Posted on 07/11/2017 7:14:52 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The widening of Interstate 66 outside the Capital Beltway is bringing HOT lanes to one of the region’s most congested corridors. It also will make room for bicyclists and pedestrians — putting them on a trail next to one of the region’s busiest and most congested highways.
The bike path, part of the $2.3 billion interstate expansion project, has drawn cheers and criticism from biking aficionados who welcome the addition of the trail but say, if built as proposed, users will be too close to cars whizzing by on the interstate and exposed to toxic exhaust fumes.
For about five of the project’s 22.5 miles, the trail would be squeezed between the highway and the concrete wall that will serve as a buffer between traffic noise and adjacent neighborhoods.
“It is air pollution, it’s noise, small particles that get kicked up from the highway,” said Bruce Wright, a member of the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling. “Imagine riding on this trail and there is really no place to go if you have a problem. You are right next to a very tall soundwall, and you are right next to a jersey barrier.”
Neighbors, meanwhile, don’t want the trail on their side of the wall. Officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation acknowledge the plan isn’t ideal but say it’s an option that addresses the corridor’s right-of-way constraints and the opposition from neighbors who refuse to have the trail on their side of the wall.
“Everybody is not getting the ideal situation,” said Susan Shaw, director of Mega Projects for VDOT. “It is a compromise. We are trying to have an approach that balances those impacts and benefits and get the best project that we can.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We need to find a way to tax bicycles to help pay for all the designated infrastructure
Not enough details in this story.
Simple, cyclists: Don’t like it, don’t use it.
And we all get to pay for it anyway.
Legal plunder at its best.
NIMBY libs that don't want to see sweaty bicyclists in ugly spandex.
Who will be riding faster than them during rush hour
Cyclists in my area already ride like they were the only ones on the road.
We do, it’s called the gasoline tax. All but a few % of cyclists also drive cars.
Yep. Obnoxious.
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Bicycles can no longer be considered a serious mode of general transportation. They are a form of sport, or amusement, and need to be removed from all major public thoroughfares.
.
.
They need to park their bikes in the back yard, and keep them off the roads.
The cost of building roads is too high to waste rights of way on trivial amusement like cycling.
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From me to you, queer lawyer birdheads: middle finger.
What a bunch of pu$$ies.
I-66 “expansion” is to enlarge the road to 3 - OMG - 3 lanes over the 2 that Arlington County demanded when the highway was built in the early sixties. They thought 3 lanes would bring in too much traffic — not kidding.
Meanwhile, auto fumes from the perpetual traffic jam have clearly turned bicycle advocates into utter fools. I’ve ridden along there plenty and this is just stupid.
When the bikers pay for it, they can have it.
It’s much worse than you realize. They are not going to expand from 2 to 3 lanes in Arlington County. Instead they will add lanes outside the beltway that will funnel even more traffic into the 2 lanes. I realize there’s already a bike path along 66 inside of Ballston, and that is mainly outside the wall and is staying there.
“...don’t want to see sweaty bicyclists in ugly spandex.”
That is not right.
I have a closet of ‘gaily’ colored spandex, not ugly!
Washed after each use.
I enjoy sweating, grunting and grinding away.
I grew up in McLean way back. I-66 ended at the beltway, though they had condemned the land and removed houses all the way to Arlington. For many years there were vacant neighborhoods with only remnants of houses, like a few concrete steps leading to nowhere. Even though I grew up and learned to drive there, I cannot navigate up there any longer.
I once got hauled to jail by the cops when I attempted to hitchhike back to UVA where 66 left the beltway, even though I was in the grass on the entrance ramp. My Dad was pissed at the cops.
I grew up in McLean way back. I-66 ended at the beltway, though they had condemned the land and removed houses all the way to Arlington. For many years there were vacant neighborhoods with only remnants of houses, like a few concrete steps leading to nowhere. Even though I grew up and learned to drive there, I cannot navigate up there any longer.
I once got hauled to jail by the cops when I attempted to hitchhike back to UVA where 66 left the beltway, even though I was in the grass on the entrance ramp. My Dad was pissed at the cops.
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