And the snow hath arrived...

NWS is predicting 18-24 inches...a total that would even make the hometown pause. Already curled up for what is looking like a long weekend within the house. May try to head out into Old Town tomorrow or Sunday, but I don't expect to get out very far until Monday at the earliest.

So in the meantime, I'm curled up with my bed blanket, with the cat at my feet inside the blanket. Will probably be a website-work weekend, a work-on-GIS-projects weekend, or some combination thereof.

So those of you in the D.C. area, whether you call it Snowpocalypse (again), Snowmageddon, Snowtoriousbig (a new one I saw on Twitter), or SnOMG2, enjoy the snow this weekend...

Potomac Yard Planning Advisory Group meeting - February 4, 2010

Tonight was my first, but the group's last, Potomac Yard Planning Advisory Group (PYPAG) meeting. This group has spent the last several months working on the Small Area Plan for the Potomac Yard area, and tonight's meeting, the final scheduled meeting, was a wrap-up of sorts.

Of course, there was some new material to discuss. On several people's minds was the rumors that an agreement has been reached on funding the planned Potomac Yard Metro station.

The short answer: sort of.

The current funding gap for funding the station is around $32 million, out of roughly $275 million total (the plan is for a $240 million construction cost, $30 million for capitalized interest during construction, and $5 million for bond insurance costs). The city is already working on setting up something similar to a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district covering the Potomac Yard area to cover some of the bond costs, but still came up short.

There have been discussions with the landowners/developers about them proffering the gapped portion of Metrorail station funding, and it appears there is tentative agreement with the owners of Landbay F on such a proffer, though the details are still in the process of being worked out. Still, this potentially gives the city the final piece in the funding puzzle in order to build the Potomac Yard Metro station.

The next subject for discussion was the "Flexible Zone". This is a planned area immediately around the northern Metro station entrance (Blocks 14 thru 21, except for Block 17) that is intended to be a pedestrian-intensive zone. The plan includes a roughly 0.75 acre park centrally located within the "Zone", surrounded on all sides by streets, with adjacent buildings facing the park. Much of the immediate area is intended for Office use with street-level retail.

There was a request from one Group member for a clarification and a more precise definition of just what constitutes "mixed-use". This turned into a discussion on what should be apprpriate land use next to the Metro station, which produced a couple of interesting (yet somewhat contradictory) statements (below are paraphrased and not verbatim):

- "Residents living next to Metro use it more than office workers next to Metro". Meanwhile...

- "Residents are willing to walk farther to Metro than office workers."

The general concensus appeared to be that Office use was more appropriate closest to Metro.

There were some comments about "keeping retail concentrated", instead of what was perceived as spreading it out amongst two smaller retail centers (one each in Landbays F and G).

There was some question (and concern) amongst group members on where (or even if) to reserve space within Potomac Yard for a school. Some think a new school will eventually be needed in the area. A few were skeptical that it needed to be placed within Potomac Yard.

Regarding traffic and transportation, there was definite concern among some that the plan for three east-west connectors (East Glebe, Reed, plus a new connector) would put more traffic on Commonwealth Ave, to which Del Ray residents are not happy. There were two Group members who showed an outright NIMBY attitude towards having a third east-west connector, with one of them going as far as stating he would be against the WHOLE plan if it included that connector. City staff attempted to explain that East Glebe is already over-capacity today, and that having additional east-west connectors forms more of a grid network that spreads traffic out and improves efficiency.

A meeting attendee also expressed concern about traffic impacts in adjacent neighborhoods.

It's obvious that the Metro station is needed before any of this development/redevelopment can occur. I asked the question about the street network and whether it is also a prerequisite or would be incorporated as development/redevelopment occurs. The response was that it's likely the street network, or at least the primary streets (namely Potomac Ave, Route 1, and perhaps one or two of the east-west streets) would be constructed prior to development/redevelopment. Bike trails along Potomac Ave and Route 1 and bike lanes on other streets would be incorporated as the street work is done.

I also asked what the rationale was behind keeping Route 1 at 4 lanes and not having a consistent 6-lane section through the city, since Route 1 is 6 lanes both to the north into Arlington and south through Old Town and beyond. I was told in no uncertain terms that Route 1 "will not be widened for general traffic", with no further explanation. Rather than start a potential argument, I left it at that.

That said, while additional regular lanes won't be build on Route 1, a consistent right-of-way (including space for the future dedicated transit lanes farther south) WILL be implemented along Route 1. This is important as, right now, Route 1 goes from wide at the Monroe Ave Bridge to narrow to a-little-wider near Target and wide again near Four Mile Run.

I left the meeting just as the individual group members were starting to go around voicing their support (or lack of) for the plan and their thoughts on it. Hoping someone from the Arlandria blog was present and will post about the group members comments.

Alexandria Transportation Committee meeting - February 3

Last night was the monthly meeting of the Alexandria Transportation Commission, my second attendence of such meetings. Here's a breakdown of what was discussed:

The city is submitting a funding request for an FTA Livability grant...$8.5 million to go towards the Potomac Yard Transitway.

WMATA appararently has approved two "reimbursable projects" for Alexandria. One is a $1.8 million project at the Eisenhower Ave Metro (not sure what this one entails), while the other is a $4.2 million project at the King St Metro (more on this one below).

The first main item of the meeting was preliminary results of the "Old Town Area Parking Study". This study inventoried the parking supply and studied utilization in the Old Town area...the first comprehensive parking study in Old Town since 1992-93 (word is the 92-93 study is posted online somewhere). The study area covered roughly 85 blocks stretching from the river to Metro, and about 3 blocks either side of King St. It was done in part due to a "longstanding perception that parking supply in Old Town is inadequate", but also in part as the first step in a citywide parking study (the next area planned for study is Del Ray), as parking has become a focus point of the city's Transportation Master Plan.

The study focused on three parking sources: on-street parking, public parking garages/lots, and private parking garages/lots that are open to the public. Those garages/lots that are strictly private were not included. Parking utilization was checked during six 2-hour periods at various times and covering both weekdays and weekends.

The study found that there are 8,332 "publicly accessible" parking spaces within the study area. Just over half of them are on-street spaces, while most of the rest are in garages. Only about 400 spaces are in surface lots.

For utilization, the study found a fairly definitive boundary between high and low utilization for the on-street parking, centered on Alfred St. Overall, the garages and lots are underutilized, though a few locations down near the waterfront saw high utilization. While the overall numbers show good parking supply, the details show a decent range of utilization levels within individual locations. Also, there was concern expressed by one commission member about how church parking, especially during funerals, can drastically affect parking availability at times.

Staff noted that there are specific recommendations that can be pursued, but they only gave general recommendations last night, in part because they want to develop public outreach on the plan and build concensus for the recommendations. That said, here are a few of the recommendations:

- Replace coin-operated meters with multi-space meters which would also read credit-cards. On a related note, a question was asked about leaving existing meters in place for bike parking (similar to what's been done in a few other places in the region).

- Establish new on-street and off-street parking rates as well as adjust meter hours of operation.

- Implement a wayfinding plan.

- Though the powerpoint didn't specifically mention it, I asked and received confirmation from city staff that implementing performance parking WAS a recommendation.


Next on the agenda was the city's inputs to the Regional CLRP and TIP, which are due to MWCOG by March 1st. Given how soon the deadline is, there isn't much time (and no more regularly scheduled meetings) for the Commission to make its recommendations to City Council...an issue that they hope to remedy for next year. This may or may not be due to what I at least perceived as a disconnect between the city's CIP process and COG's TIP/CLRP process, which are at opposite times of the year. Of note in the city's project submissions are:

- Funding to study the Holmes Run Bike Trail from I-395 to Ripley St. This is the stretch that is right up along the spillway and is in drastic need of improvement.

- Two items that were covered at last month's Pedestrian and Bicycle Citizen's Group meeting: the bike/ped underpass of Eisenhower at Cameron Run, and the Eisenhower Ave Complete Streets project.

- An "extension of Clermont Ave" near Eisenhower. Not sure what this one entails.

- Constructing Potomac Ave between Route 1 and Four Mile Run. This four lane boulevard will serve as a parallel alternative to Route 1 in the Potomac Yards vicinity, and will be the buffer between the Potomac Yards redevelopment and the CSX and Metro tracks.

- King St/Beauregard St intersection improvement. More on this later.

- An extension of Mill Rd (not sure what this one is either).

- Constructing transit centers at King St/Braddock Rd and at Landmark Mall. There was some question about the latter given the long-term redevelopment proposals for that area.

- The Potomac Yard Metro Station (focus of a meeting tonight).

- The Potomac Yard Transitway.

- Replacing the Royal St WMATA bus garage.


Next was a short discussion of the King St/Beauregard St improvement project, also covered at last month's bike/ped meeting. Commission members are generally supportive of the project, and supported a planned City Council resolution approving the project. Support wasn't completely unanimous. One Commission member expressed concerns about the project, while the Mayor indicated he was against (couldn't hear what the mayor said, though). And there was one meeting attendee, a resident of that area, who was visibly and vocally against the project.

Alexandria's Long Range Plan was mentioned at the previous month's Commission meeting. There was a suggestion for staff to clarify the project descriptions, while a Commission member mentioned concern about a "fuzziness" between the projects and available/projected funding that may dilute public support for the overall plan.

Next on the agenda was the ongoing I-395/Seminary Rd and related Beauregard Corridor studies. The next meeting on the interchange proper is February 17. With all the discussion on BRAC and the movement of BRAC jobs to Mark Center and the resultant expected congestion, there is concern within the Commission that BRAC is overshadowing the issues and planning along the broader Beauregard corridor. There was also mention of two nearby redevelopment plans in Fairfax County, specifically Landmark Plaza, and how they would impact the Beauregard Corridor.

Also of note are two letters to VDOT, one from Alexandria and the other from Fairfax County, regarding the Interchange Justification Report and planned improvements for the I-395/Seminary Rd interchange. In a nutshell, the two entities are on opposite sides of the coin. Fairfax County prefers Alt D because of its direct connections between the HOV lanes and the BRAC site, while Alexandria opposes that alternative due to its impacts on the Winkler Botanical Preserve. Meanwhile, Alexandria supports Alts A1 and A2, while Fairfax County thinks they are problematic due to lack of HOV lane access. Time will tell how this one pans out.

The last item was the King Street Metro Station improvements. This $4.2 million project aims to reconfigure the bus drop off area to improve circulation and pedestrian access. The basic gist of the planned improvements is that it reconfigures the bus drop off, adds a shuttle parking area, moves the taxi spaces to Diagonal Rd, relocates the kiss-and-ride (and allows for vehicle recirculation within the kiss-and-ride area), moves the bike lockers closer to the station entrance, and widens the sidewalk between the station and the pedestrian tunnel under Duke St.

Curiously, there's public concern that it doesn't do enough for pedestrians, meanwhile I dropped a bombshell about supporting not just bicycle access to the station, but THROUGH the station area...my rationale being that connecting the existing bike/ped trail tha parallels Metro (between Braddock Rd and Commonwealth Ave) down to Duke St will require figuring out a way to get it through the King St Metro station area.

Two other ideas were mentioned. One was a tunnel that was looked at connecting the King St Metro station with the Amtrak/VRE Union Station, but deemed too expensive for this plan (but possible for a future project). Second was an idea to improve pedestrian circulation by building a lower level and routing the buses and vehicles to the lower level. This of course would drastically increase the cost, but it relates to a rumor that WMATA wants to develop the station area with mixed-use development.

That was it for this meeting. Next up: tonight's Potomac Yard Design Advisory Committee.

BikeWalk Alexandria meeting and Chambliss Crossing update

Just got back from the semi-monthly meeting of BikeWalk Alexandria, a fairly informal affair held at a local coffee shop in Del Ray. Was my first attendence of these meetings...was mainly there to "get my feet wet", though I'd met a few of the attendees (including Dave Levy and Elizabeth Wright) on previous occasions. Also met fellow WashCycle commenter Jonathan Krall.

The main gist of the meeting was going over upcoming bicycling events (including and in particular the President's Day events in Old Town), discussion on holding a Bike Rodeo with a local school (the desire being something that could be done for both Alexandria and neighboring parts of Fairfax County), ongoing legislation in the Virginia General Assembly (namely a bill, SB566, which would increase Virginia's "x feet to pass" from the current 2 feet to 3 feet), and the recently released Benchmarking Report comparing the states on various bicycle aspects.

Of note on that last one is how Virginia is ranked second-to-last dead last amongst the states for per-capita funding for bicycle/pedestrian transportation. As I have elsewhere, I've made note that such a statistic is going to be skewed against the higher-populated states...for example, of those states with 5 million or more in population, the highest-ranked one (Tennessee) is #11. Still, even taking that population skewing into account, it doesn't say much about Virginia's bicycle/pedestrian funding.

One specific item mentioned from Dave Levy is a Chambliss Crossing update...this is the project that would build a crossing across Holmes Run near Chambliss St, connecting the Holmes Run Trail in Alexandria to another trail in Fairfax County. According to Dave, VDOT's Northern Virginia District is recommending that a waiver be approved, allowing the planned "low profile crossing" to be built without requiring the bridge railing VDOT originally wanted. The waiver still needs to be approved by Richmond, but this is potentially promising news for this much-wanted crossing.

Will post meeting minutes once they're drafted by another of the attendees.

VDOT to reopen closed rest areas

Just heard about this one. Per today's CTB resolution, VDOT plans to reopen its closed rest areas by mid-April, according to this brief. These were the 19 rest areas they closed last summer due to budget cuts. The new Governor (sworn in this past Saturday) vowed to make reopening them a priority, and apparently it worked.

Which is fine by me. Because the Welcome Center on westbound 66 near Manassas was my usual stop for picking up state highway maps...

Alexandria Bike Meeting Followup

The city has updated the LocalMotion webpage to include the material from Monday night's meeting:

2009 Year in Review. Which I just noticed is organized via the "5 E's" that the League of American Bicyclists uses.

Meeting notes. Taken by one of the city staff members present. Looking at the sign-up sheet, I was pretty close on meeting attendence. Excluding city staff, the guest speakers, and Councilwoman Hughes, there were 20 people at the meeting.

The Presentation given at the meeting. Of note:

- Page 9, the prioritization criteria the Transportation Commission uses.
- Page 10, FY 2011 CMAQ/RSTP-funded projects. The city originally expected to get $3 million, but MWCOG gave only $2.5 million instead.
- Pages 12 and 13 reference the draft Strategic Plan goals/initiatives associated with bikes/peds.
- Page 17 shows some of the bike counts the city did on the Mount Vernon Trail.
- Page 20 shows planned specs for bicycle parking lockers and shelters.
- Page 21 has the planned 2010 projects, including the locations for the Rapid Flash Beacons that I'd missed catching at the meeting.
- Page 25 has typicals of the planned wayfinding signage. I was a little off on the height...the specs show a 6ft height for the signs.
- Page 27 has upcoming events, including dates and topics for the Confident City Cycling classes being offered this spring.

[EDIT: in addition to the 2008 bike/ped crash maps on pages 15-16 of the presentation, I found this earlier map showing bike/ped crashes between 2004 and 2006.]

Alexandria Pedestrian and Bicycle Citizens Group Meeting - January 11, 2010.

Last night was the year's first meeting of the Alexandria Pedestrian and Bicycle Citizens Group. This is an informal meeting held every other month by which city staff can provide information on city projects and plans and solicit input and comment from Alexandria citizens regarding walking and bicycling. These meetings are headed by Yon Lambert, one of the city's Transporation Planners and part of the city's Transportation & Environmental Services Department.

This was my first time attending the group's meeting, having been invited by Dave Levy (vice-president of BikeWalk Alexandria), whom I'd met the week before at an Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting. Also in attendence was Bruce Dwyer, one of WABA's volunteers and an Alexandria resident.

There were a large number of people in attendence. From what I gathered, typically these meetings have about 5-10 citizens attending. Last night's meeting had over 20. Too early to tell whether this is a sign of the resurgence in bicycling or simply an anomaly.

In part because of the large number of attendees, the meeting started off with an introduction about the group and its purpose and also a brief "2009 Year in Review" regarding city bicycle and pedestrian accomplishments in 2009. The year in review is still in draft format, but will be posted to the city's LocalMotion website once finalized. Here are a few of the highlights:

- Although there was a slight increase in bicycle crashes over 2008 (21 vs. 19), there was a decrease in pedestrian crashes (49 vs 57), and for the second year in a row there were zero fatalities.
- Opening of the Active Transportation Lane on the Wilson Bridge on June 6, an event that I also participated in.
- A "road diet" and inclusion of a climbing lane on West Braddock Rd.
- Rehabilitation and resurfacing of the Holmes Run Trail between Duke St and North Ripley.


A brief mention was also made of the previous meeting, a joint meeting with Arlington's Bicycle Advisory Group back in September, but Alexandria staff felt it was very data heavy and so did not go into a lot of detail on it. Minutes of this meeting are posted on TheWashCycle.


There were two guest speakers at the meeting. The first was John Kamoroske, a longtime Alexandria resident (over 50 years) and the chair of the Alexandria Planning Commission. He gave a brief overview of the Planning Commission and its function, how citizens can provide input to improve small area plans (including Potomac Yards and the Waterfront...but studies that are underway), and also spoke about Transportation Management Plans (TMP's) and how they are a potential source, albeit a small source (only about $3 million citywide in 2009), of funding for bike/ped improvements in the vicinity of a given TMP.

The second guest speaker was Jayme Blakesly. By day, he is a lawyer with the Federal Transit Administration and a bicycle commuter. By evening, he is an Alexandria resident and is the vice-chair and one of the citizen representatives of the Alexandria Transportation Commission, which advises the City Countil on transportation issues. Jayme gave a brief overview of the Transportation Commission, including the Long Range Plan and CIP planning process and prioritization criteria, along with showing several slides from the Transportation Commission meeting from last week (which I also attended).

Mr. Blakesly touched on two goals of the city's draft Strategic Plan:

- Goal 2. The City Respects, Protects and Enhances the Health of its Citizens and the Quality of its Natural Environment. And Initiative 3G in particular, which specifically addresses Pedestrian and Bicyclist Travel.

- Goal 3. There is an Integrated, Multimodal Transportation System that Efficiently and Effectively Gets People from Point "A" to Point "B." A multimodal transportation network that supports sustainable land use and provides internal mobility and regional connectivity for Alexandria.


He also spoke passionately about Complete Streets, which also got discussed at last week's Transportation Commission meeting, and rehashed several points about Complete Streets made at that meeting. Besides questions about how to retrofit Complete Streets into the existing street network or incorporate it into the street design manual (the latter of which being something that New York City has apparently done), Mr. Blakesly believes that Complete Streets shouldn't just be implemented as city policy but should be codified within the city's municipal code.


The next subject was on bike/ped counts on the Mount Vernon Trail. Besides the generally year-round counts that NPS does (and also posts some typical information online), the city conducted volume counts in September, not just on the Mount Vernon Trail, but also on Four Mile Run near Commonwealth Ave and on Holmes Run just north of Duke St. Naturally, these other two locations had fairly low volumes overall. The Mount Vernon numbers were significantly higher...I don't remember the specifics offhand but want to say that it's in the range of 2-4K north of Pendleton St. Another thing that struck me (and verified by the NPS graph on the above link) was the much higher usage on weekends, especially on good weather weekends. The Mount Vernon Trail sees a fair bit of commuters during the morning and evening peak, but nothing like what it sees during the middle of a weekend day, where bicycle volumes can approach 450 an hour.

I asked if city staff or NPS has taken these numbers and calculated out the Bike Level of Service (LOS) for the trail. Mr. Lambert did not have an easy answer for me, but thought that NPS did. I may try to contact NPS to see if they have that data, or I may try to get the city's counts from Mr. Lambert and do my own calculations...I have the 2000 HCM at home, which includes the methodology for calculating Bicycle LOS.


Next was discussion on the planned Holmes Run/Chambliss Crossing, which is in the final stages of planning. The crossing has long been desired by the city due to the lack of nearby stream crossings, and would connect into a trail on the Fairfax County side that extends up to Columbia Pike. At first just a crossing project, the project will now include bank stabilization and stream restoration, in part to save money by doing two separate projects at once and in part to address concerns by the local neighborhood, including their opposition to any trail crossing that would have a negative impact on the stream and its flooding potential.

TheWashCycle previously covered the adopted plan to build a Low Profile Crossing. According to city staff, this type of crossing has been deemed acceptable by the local neighborhood. The main hangup right now is with VDOT. Because of safety/ADA concerns, VDOT wants railings included on the low-profile crossing. Understandable from a safety standpoint, but it would significantly change the profile of the crossing and would also introduce potential jamming points for debris to logjam during a flood, which would impact flooding in the neighborhood, while leaving out the railings reduces this logjam/additional flooding potential. The city is in discussion with VDOT to hopefully resolve this issue.


A few miscellaneous items:

- The city's "Confident City Cycling" classes will continue. Last year, these were sponsored through WABA. Unfortunately, I missed writing down the dates that they will be held this upcoming spring.
- The city has come up with specifications for bicycle parking lockers and parking shelters. The latter looked like bike racks with an overhang similar to a bus shelter open on one side.
- There was mention of the new HAWK signal that was installed last year on Van Dorn St.
- The next BikeDC event is tentatively planned for Sunday, May 9. City staff are working with BikeDC and other organizations to see about getting one of the bike routes extended into Alexandria.


The city is in the process of installing four "Rapid Flash Beacons" at various, mid-block pedestrian crosswalks (I didn't catch the specific locations). The beacon is basically a specialized Pedestrian Crossing warning sign that, when activated, has LED lights that flash at a fast rate, bringing the motorists attention to pedestrians in the crosswalk area. The first one was installed in St. Petersburg, FL in 2004, and evidence suggests that it greatly increases vehicle compliance rates (for stopping for peds in a crosswalk), upwards of 60%. Portland, OR installed their first Rapid Flash Beacon a few months ago and has plans for more. Alexandria is pursuing them because initial results elsewhere are positive and because they cost considerably less than a HAWK signal...around $18K for the RFB vice $100K for a HAWK.


The city has preliminary designs for new bicycle/pedestrian Wayfinding signage. These signs, which will stand about 7ft high or so, would be implemented along the city's three core trail corridors: Mt Vernon, Holmes Run, and Four Mile Run. Signage along on-street facilities will continue to be in the already-existing format, which will keep it in line with recent changes to the Federal MUTCD. The city's Wayfinding Stakeholder Advisory Group is having its next meeting on January 26 at City Hall (unfortunately, a mid-morning meeting).


According to city staff, four 40 design teams have submitted proposals for the planned Four Mile Run Pedestrian-Cyclist Bridge design competition. This is the planned bike/ped bridge across Four Mile Run that will connect Commonwealth Ave to Eads St. The winner will be announced on March 27.


There was some discussion on the long-planned intersection improvements at King St and Beauregard St/Walter Reed Dr intersection. A large wall map at the meeting highlighted the latest planned design. From what I saw, the main improvements focused on better channelization, medians, and dual left turn lanes for two of the intersection legs. But one notable feature is that the plan includes bike/ped paths or sidewalks on both sides of both streets approaching the intersection. Also of note was how there has been negative pushback from the neighborhood on adding bike/ped paths to the project...the most common argument being "nobody bikes here, so why include them?".


The last main topic of disussion involved Eisenhower Ave and the two projects related to it. The first project is expected to be let to bid next month, and involves building a bicycle/pedestrian trail underneath Eisenhower Ave where it crosses Cameron Run. The trail will tie seamlessly into the Holmes Run trail to the north, and the Eisenhower Ave trail to the east, enabling bikes and pedestrians to connect between the two without having to cross Eisenhower Ave at-grade.

The second project is a much larger project, what the city is calling the Eisenhower Avenue Widening Project, though that isn't completely accurate itself given the current plans, of which there was a big map posted on the wall at the meeting. Originally a project to widen Eisenhower Ave between Stovall St and Holland Ln from 4 to 6 lanes, the project has since morphed into a "Complete Streets" project with several features:

- Landscapped median and curbs.
- Sidewalk bulb-outs at many intersections.
- The traffic circle at Holland Ln will be replaced by a standard T-intersection.
- Bike lanes on both sides of Eisenhower.
- Wider sidewalks.
- A wide combination sidewalk/shared use path along the south side of Eisenhower between Stovall St and Mill Rd. This would be an extension of the existing path to the west, would connect to the under-construction path over the Beltway at Telegraph Rd, and would also connect to a future city path to the east (more on that later).
- The "third lane" westbound is a strange part of the project. It would be interrupted by the sidewalk bulb-outs at Mill Rd, Mill Race Ln, and Swamp Fox Rd. Between Mill Rd and Mill Race Ln would be permanent on-steet parking. West of Mill Race Ln, approaching both Swamp Fox Rd and Stovall St, the lane will be a right-turn-only lane during peak hours, and on-street parking during off-peak hours.
- Between Holland Ln and Mill Rd is where the "third" lane westbound is most unique. Along this stretch, the lane would be continuous and 16ft (15ft plus 1ft gutter) wide. During peak hours, the lane would function as a general traffic lane with a 5ft bicycle lane curbside. During off-peak hours, though, the lane becomes a parallel-parking lane, with a 7-8ft bicycle lane next to the travel lane and the parking lane being curbside. Presumably, striping would allow the delination between the two configurations, but there is a very real concern about how right-turning traffic at Mill Rd would weave with through bicycle traffic. Mr. Lambert noted that this is only a preliminary configuration and is subject to change pending further refinement and/or input.

Besides that special lane and the weaving impact, there was concern from a few of the bicyclists present about how the bulb outs would affect the bicycle lane and bike traffic. However, looking closely at the map, it appears that enough street width will be provided at the bulb-out intersections to allow for a continuous bike lane without requiring bikes to merge into the right traffic lane at the bulb-outs.

[Edit...additional item I forgot] The city has a plan to build a shared use trail running southeast from the Mill Rd/Eisenhower Ave intersection. This trail would follow an easement along the old Cameron Run channel and then around the south side of the city's waterworks to connect to the south end of Payne St. By utilizing Payne St and the Franklin/Gibbon St combo, this would give bicyclists another way to get between Eisenhower Ave and the south side of Old Town and the WWB trail.

The last item of the meeting involved an upcoming support facility. An owner of one of the area bicycle courier companies (didn't catch the name) was present with handouts for the planned VeloCity Bicycle Co-op. The coop will be a non-profit organization located at 204 South Union St (along the Old Town waterfront) offering bicycle-related youth programs, do-it-yourself maintenance, training workshops, and other events. The goal is to have the Co-op open by April.

Cross-posted at TheWashCycle.

Quotes of the night

Went to the city of Alexandria's Strategic Planning meeting for Goal 3, which relates to transportation.

Two "quotes of the night", from one of the meeting attendees:

- (not verbatim, but close) Transit is a "social safety net" and is "equal opportunity". (made in response to a planned $600K cut from DASH)

- (verbatim) If it's not a dedicated bike lane, I'm afraid of traffic.

Corridor H field check/update

After doing some hiking in western Maryland on Sunday (to the highest point in Maryland, amongst other places), I headed home via the Corridor H area. Below is a field-check of the construction projects along the corridor, generally from west to east.

- Earthmoving and grading is now underway on either side of WV 93 north of Scherr, extending east to CR 1. No bridgework yet at either WV 93 or CR 1.

- Grading and the sole bridge (over CR 1) for the WV 93 connector appears to be complete. No paving operations.

- Unrelated to Corridor H, but in the Scherr vicinity, WVDOT is replacing a bridge on WV 42 just south of the WV 93 junction. The WV 42/93 junction is closed as a result. The detour uses Scherr Rd to cut the corner over to WV 93 (which is now an all-way stop), then CR 42/14 to get back to WV 42 south of the bridge. CR 42/14 has been repaved as a result, but there's a bridge on the road where "truck/buses cross one at a time".

- Grading is complete for the stretch that parallels CR 1 north of Greenland.

- Two fairly tall bridges are underway in the Greenland vicinity. One basically over Greenland itself (and the east-west portion of CR 1), and another about a half-mile or so to the north, over the north-south portion of CR 1. Bridge deck is being built for the former...most (but not all) of the I-beams are in place for the latter.

- Further south, earthmoving/grading has begun for the segment west of CR 3/Knobley Rd which passes through the gap in Knobly Mtn that the Middle Fork of Patterson Creek passes through. No bridgework yet at CR 3.

- As reported on various road groups in the past, grading is complete between CR 3 and CR 5/Patterson Creek Rd.

- I can confirm now that the junction with CR 5 at Forman will be a folded-diamond interchange, with the ramps folded to the west. The bridge on CR 5 over Corridor H is complete and open to traffic, and paving in this area is more or less complete, even including lane striping on Corridor H in the interchange vicinity.

- Paving is well underway between CR 5 and the Potomac River. The mainline lanes are being paved on concrete, and it appears that the shoulders between CR 5 and Fish Pond Rd (CR 220/8) will also be concrete. Between Fish Pond Rd and the Potomac, too early to tell whether the shoulders will be concrete or asphalt. Side road and ramp connections (as well as the whole interchange at CR 5) will be asphalt.

- Unrelated to Corridor H, but along CR 2/Old Fields Rd on the east side of Patterson Creek Mtn is a side road named "Never Ending Drive".

- Also as reported in the past, the bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac River is complete, as is the short segment between the bridge and the US 220/WV 28 interchange. The short segment also has signage posted. And thanks to a zoom lens, I can confirm that there's a US 48 reassurance shield posted westbound just before the bridge, as well as a distance sign showing mileage to Bismark, Davis, and Elkins.

The "Idaho Stop"...

So, after an hour-long bike ride this evening (something I'm trying to do more often), it occurred to me that the more I get back into bicycling, the more I find myself in favor of the "Idaho Stop".

For those not familliar, the Idaho Stop, named so because it's coded within Section 49-720 of the Idaho statutes, basically allows bicyclists to treat stop signs as a yield sign, or treat red traffic lights as a stop sign. It doesn't give cyclists carte blanche to enter the intersection willy-nilly...vehicles in or near the intersection still have the right-of-way as normal. But what it does is allow the bicyclist to not have to stop completely at stop signs in situations of no traffic, light traffic, or a gap in traffic. And since it takes a lot of energy to stop, start back up, and get back up to speed on a bicycle (I've read reports suggesting that upwards of 25% of the energy a bicylist exerts is because of stopping and starting), this enables bicyclists to maintain speed and save energy in these situations.

I used to be concerned about this law passing in other areas, namely due to unfamiliarity as well as safety concerns with cyclists thinking they could just enter the intersection without yielding to traffic. The latter is still a concern, but I find myself more in favor of it now. Funny what seeing the other side (or re-experiencing the other side) of things can do to one's viewpoint...