Reimagining the Arlington Expressway

[thelakelander]

In the TPO proposals presented, the service drives would no longer exist. Also, at some point in the future, we're going to have to deal with the Mathews Bridge. When that day comes, it (or its replacement) will be widened. As for the median space, I'd suggest if we'd have one, we should utilize it. See example below:



It appears that there's a sidewalk/shared use path in the median of one of the proposals. However, it doesn't appear that goes all the way through the corridor.

[Kay]

If the road will look like your last photo with buildings lining both sides like that, then let's do it.  How many lanes wide on each side in that photo?  An important point is that the road design has to foster the development so we actually get what we need.  As long as you have 8 to 10 foot sidewalks, 10 being better and a buffer between sidewalks and travel lanes, then I really like the median use in this photo.

But if actually gets built leaves the built environment the same as we have now, then we've done the wrong thing.

And why do we have to widen the Matthews?  Perhaps if we add one lane for transit only, but otherwise, stop doing the madness.  Continuing to widen roads will only lead to more of the same development pattern.

[thelakelander]

^It's a bottleneck that's not built to today's design standards. Anything new will, so in addition to extra travel lanes, it will most likely come with wider shoulders, bike/led facilities and perhaps a transit envelope. Also, I believe the New York street shown above is four lanes with parallel parking. Last, our zoning code needs to be largely overhauled. I'd be surprised if you could build a mixed-used structure, with zero front yard setbacks, on that strip today.