Rewind: Pricey Falls Church, Clarendon Trolley Pub, Capital Bikeshare

The top stories from your Patch sites inside the Beltway.

Craving a hamburger? If Fuddruckers is your thing, you’ll have farther to go. The Fuddruckers restaurant on Duke Street in Alexandria shut down Tuesday night for good, leaving no locations in Arlington or Alexandria. The restaurant still has locations in Washington and Fairfax. Also in Alexandria, the city’s Traffic and Parking Board recently approved five on-street parking spaces in Old Town that will be made available for lease to carsharing companies, while one parking space in Del Ray remains under discussion. The Alexandria City Council approved a carshare policy in January that allows the city to lease on-street parking spaces to interested companies on basis of qualification. In Del Ray, the Potomac Yard Metro Station Project has …

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Daily Key Membership Now Available from Capital Bikeshare

The new membership option is targeted at occasional riders to give them quicker access to bikes at stations.

A Daily Key membership is now available from Capital Bikeshare, allowing occasional users to use stations quicker and easier than the current day pass allows. Now infrequent riders can purchase a $10 key, which will include one one-day membership, and each additional day the key is used the user will be charged $7. The goal is to remove obstacles to use, according to a press release from Capital Bikeshare. Until now only monthly and annual members could use a key to gain access to a bike. Daily users had to use a credit card through a station kiosk to rent a bike. The Daily Key would allow daily users to access a bike with a key that is linked to an existing account and payment method. Additionally, Bikeshare has removed the standard $101 …

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Blogroll: Fuego Cocina 'Nails' Brunch, Bikeshare Comes to Shirlington, and More

An Arlington-focused roundup of what's being said in the blogosphere.

It had to happen sooner or later: The Bitches Who Brunch turned their attention to Fuego Cocina & Taqueria. Overall, the pair of reviewers gave the popular Clarendon restaurant an A-, saying it "nailed Mexican food in a classy way." According to Cori Sue: "All in all, the ambiance leaves something to be desired, but that’s likely because I’m a snotty D.C. Bitch. The food was really quite good, we enjoyed everything, particularly the empanadas, tuna and French toast. Frankly, we have no complaints." Sounds like a win. Read the complete review here. Not feeling like going out? Stay in with scratchDC. Clarendon Nights has the dish, so to speak, on the new food delivery service in Arlington and Alexandria. The site samples scratchDC's creamy …

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Capital Bikeshare Expanding in Arlington

The next Capital Bikeshare stop will open Thursday and more than 30 are proposed.

A new Capital Bikeshare station will open on Columbia Pike this week. The system’s 200th station will open at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Walter Reed Community Center, 2909 16th St. S. The station is part of Bikeshare’s expansion into South Arlington, with 33 new stations planned in the Columbia Pike and Shirlington areas for 2013. The service has over 18,000 annual members and 221,000 casual members, according to its website. BikeArlington and Capital Bikeshare have released a map of the proposed new locations (above). Keep in mind that planned locations are subject to change. Arlington County Board Chairman Walter Tejada will host Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony. What are your thoughts on the proposed expansion? Where else would you like …

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Clarendon Cycles

Arlington IDs Columbia Pike, Shirlington as Capital Bikeshare Priorities

With more funding, new stations could also appear along Lee Highway and in East Falls Church and Westover village.

Back in March, Arlington County started engaging the public on the question of how Capital Bikeshare, or CaBi, should grow in the long term. After months of public input and feasibility studies, we now have a draft Transit Development Plan for CaBi. The point of the plan, as Arlington County described it, is to “systematically plan for service expansion and improvements in a strategic and fiscally realistic fashion.” With this in mind, the draft plan describes two expansion scenarios. The first is the “constrained expansion,” in which the number of new stations are limited to existing funding. The main thrust of this scenario is new CaBi stations in areas along Columbia Pike and into Shirlington next year. This expansion into southern …

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PHOTOS: Ballston BID Celebrates Bikeshare Stations, Bike to Work Day

Friday was Bike to Work Day.

The Ballston Business Improvement District was out bright and early Friday to celebrate a new Capital Bikeshare station and promote Bike to Work Day. The BID, as it is called, planted itself in front of Freshbikes, 3924 Wilson Blvd., giving away aluminum water bottles and bicycle-friendly water bags. People signed up for a raffle to win one of two iPods or autographed Washington Capitals gear — including a jersey signed by the 2011-12 team, a puck signed by Mike Green and a hockey stick signed by Alex Ovechkin. Winners will be announced Sunday at the Taste of Arlington. Arlington County Board Vice Chairman Walter Tejada dropped by to join Ballston Business Improvement District CEO Tina Leone for Friday's event. Leone was also out earlier …

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Clarendon Cycles

Capital Bikeshare and the Long Haul

Arlington County is trying to enlist the public’s help in mapping out a long-term strategy for Capital Bikeshare.

Arlington County hasn’t been shy about engaging the public over the Capital Bikeshare, or CaBi, system. When deciding on station placement for the last round of expansion, they held public meetings and launched an online crowdsourcing effort. Now the county is asking for help in thinking about the bigger picture: How should CaBi grow in the long term? It’s looking for answers as part of its effort to create a Transit Development Plan for CaBi.  In Virginia, such plans are normally prepared for bus and rail systems every six years. As Arlington County describes it, they “allow agencies to systematically plan for service expansion and improvements in a strategic and fiscally realistic fashion.” With a CaBi Transit Development Plan, the idea …

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Michael H.

1:19 pm on Sunday, April 1, 2012

Many car drivers seem to do whatever they want too. Not all, but a significant percentage. This includes speeding on local roads, running red lights and STOP signs, driving while texting on a phone and not looking at anything around them, and forcing pedestrians out of crosswalks when the pedestrians have the right of way and are already halfway through the crosswalk before the car arrives. Doesn…   more ›

Clarendon Cycles

Spring Already? 2012 Bike Projects Already Underway

Signs of spring come as new bike share stations and bike racks are installed around Arlington.

The big Capital Bikeshare expansion down the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor announced last year was scheduled to begin in “the spring”. Well, it must be spring, as the new stations are already starting to appear. On top of that, almost 40 new bike racks were recently installed all over Arlington.  With good weather and a bit of luck, it seems the spring infrastructure push for bikes is well underway.  Over the past weekend, the Virginia Square Metro station saw the addition of a 19 space Capital Bikeshare station. The Central Library also received an 11 space station. These two stations represent the furthest westward expansion of the Capital Bikeshare system to date. New stations will be installed as bikes arrive from the manufacturer. The …

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Mark Blacknell

10:22 pm on Thursday, March 15, 2012

Thanks, Ben. And I'm very much in agreement - there's nothing incompatible with enjoying a bike and wanting better maintained streets. As to the Secret Cyclist Cabal, we keep getting together to plan our utter domination of Arlington, but then we get sidetracked by good beer and fun instead.   more ›

Clarendon Cycles

Capital Bikeshare Rolls into Courthouse and Clarendon

Residents outside of the Rosslyn end of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor finally see some new Capital Bikeshare stations.

Capital Bikeshare’s long-anticipated expansion down the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor finally got moving last week, with a new station near the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Uhle Street in Courthouse. This marked the start of a small short-term expansion, which will be followed by a much bigger one in the spring and summer. Some Arlington Capital Bikeshare members have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the rollout in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The originally anticipated expansion schedule has been slowed by procurement processing delays, some site challenges, and Capital Bikeshare’s expanded public outreach regarding station placement. Arlington hasn’t yet been able to benefit from the dense network that Washington enjoys…

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Five Things: Oct. 17, 2011

Five things to know about what's going on in and around Arlington.

1. Bayou Bakery is teaming up with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis for the Share our Strength campaign. This week, when you order red beans and rice for dinner ($14), a portion of the proceeds will be made to the Share our Strength campaign to combat childhood hunger. Plus, you'll get credit for five Marsalis songs. 2. The Friends of the Arlington Public Library fall 2011 book sale is coming up Thursday through Sunday. Among other things, framed and unframed prints of the American West by artists Frank McCarthy and James Bama will be on sale and 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit the Friends. Prints are already on display at the Central Library. 3. Speaking of the library, author Michael Takiff will be at the Central Library at 7 p.m. …

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