New Custis Trail Connection at Harrison Street

There is a new trail connector which just opened in early December.  It connects the Custis Trail directly with Harrison Street (Here's a map of where it is)

View New trail connector to N. Harrison St. in a larger map

Here are some photos:
This one is taken from the Custis Trail showing the east end of the connector

Here's the same spot from the opposite direction (sorry for the sun glare):

These are some old stairs.  I believe there used to be a farm road here that was used as the bed for the new connector.  These stairs probably need a railing.

Here's the other end of the connector at Harrison Street.  

I believe that they will add a bike ramp from the street in the near future. I'm not a big fan of the bollard.  Supposedly it will keep cars from driving on the trail, but I don't think there's really much risk of that.  In fact, I'd be curious to know if this ever happens in Arlington.  There are other trail entrances without bollards.  Do cars ever enter on those?  So the bollard is really just an obstacle for cyclists.  I find these difficult to navigate when I'm pulling my daughter on the trailer bike; I always get nervous that I'll smash her hand on it if I'm too close.  I think they should just save the money in instances like this and not put the bollard in at all.

The other thing I noted is that there is no signage.  Hopefully that was included in the plans and will be installed soon.  One cannot imagine that a new street would be built with no signs, yet frequently jurisdictions fail to include signs on their bicycle transportation links like this.  Please see my previous post about trail signage.

Nonetheless, it's good to be adding to our bicycling infrastructure.  For those of you who bike in this area, enjoy.
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Steve Offutt is an Arlington resident and cyclist

Comments

[matt miller]

new connector is fine but there are others within 100 yds each direction. As I passed by thought why not spend the money to maintain the trail itself? Specifically there are many ridges in the pavement that make the trail dangerous. Recently some sections have been spray painted to highlight them. Maybe to ID near future repairs? Like other sections of trail where they are ground down. I would volunteer my time to grind them down if city allowed that. Maybe a liability to have citizens operate machine? In any case supportive of spending tax money to maintain trails. To me just as important as roads.