Mixed bike news

Some good news, and some not so good news for Alexandria bicyclists coming out of last night's Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting.

The not-so-good news focuses on funding of future facilities. Previously, in the city's 10-year funding plan, funding for development and construction of multi-use paths along Old Cameron Run (connecting Eisenhower Ave to Hoofs Run) and Backlick Run (connecting Holmes Run to Van Dorn St) were slated for FY 2013 and FY 2014. Due to changes in the 10-year funding plan, both of those projects have been delayed 2 years each.

There was also an update on the proposed layout changes to the King Street Metrorail station, subsequent to the public hearing at last month's meeting and additional meetings since then with both WMATA and DASH. The main problem here with bicycles is the city still prefers to use brick for the perimeter sidewalks, an item that is also opposed by people with disabilities (of which two were both at last night's meeting and spoke at the public hearing last month). WMATA also has concerns about brick sidewalks for those with disabilities, but city staff are still insistent on brick.

Not all of the King Street Metro news was bad. Both WMATA and DASH commented on the bike parking proposal, with WMATA suggesting that bicycle parking be moved closer to the station entrance to "provide more eyes on the parking spaces", and DASH suggested putting bike parking in from the station entrance all the way to King Street.

There was also a bit of good news for Telegraph Rd. VDOT staff gave a project update on the Telegraph Rd interchange construction, and they hope to open the bike/ped path across the Beltway (connecting Huntington Ave to Eisenhower Ave) next week. As part of the widening of the Telegraph Rd bridge over the Metrorail Blue Line and the CSX tracks, they are also building a bike/ped path on that bridge (connecting Pershing Dr to Duke St) that will replace the existing tunnel under the tracks, and hope to have that open by this fall.