.
Joel Guzman, who has been running a weekly bike train to Stenwood for the past two months, reports that on Bike to School Day he had 24 kids and 7 adults participate. The FCPD provided 2 bike patrol officers to ride with the students and another officer in a patrol car to assist with traffic control for the ride.
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| A safe route to school. |
Stenwood's population is split by Gallows Road. A good number of students bike from the same side as the school but Joel lives on the other side where all the students are bused. He hasn't let that stop him from giving kids the chance to bike. The school is off Gallows Road near the busy intersection of I-66 and I-495 and just a stone’s throw from the Dunn Loring Metro. Thanks to careful planning, the bike train used a safe route that ran through and picked up riders from several communities in the Dunn Loring area.
Many thanks to Joel, the other parents, the FCPD, and everyone else who supports bicycling as a safe and healthy mode of transportation and recreation for children.
Many thanks to Joel, the other parents, the FCPD, and everyone else who supports bicycling as a safe and healthy mode of transportation and recreation for children.
Labels: bike to school day, dunn loring, steendood elementary, vienna
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
FABB Social Ride this Saturday - Merrifield/Vienna tour - Note 10am start time
Date: 7/13/2013 at 10 am. In the case of rain we will notify registered riders via email and a message on the FABB home page.
About the Ride:
- Riders will depart at 10am from Angelica Theater in the Mosaic District. The ride is a combination of neighborhood streets, and multi-use trails. A section of the Cross County Trail is unpaved.
- The ride is a loop of about 12 miles
- This is a no-drop social ride at a 10-12 mph pace. There will be stops along the way.
- The ride is for adult WABA Members. Children 14-18 may participate if they are accompanied by an adult WABA member.
- FABB will provide Ride Marshals for the ride
- Your bike
- Helmet (required no exceptions)
- Lock to secure your bike at the cafe
- WABA membership number
- Water and a snack, sunscreen
- Cash for purchasing an optional lunch at Lost Dog Cafe near Dunn Loring Metro station
The Angelika Theater is located in the new Mosaic District near the intersection of Gallows Road and Lee Highway in Merrifield. Angelika Theater is located at 2911 District Ave, Fairfax , VA 22031. It's a short ride from the Dunn Loring Metro station. Take Prosperity Ave to left on Merrilee Dr which turns into Eskridge Rd after crossing Lee Hwy. Turn left on Strawberry Lane. Angelika Theater is on your right. If you cannot bike to the start, there is free parking nearby.
Optional Lunch/Brunch:
Please indicate whether you plan to stop at Lost Dog Cafe after the ride.
Optional Lunch/Brunch:
Please indicate whether you plan to stop at Lost Dog Cafe after the ride.
Labels: dunn loring, fabb social ride, merrifield, mosaic district, vienna, vienna metro
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Busy advocacy schedule
It's been a busy advocacy week for FABB. Here's a list of events and meetings we've attended this week:Tuesday, Nov. 27 - We put in a few miles riding to the following meetings, despite a light rain.
- Dunn Loring Metro Station sidewalk meeting - On Tuesday morning we met with several staff from WMATA at the station to discuss the temporary sidewalk leading into the property from the paved trail along Gallows Rd on the north. The new sidewalk is narrow and splits, with a wide lip that could, and did, catch a wheel and caused a crash. These "temporary" sidewalks will be in place for at least two years. We were told that some additional paving would be done to make the situation safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Tysons Bike Group meeting - Glenn Hiner of Fairfax Co Employer Services brought copies of the microfiber bike map of Tysons that he is using to promote bicycling in Tysons with the goal of reducing congestion. The map shows bicycling conditions in and around Tysons. A similar map is planned fro the area in Reston around the Wiehle Ave Metro station. Glenn also discussed the possibility of the county subsidizing small-scale, employer-based bike sharing in Tysons, similar to Patriot Bikeshare. We discussed the many funded bike projects in the Tysons area including bike lanes on Idylwood Rd between Helena and Idyl Lane, paved shoulders on Old Courthouse Rd at Freedom Hill Park, upgrading the Ashgrove Lane trail, building a new trail from Vesper Ct to the Tysons West Metro station, and sharrows and wayfinding signage in various locations.- Tysons Stakeholder meeting - Updates on various transportation projects around Tysons. As development occurs in Tysons, developers are being requested to contribute to a Tysons-wide transportation fund to be used for trip reduction strategies, probably managed by the Tysons Partnership. Bicycling will play a role in those strategies.
- W&OD Trail Safety meeting - The Vienna Transportation Advisory Commission held a public hearing that evening on W&OD Trail safety. It was an unusual public hearing since there was no public information on which to base comments. We're well aware of many concerns expressed by some trail users regarding bad behavior, but there was no clear definition of the problems nor any proposed solutions provided beforehand. We suggested that a TSC subcommittee meet with reps from the various user groups to discuss the perceived problems and to develop suggestions. At the end of the meeting Bob McCahill, Vienna Bicycle Advisory Committee chair, presented a list of proposed safety measures. The Town Council plans to meet with reps from the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority at a work session on Dec. 10 at 8pm to discuss the issue.
Wednesday, Nov. 28 - It was a cold but clear riding day with a very bright full moon that evening.
- Alternative Transportation event at Defense Health Headquarters - DHHQ is located just inside the Beltway on Route 50. There are no safe bike/ped crossings of the Beltway on Rt 50 and only the most experienced cyclists will try to right through the intersection. However, there are many good routes from the north, east, and south. We had a table at the mid-day event and spoke to a few of the 3,000 employees working in the building.
- Route 7 Public Citizen Information Meeting - VDOT now holds public meetings much earlier in the planning process than they did in the past. At this evening meeting information was provided regarding plans to widen Route 7 to 6 lanes between Reston Parkway and Jarrett Valley Dr. There will be multi-use trails on each side of the road. We asked about the possibility of dedicating a lane to transit service. The next citizen information meeting is scheduled for Fall of 2013 at the end of the preliminary design phase.
Thursday, Nov. 29
- Transportation Planning Board Community Leadership Training - This training is provided for free by Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG). This is a "workshop designed to help community activists learn how to get involved more effectively in transportation decision-making in the Washington Region." The major part of the training takes place on Saturday. The sessions have received good reviews from other who have taken them in the past. The trip to the training was multimodal: bike to bus, bus to rail, rail to DC, Capital Bikeshare to the MWCOG offices.
Friday, Nov. 30
- Historic Marker Bike Tour - We plan to meet with a cyclist interested in helping us put together a bike tour that would visit several of the historic markers located throughout the county. It would be a great way to explore the rich history of Fairfax.
Labels: dunn loring, mwcog, route 7, transportation planning board, Tysons, tysons bike group, W and OD Trail
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Bicycle access to Dunn Loring Metro station
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| Ponded water on Dunn Loring Metro station sidewalk |
Bicycle access to the site from the north is via the bike lanes on Gallows Road that turn into a multi-use trail on the west side, or by using Gallows Road itself. Unfortunately the trail on the south side of the I-66 bridge was recently replaced by two narrow sidewalks that split. One leads to the bus stop and the other leads to the station entrance.
The photo on the right, looking north toward the Gallows Road bridge over I-66, shows the split in the trial. It also shows ponding of water that metro customers must to wade through after a heavy rain.
When we first visited the site we made the mistake of trying to ride from one sidewalk to the next. There's a lip on the sidewalk edges that caught my front wheel and I took a slow-speed tumble.
We've reported these conditions to the folks at WMATA who were very responsive. They said this is a temporary situation, that eventually there will be a wide sidewalk replacing the two narrow sidewalks. They also said that a clogged drain has been fixed so that water no longer ponds here. We're planning to meet next week with WMATA staff and the developer to see what can be done about the narrow sidewalks. I'll likely suggest that the triangular section between the sidewalks be filled with concrete to create a wide sidewalk.
Labels: dunn loring, wmata
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Progress on Gallows Road bike lanes
At last night's FABB meeting representatives from VDOT and Fairfax Co DOT discussed plans for bike lanes on Gallows Road. The road is currently used by many bicyclists traveling between the Merrifield/Dunn Loring Metro Station area, the W&OD Trail, and Tysons Corner.The project will be done in two phases. Phase I is planned for September 2009 and will be done in conjunction with re-striping of the section of road between Stenhouse Place (just north of the Dunn Loring Metro Station) and Idylwood Road (just north of the W&OD Trail). The second phase, between Idylwood Road and Old Courthouse Road in Tysons, will require several changes to the road and will take much longer, from April 2009 to April 2011.
The sections of these two phases are shown above (green is Phase I, orange is Phase II) and on this map of the proposed bike lanes. In some sections where there is not enough road width, the bike lanes will become wide curb lanes with Share the Road signs. We hope that by the time Phase II is built that shared lane markings, or sharrows, will be approved for use.
This project has been in the works for a long time. Money was available for several years and the county and VDOT have finally been able to work out solutions to the many problems involved. We're excited about the progress and look forward to riding on the first section this Fall.
As with most bike projects, it's not perfect. We would prefer that the entire section be either bike lanes or wide curb lanes, not both. Also, just south of the project across the I-66 bridge is the Dunn Loring Metro Station. The bridge is too narrow for a bike facility and there are no plans to widen the bridge in the near future. There is a paved multiuse trail on the west side.
Labels: bike lanes, dunn loring, gallows road, merrifield
