If Cycling = Transportation in Arlco, then how about plowing the trails

[rcannon100]

The following exchange just happened during an online chat with ArlCo DES. Arlco has to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. You cannot on the one hand pretend that cycling is a major part of your transportation plan, and then pretend that the trails are NOT part of your transportation plan (failing to clear trails or blocking trails for none emergency repairs during rush hour). Either cycling *is* transportation, or it is not.

You might consider contacting ArlCo at countyboard@arlingtonva.us and you might consider raising the visibility of the issue through blog posts. You might also send the note to trails@arlingtonva.us and DES@arlingtonva.us

Arlington often talks about how bicycling is an important part of our transportation network, and yet our bicycling infrastructure rarely if ever gets plowed, even major cycling thoroughfares like the Custis trail that continue to see hundreds of riders a day despite the weather. Minneapolis manages to keep their bike infrastructure plowed. When will Arlington?

Currently there are no immediate plans to plow or treat primary commuting bike trails, but our planners, Department of Parks and Recreation and DES operations staff continue to strategize how to improve the bike commute. The County will be looking to coordinate with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority for priority to treat the WO&D Trail, which is not maintained by Arlington.

Link to Chris Slatt's excellent blog piece about this.

[chris_s]

Thanks Robert, here's the permalink for the blog post in case somebody comes across this thread months from now.

[DismalScientist]

I've found that the trails get plowed just about as quickly as the street in front of my house.

[Mark Blacknell]

The difference, of course, being that thousands of people use the trail.

The Arlington DES FB chat has inspired an update of this 2 year old Clarendon Cycles piece. I'm generally a fan of how DES handles things, but they failed on lots of levels with this.