New Carlin Springs Bridge design better serves non-motorists

Bicycling

New Carlin Springs Bridge design better serves non-motorists

by Steve Offutt • December 12, 2011 2:49 pm

Arlington County has chosen a pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly design for its upcoming rehabilitation of the Carlin Springs Bridge over North George Mason Drive.

Image from Arlington County.

Presently, the bridge has 5-foot sidewalks and no accommodation for cyclists. The new bridge will have 8-foot sidewalks and 5-foot bike lanes on both sides. Although the rest of Carlin Springs Drive does not have bike lanes now, it is both important and forward-thinking of the county to plan for the future by including them in this project. Arlington County is currently considering ways to improve bicycle accommodations between this bridge and the Ballston Mall.

Had better pedestrian and bicycle accommodations not been included in this rehabilitation project, it would likely have been difficult to change for the next 30 or so years.

Aside from the bridge, Carlin Springs Drive itself is not pedestrian friendly. There is only a single pedestrian-activated caution signal and no fully signalized crossings along the entire 1.3 miles from its origination at the Ballston Mall to the interchange at Route 50/Arlington Boulevard.

It's so dangerous for those on foot, several families who live nearby will not allow their middle-school-aged children to ride the bus, go to the Arlington Forest pool, or bike to the Bluemont Junction Trail unaccompanied because they cannot safely cross the road.

Hopefully these improvements will be the first of many steps to further refine the overall design of Carlin Springs Drive through North Arlington to better serve all users.

8 comments

Tags: Arlington, bicycling, bridges, pedestrians, Virginia

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Steve Offutt has been working at the confluence of business and environment for almost 20 years, with experience in climate change solutions, green building, business-government partnerships, transportation demand management, and more. He lives in Arlington with his wife and two children and is a cyclist, pedestrian, transit rider and driver.

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I'm pleased to see the improvement, but have to wonder- did the County consider getting rid of the bridge altogether and converting this mini-interchange into a signalized surface intersection? It seems to me that would offer the best option for pedestrian and bicycle access, because on- and off-ramps are never easy to negotiate. It would also be better for many drivers because the current configuration doesn't allow turns in several directions.

Is a surface intersection even possible given the hills?

by RichardatCourthouse on Dec 12, 2011 3:50 pm • link • report

Why the difference in width between the inner and outer automobile lanes?

And why no median?

by Frank IBC on Dec 12, 2011 10:00 pm • link • report

A signalized surface intersection is a complete non-starter given the elevation changes involved. I hope they place some type of traffic calming measures such as speed tables on the curving, downhill approach to the bridge, because people speed like hell on Carlin Springs. That area is really dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.

by Baja on Dec 12, 2011 10:24 pm • link • report

Agree with Baja. I would rather they use a 5' side walk and keep a median. That road is dangerous with traffic coming down the hill while trying to navigate the curve.

by Greg on Dec 13, 2011 9:33 am • link • report

Including a bike lane and wider sidewalks does nothing to address the actual issues. I travel through this section of Karlin Springs often and have many times barely missed having an accident because southbound drivers on George Mason completely ignore the yield sign when merging with southbound Karlin Springs. This is partially because there isn't great visibility, but mostly because it looks and feels like a highway on-ramp not an intersection with a local road.

Keeping the median would help with slowing traffic, but eliminating one lane of traffic each way would be better. Only a few hundred feet north of the bridge the road narrows to one lane. Why not start the single lane a little farther south? An added bonus is that it will eliminate northbound cars having to merge into a single lane while going around a turn that has zero visibility for stopped traffic ahead. There would be competing incentives to actually extend the two lanes all the way to Glebe, but none of those have anything to do with safety.

by OddNumber on Dec 13, 2011 10:34 am • link • report

Traffic calming & speed control in this area should trump large $ spent on rebuilding the bridge. Why not one lane each direction? Why not protected bike lane? Visibility is poor & speeds are too fast.

by Marc on Dec 13, 2011 1:08 pm • link • report

Even with a bike lane I would still choose (and do today) to ride my bicycle on the sidewalk along Carlin Springs. Traffic speed is too fast and the hills and curves just make it worse. Signed: Arlington Forest Resident

by Kay Tiernan on Dec 14, 2011 11:36 am • link • report

Four lanes are needed primarily to avoid bottlenecks due to vehicles turning onto George Mason from E. and W.-bound Carlin Springs, but traffic needs to be slowed.

Eliminating the median provides cyclists and pedestrians with the largest margin of safety while encouraging vehicles to slow down (no median to 'protect' cars from oncoming traffic helps slow drivers). Narrower travel lanes should also help slow drivers, but the excessive speeding on Carlin Springs combined with the curving downhill approach to the bridge from both directions means that additional traffic calming measures such as speed tables are sorely needed to deal with poor visibility in that area.

I agree with OddNumber that the merge onto southbound Carlin Springs should also be improved.

by Baja on Dec 15, 2011 7:44 am • link • report