Surprised they did this, my experience with moco is that if space needs to be made, they instinctively block and remove the sidewalk and bike lanes before any traffic lanes even if that means pedestrians have to detour 4+ blocks to get to an urban metro station.

True, though this is PG County in College Park. Same experience, though.

Interesting to see that it's only 1 lane in either direction, at rush hour, and traffic isn't backed up really at all.

There was a titanic fight due to the bike path as the Purple Line largely parallels a rail trail bike path. NIMBY’s used bicyclists to oppose the project. So they are being extra careful to not impede cyclists.

in b4 cYcLISts ARe TAkinG OveR Dc

Looks expensive to me but much safer I would say.

can't wait for the anti-bike neckbeards to get in here with: "but bikers don't pay taxes for roads" or some other nonsense.

where's that "bike mafia" nerd?

Nick Delledonne's butthole making diamonds looking at this picture

How is that expensive?

It's concrete barriers + a forklift to move it into place. Likely installs faster than those vertical plastic bookmark-looking things that drivers like to bulldoze over.

Getting the concrete, labor, tools, and supplies, and maintenance.

Would be interesting to know the cost of this. Most od the materials here, such as concrete, would be sourced locally, too. So it's keeping money in the county which is good for taxpayers.

I do agree. Look how long it took the city to address 14th Street and H Street biking situations.

literally a single penny not dedicated to my specific needs is wasteful government spending

All concrete barrier you see that look like this is prefabricated. You order how many sections of barrier you want and you get it delivered on a flatbed truck to the site. It can be reused a lot depending on the skill of the operator setting the barrier (as if you do not set it correctly the edges can break/crack).

Looks beautiful to me!

If you love protected bike lanes (and driving up the price of coleslaw) join us at r/bikedc

They’re certainly taking over this sub. I love bikes but man it’s literally every other post these days.

Maybe some of this content can go to r/bikedc for those of us less obsessed?

We call them bendy straws

The best part about this is that it keeps the cyclists from riding with the cars.

Lol, works for me!

[deleted]

is the coleslaw thing a meme? i must know the source

Is this in DC?

One of the anti bike lane people claimed that bike lanes made his Safeway coleslaw more expensive.

ah here we go, found the source! Thanks for the tip.

You could Google it, it's not locally sourced and is 1300$ per 7 foot section not including labor or installation.

I think this is at the University of Maryland College Park Campus, in Prince George's County.

Didn't consider that they were prefab. Just was thinking about them being made of concrete, which is often produced local to where it gets used.

Correct.

Those precast concrete jersey barriers and orange plastic barriers are not cheap. The concrete is around $50.00 a linear foot, the plastic barriers are around $120.00 a linear foot.

They are there to protect the construction area from traffic. The orange plastic barriers are there to separate the walkway/bike path from the construction area.

The primary difference between the concrete and plastic, is the plastic functions as an attenuation barrier based on how much fluid or sand is put in it.

This is basically the same way the contractors separated pedestrians and traffic from each other during construction of Metrorail along the streets in DC back in the 1970s and 80s. The only difference being the concrete jersey barriers are used in place of heavy wood barricades and the orange plastic barriers are used in place of plywood fences.

That argument was a straw man, as the original Georgetown branch railroad easement is just under three times the width of the foot print needed for the light rail tracks.

[deleted]

Doug Dimmadome, of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome?

I didn't recognize the guy's name but knew it was that lunatic as soon as I read the tweet. He's the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks for finding the source post!

Yeah, I don't get why bikers are always on here complaining about people attempting to murder them with their cars. Just be grateful that your near death experience helped someone arrive at their destination 24 seconds sooner.

[removed]

Thanks for the additional info. Yes, I see now that they aren't simply as cheap as raw concrete. I was probably conflating "quick and relatively simple to install" with "inexpensive".

I think my main point here is that this temporary solution is better for bicyclists and pedestrians than most permanent infrastructure, which I think is unfortunate.

The bike path near Bethesda where that fight happened is blocked for construction, this is a county over

[deleted]

Honestly bikers need better bike safety on their own part instead of blaming people in cars… they be speeding thru traffic with literally no protection around your body you have to understand that comes with bear death experiences… I say this as a person who has been tboned by a car that ran a red light while on my bike

Pretty narrow. I've ridden across the Golden Gate Bridge on a bike, using the west "sidewalk". You could barely glance at the view given the tight space with construction equipment (generators) at intervals, and oncoming bicyclists, plus distracting noise from vehicles racing by just over the rail. In this path, I would err toward the smooth plastic barriers unless wearing leather pants.

It was narrow, but I was able to slowly pass a pedestrian going in the opposite direction. Of course I would like it to be wider but sometimes I think we let perfection be the enemy of "good-enough".

Also those barriers can definitely be reused a good bit as well.

They don't look wide enough to accommodate two cyclists meeting.

Nick Delledonne.

Is it really temporary if it's there until the purple line is finished? Only future generations will be able to answer this riddle.

Yes, I am stuck between wanting it not to change and wanting the Purple Line to be finished lol.

Flip that framing around. The barriers aren't to keep the cyclists "in", they're to keep the cars "out".

Cyclists aren't the problem.

[deleted]

Yeah, these look really amazing. I wish I had one of these where I live. There isn't even a bike path until Darnestown Road & Black Rock Road, and that bike path is just paint.

[deleted]

Uh, flip that. The barriers are supposed to keep the cars out, especially since a lot of drivers like parking in bike lanes.

Cyclists aren't the problem.

[removed]

Exactly, except reversed. A little less likely that another car driver will kill!