Arlington Transportation Chief Talks Challenges of 'Unprecedented' Construction

Leach: County remains committed in policy and in practice to encouraging more walking, biking and transit in society.

Arlington's transportation director said Tuesday that while the county is "absolutely committed" to making the streets more accessible to pedestrians, cyclists and transit, the massive amount of construction here presents a number of challenges to those people in the short-term. Dennis Leach, responding to a Patch opinion column from earlier in the week, discussed those challenges and the county's commitment "by policy and by practice" to encouraging a more multimodal society. In a phone interview, Leach said the amount of construction in Arlington right now was "unprecedented," and certainly more than he's seen at any one time in his eight years with the county. That includes private development, county capital projects and utility work, …

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Clarendon Cycles

Safer Routes for Arlington’s Students

Arlington Public Schools’ recent changes to its transportation plan should refocus everyone on ensuring and demonstrating that students have safe routes to schools.

Arlington Public Schools recently announced changes to its student transportation plan that appeared to be aimed at reducing the number of students on its bus fleet. This means that more students will be expected to ride a bike or walk to school. This isn’t just a reasonable change — it’s a desirable one. However, given the pushback from some quarters, it’s clear that Arlington can do a better job in encouraging parents and students to ride a bike or walk to school. Under the school system's transportation plan, elementary school children who live less than a mile, and secondary school students who live less than a mile-and-a-half from their schools do not qualify for bus transportation. Ideally, these students would then ride a bike or …

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Clarendon Cycles

Bollards: A Barrier to Safety?

Bollards are, in theory, intended to keep people safe. So why do people keep getting hurt by them?

Bollards. You know, those posts they put in the middle of the trails, usually at entrances? In theory, they’re there to keep vehicles from entering the trails and endangering pedestrians and cyclists on the trails. But in practice? It seems, lately, that they’re there to create one more hazard for the users they’re supposed to protect. Arlington cycling advocates have been pushing Arlington County to remove a number of useless and/or dangerous bollards on Arlington’s trails for a while, but there seems to have been an uptick of bollard-related injuries this year. It’s time for the County to formulate a coherent policy on where bollards should be used. Then, it needs to act to remove the bollards that pose an undue danger to trail users. If…

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