Columbia Pike Bike Boulevards: Demand a SAFE, CONNECTED plan with a LONG-TERM VISION!
Level of Effort: 15 minutes, at home, in your PJs
Deadline: Sun 10/5 11:59pm

For a variety of reasons, good and bad, Columbia Pike is being completely rebuilt without any dedicated bike facilities.  Instead, parallel routes are supposed to exist for bikes just north and just south of the Pike, the Columbia Pike Bike Boulevards.  These routes have never been safe, comfortable, and connected, but the County was supposed to be unveiling a plan to change all of that.

Sadly, the proposed concept plans unveiled at the September Open House are woefully insufficient.

  1. The plans focus almost exclusively on travel parallel to the Pike, and almost never bring you to the Pike itself. This might work for those trying to travel in the vicinity of the Pike, or avoid the Pike, but make the boulevards useless for reaching actual destinations on the Pike.  Similarly, the connections to other bike infrastructure (existing) and planned are insufficient, including the Arlington View Connector, Washington Boulevard Trail, the under-construction sidepath on the East end of the Pike, and the W&OD Trail.
  2. The plans make a number of choices that are sub-optimal for people biking in order to be implementable in the short-term without capital projects.  This is understandable, but the County needs to also provide a long-term vision.  How will these parallel routes get better over time, with fewer meandering, windy bits, and fewer major gaps?
  3. Slow traffic speeds and low traffic volumes are the critical ingredients of a successful bike boulevard, but the plans feature minimal traffic calming and no modal filtering to address traffic volumes.  This is a recipe for failure.
  4. While many good improvements are featured in the plans, many intersections still lack the necessary safety improvements to be safe and comfortable for all-ages and abilities.  Children should not be expected to make left turns onto busy streets that don't have a stop sign or other traffic control.

Given the dramatic changes needed to make this plan achievable, we are launching a three-pronged action.  Please fill out the County's Feedback Form, drop comments on the online map, and sign our online petition. For more details, see our comment letter to the County.

Suggested Feedback

1. How do you feel the strategies listed will address your concerns about unsafe driver behavior?

Safer for each intervention

1. Please provide any additional comments on your responses above.

- Chicanes should be used on more sections of the bike boulevards: anywhere there is a 2+ block straightaway without a stop sign or traffic signal.
- More traffic circles and all-way stops are needed.  The bike boulevard traffic should never have to turn onto a street where traffic on the cross street doesn't have stop control or a traffic circle.
- Separated bike facilities are needed on every significant uphill of the bike boulevard.

2. How do you feel the strategies listed will improve the visibility of people walking or riding bicycles around intersections?

Safer for each intervention

2: Please provide any additional comments on your responses above.

Gateway treatments need to be more frequent (every block).  Every block is potentially some driver's first introduction to the fact that they are on a bike boulevard.

3. How helpful do you think each of the following improvements would be in making the bike boulevard easier to navigate?

Easier for each intervention

4. Overall how safe would you feel while traveling the Columbia Pike bicycle boulevards with the proposed improvements?

Riding a bike / Riding a scooter: UNSAFE

Interactive Concept Designs

Add your own comments, vote up our comments, etc.  Note that there are six different pages of maps to be able to comment on the entire plan.

Finally, please also sign our petition!

TAKE ACTION - FORM TAKE ACTION - PETITION LEARN MORE