November 2020 Road and Trail Conditions

[Judd]

From Saturday. Guess what is finally open?

I like the statue of the guy giving a thumbs up that was installed in the circle.


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[dbb]

I went up to the circle today and watched a cyclist just ride to the left of the circle and go under 66. I think that is likely to become the route for most cyclists that ride this often.

[Henry]

Observed along the bike lane on Potomac Ave this morning.

Don't see a cake along the trail often (ever?)

Did you cut into the tree to make sure it wasn't a cake as well? Seems to be a thing on the interwebs. Henry

[accordioneur]

From Saturday. Guess what is finally open?

Such a poor design. If you have to paint lots of arrows to explain how the intersection works, it's probably not an intuitive design. And if you decide to paint double-headed arrows pointing in weird directions, it probably doesn't help. But most of all, instead of providing extra turning room for people coming downhill/westbound as promised, you've squeezed them into a hairpin turn where they're likely to run head-on into eastbound riders cutting the corner around the left of the circle.

Hopefully the mysterious Utah monolith is on its way east to be installed in the middle of the circle to pretty it up a little

[bentbike33]

I went up to the circle today and watched a cyclist just ride to the left of the circle and go under 66. I think that is likely to become the route for most cyclists that ride this often.

Such a poor design. If you have to paint lots of arrows to explain how the intersection works, it's probably not an intuitive design. And if you decide to paint double-headed arrows pointing in weird directions, it probably doesn't help. ...

That double-headed arrow basically tells eastbound Custis riders to go around the circle the wrong way! Such a stupid design. The original drawings of this rebuild looked much more promising in that the main trail from under I-66 was looped away from the retaining wall with nice sweeping curves making the trail down from the detour footbridge a T-intersection with a better sightline to the main flow of traffic.

[rcannon100]

It would be a shame if someone went Banksy and repainted the arrows

[zsionakides]

Just pave over the center circle and leave the yield signs at each entry point. There isn't so much traffic that a roundabout is needed to manage traffic flow - 95% of the time I travel through there isn't any traffic as opposed to say the MVT/4MR intersection. The main safety issue was the blind turn coming off the Custis trail, but that is fixed by moving the intersection point further out. As long as cyclists aren't flying through there, everyone can navigate by basic rules of the road and don't need a circle to "improve" the situation.

[dbb]

Would be nice if they had done something about the fire hydrant and sign posts just off the trail. Lurking there, waiting to strike.

[dbb]

The design appears to have been developed with no actual consideration of the likely traffic patterns (almost all under the interstate and almost none continuing up the trail). SteveO suggested a longer island that would have permitted a clean left turn when heading east. Instead the cyclist staying on the right side gets to make a shallow right to get into the circle, a left in the circle and then a right to leave the circle. Three turns rather than one.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Silly design. Everyone in DC knows traffic circles need traffic lights.