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Custis Trail Blocked By Fallen Tree

by ARLnow.com | July 5, 2011 at 9:56 am | 1,160 views | 13 Comments

A tree has fallen on the Custis Trail between N. Quinn and N. Oak Streets, according to Barry Skidmore of the blog People-Powered Arlington.

Skidmore Tweeted this photo just after 9:00 this morning.

http://blacknell.net/dynamic/ MB

It’s been reported to the Arlington trail crew. Folks can always report trail issues to trails AT arlingtonva.us. Thanks.
Rosslynite

We biked that trail yesterday. You can get off your bike and easily walk it through the debris. Still kinda creepy as you never know how secure those heavy limbs and trunk are.
- http://www.peoplepoweredarlington.com Barry
  
  Fair warning: that walk-around is pretty muddy this morning. Wouldn’t advise it if you’re wearing nice shoes.
brian

this was from saturday nights storm. move along.
ArlingtonCountyTaxpayer

the trail crew does a great job cleaning up flooding and branches. thank you.

that said, if you are on the car-free diet, this type of situation isn’t easy to cope with on a morning commute.

If the County wants us to stop having cars be our first priority, then they too must stop having cars be their first priority. Clean up the bike trail FIRST, then worry about Old Dominion Dirve (those are just people from McLean, cutting thru, and most of them are republicans anyways).

Take care of your village first.
- CrystalMikey
  
  Ummm…I don’t think so. Even if the County wants us to be car-free, we still the need the roads clear for emergency services.
  - Arlington, Northside
    
    This. Fairfax Fire and Rescue crews from McLean and as far out as Burke were providing mutual aid on Sunday after the storm hit.
    
    Besides, there are a lot of Dems in McLean and a lot of Arlingtonians who use Old Dominion to get to their jobs in McLean and Tysons.
    
    Also, look at volume, a lot more people still use the roads than the trail. Bikes can ride around such impedaments far easier and safer than a car can drive around one.
- PhilL
  
  Power is one of the top priorities, and that is why they are working around Old Dominion and Glebe. Not for cars, and not for McLean.
- http://www.peoplepoweredarlington.com Barry
  
  It’s actually handled by two different branches of the ARL government. Parks and Rec clears trails while roads are (I’m pretty sure) handled by the Department of Environmental Services.
  
  There’s an argument to be made that if the county is really serious about treating cycling as a true transportation option then trail clearing should be handled by the same people who take care of the roads. But that’s another discussion entirely.
- Take it down a notch
  
  But what about cyclists who normally ride on the roads that were blocked by fallen trees? Or pedestrians?
- Westover
  
  Also some of the trails are the County Parks and Rec’s responsibility, while others are the Northern Virginia Park Authorities.
yequalsy

I don’t think getting into an us versus them (be it cars vs bikes, Mclean vs Arlington, or Democrats vs Republicans) helps very much. But I do want to see improved emphasis on the Custis as a transportation route that deserves high priority. Perhaps not as much as the major road arteries, but certainly as much as secondary arteries or even some of the lesser major arteries (if that makes sense). In general I’ve found that tree removal has been pretty timely. (Trees fall pretty frequently.) Snow removal, however….
http://www.peoplepoweredarlington.com/ Barry

Late on the ball with this but the trail was cleared by the time I rode through there on my way home about 4 hours ago.

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