Coming out of tonight's Mt. Vernon Transportation Committee meeting: the committee is open to the concept of allowing bicycles on the George Washington Parkway on the weekends. I don't think we have support for an all-weekend allowance, but most of the committee members there tonight are open to the idea of at least partial hours for bikes on the weekend...most likely on weekend mornings.
The next step would be to draft a resolution or letter of support for the Mt. Vernon Council of Citizens Associations to approve and pass on to local elected officials and the National Park Service. As the committee's unofficial bicycle advocate, I've also been asked by the committee chair to invite WABA and FABB to speak at our next monthly meeting.
It's a step in the right direction.
Showing posts with label Fairfax County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fairfax County. Show all posts
December 05, 2011
November 16, 2011
Thursday meetings galore...
Three notable meetings tomorrow (Thursday):
- Fairfax County will be hosting the third in a series of eight meetings on the county's Bicycle Master Plan, focusing on the Mount Vernon area (mostly Mt. Vernon District and part of Lee District). The meeting will be at the South County Government Center on Route 1, from 5:30 to 8pm.
- Alexandria will be hosting the latest of its High Capacity Transit Corridor Study meetings at Patrick Henry Elementary School from 7-9pm. The meeting will focus on the latest concepts for Corridor B along Duke Street.
- WABA is hosting a Happy Hour at Brasserie Beck in DC at 11th and K NW. The Happy Hour begins at 5pm.
Unfortunately, I can't be in all three places at once.
- Fairfax County will be hosting the third in a series of eight meetings on the county's Bicycle Master Plan, focusing on the Mount Vernon area (mostly Mt. Vernon District and part of Lee District). The meeting will be at the South County Government Center on Route 1, from 5:30 to 8pm.
- Alexandria will be hosting the latest of its High Capacity Transit Corridor Study meetings at Patrick Henry Elementary School from 7-9pm. The meeting will focus on the latest concepts for Corridor B along Duke Street.
- WABA is hosting a Happy Hour at Brasserie Beck in DC at 11th and K NW. The Happy Hour begins at 5pm.
Unfortunately, I can't be in all three places at once.
December 08, 2010
How about adopt others' standards?
Thanks to FABB for bringing this up...
Right now, Fairfax County is considering new standards for neighborhood street widths. The county was all set to adopt VDOT's standard, which is 29ft for low-volume streets with parking on both sides.
Enter Fairfax County Fire & Rescue. They complained. Loudly. Stating that the proposed widths are too narrow for their equipment in the case of a fire or other emergency.
So the county is waffing on it now, and proposing a minimum 36ft width, even on low-traffic streets. This satisfies Fire & Rescue, but results in wider neighborhood streets that are feared to become dragstrips of higher-speed traffic, even (and especially) in low-volume neighborhoods.
So my question to the county is, why not come to a happy medium? My home city of Minneapolis, MN has a 32ft standard, which works just fine and fire engines can still get down the street easily.
Right now, Fairfax County is considering new standards for neighborhood street widths. The county was all set to adopt VDOT's standard, which is 29ft for low-volume streets with parking on both sides.
Enter Fairfax County Fire & Rescue. They complained. Loudly. Stating that the proposed widths are too narrow for their equipment in the case of a fire or other emergency.
So the county is waffing on it now, and proposing a minimum 36ft width, even on low-traffic streets. This satisfies Fire & Rescue, but results in wider neighborhood streets that are feared to become dragstrips of higher-speed traffic, even (and especially) in low-volume neighborhoods.
So my question to the county is, why not come to a happy medium? My home city of Minneapolis, MN has a 32ft standard, which works just fine and fire engines can still get down the street easily.
November 30, 2010
Bike Crash VMS
I'm woefully behind....between meetings and a mini-vacation for Thanksgiving, it's been a busy month.
But today, I found this of note:
It's a Variable Message Sign that was recently placed on Belle Haven Rd, just east of Fort Hunt Rd, looking for any witnesses to the November 14 bicycle crash that killed Christopher Benton. Witnesses are asked to call the number on the VMS...the number happened to be flashing when I took the photo.
But today, I found this of note:
It's a Variable Message Sign that was recently placed on Belle Haven Rd, just east of Fort Hunt Rd, looking for any witnesses to the November 14 bicycle crash that killed Christopher Benton. Witnesses are asked to call the number on the VMS...the number happened to be flashing when I took the photo.
November 02, 2010
Meetings galore...
Not one but two transportation-related meetings for me last night. With two more later in the week.
First up was a quick in-and-out at the Alexandria Pedestrian and Bicycle Citizens Group meeting (out quickly because I had to leave early for meeting #2), where I learned a few interesting tidbits:
After that, it was a quick trip to the transportation committee meeting for the Mount Vernon Council of Citizen's Associations. Recently, I became the alternate member on the committee for the Huntington Community Assocation, my neighborhood civic association. This represents my first real foray into the Fairfax County side of the house. While I'm officially a county resident, I've been attending the various Alexandria transportation-related meetings since I transferred here...something which I intend to continue.
This meeting started off with a recap by the committee chair of a forum she recently attended. On October 14, there apparently was a "Transportation and Traffic Solutions Forum" in DC, with guest speaker Ian Lockwood, a nationally known expert on traffic calming whose resume includes traffic calming projects on Route 50 in western Loudoun County and a stint as head of the West Palm Beach, FL Transportation Planning Division. The chair was quite impressed with some of the topics discussed at the forum by Mr. Lockwood, namely that widening of arterials may result in death of a business district (as apparently happened in West Palm Beach). Other items of interest included walkability and a roadway grid network.
This sparked a good bit of discussion at the meeting. Meeting attendees were mostly receptive to the walkability aspects, with several complaints about how Route 1/Richmond Hwy *ISN'T* pedestrian friendly. Discussion got less consensual when it came to the other aspects like road narrowing or a parallel grid. Many of the meeting attendees have been supporting (if not outright fighting for) a long-promised widening of Route 1 to 6 lanes, especially recently in light of BRAC changes at Ft. Belvoir and the expected congestion that will result from all the jobs moving to Ft. Belvoir and the Engineering Proving Ground. At the same time, it appears that both businesses along Route 1 and the neighborhoods immediately adjoining Route 1 are opposed to a wider corridor footprint. How to widen Route 1 while minimizing the footprint/impact has long been debated in this part of the county, with some residents and meeting members complaining that corridor businesses and even elected officials have been playing obstructionist to Route 1 improvements.
While a parallel grid was generally supported (from my viewpoint), there were concerns about right-of-way and redevelopment needs/impacts in order to shoehorn such a grid in along the Route 1 corridor.
During the meeting, a resolution was passed requesting the county, CTB, VDOT, and area officials secure funding for something else long-promised: a transit study along the Route 1/Richmond Hwy corridor. There was a definitive preference among committee members that the study be on RAIL transit. I took this as meaning that area residents (as represented by committee members...all from area neighborhood associations) are supported of rail transit along Richmond Hwy but would be opposed to bus lanes or some sort of BRT.
Concerns were also raised about the Fairfax County Trnasportation Bond Referendum (presumably on today's ballot). The question to voters was whether the county should raise $120 million in bonds to pay for transportation improvements. While the fact sheet associated with the referendum points out that the county's intent is to use this bond money for the county's share of WMATA's capital program, the main concern was with the wording of the referendum, which didn't specify this...leading some to speculate that the money would be used elsewhere if other money "was found" to cover the WMATA obligation.
Lastly, there's another forum featuring Ian Lockwood on the calendar. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is sponsoring a Future of Fairfax Forum, with Mr. Lockwood as one of the guest speakers. The forum will be on Wednesday evening, the 17th, in Mclean. Click on the link for more info and to RSVP.
More meetings later in the week, including the Alexandria Transportation Commission. Stay tuned.
First up was a quick in-and-out at the Alexandria Pedestrian and Bicycle Citizens Group meeting (out quickly because I had to leave early for meeting #2), where I learned a few interesting tidbits:
- A planning study for the Holmes Run Trail tunnels near I-395 has begun.
- The Royal Netherlands Embassy will be hosting a 2-day bike workshop, titled the ThinkBike Workshops, on November 15-16. The workshop, in partnership with DDOT and MWCOG, will discuss all sorts of issues related to bicycle travel, discuss Dutch bicycle infrastructure and "best practices", and will include recommendations for improving bicycling in the DC area. The public is invited to the "closing session" on the evening of the 16th at Union Station. For more info, click on the links.
- MWCOG has shared some info from the Census American Community Survey, namely a comparison of bike commuting share for member jurisdictions from 1994 to 2007/08. Of note is Alexandria's bike commuting share during those 14 years, which skyrocketed from 0.7% in 1994 to 2.7% in 2007/08. While DC's share is larger overall (3.5% in 2007/08), Alexandria by far had the biggest percentage increase during the timeframe in question. Surprisingly, Arlington only posted a 0.3% increase, to 1.4% in 2007/08...though this might be explained in part due to development patterns. Much of Arlington's growth over the past 15 years has been along the Rosslyn-Ballson corridor, and it's reasonable to assume that those residents are commuting via Metro instead of by bike. Not surprisingly, Prince William County remained flat...zero percent. Most other area jurisdictions had modest increases.
- Thought the region didn't win the TIGER 2 grant to expand Capitol Bikeshare, the city of Alexandria is looking at a smaller grant application (through MWCOG) that would allow for a limited expansion of CaBi into the city....enough to put a few stations in the Potomac Yards area (where the city would concentrate first).
After that, it was a quick trip to the transportation committee meeting for the Mount Vernon Council of Citizen's Associations. Recently, I became the alternate member on the committee for the Huntington Community Assocation, my neighborhood civic association. This represents my first real foray into the Fairfax County side of the house. While I'm officially a county resident, I've been attending the various Alexandria transportation-related meetings since I transferred here...something which I intend to continue.
This meeting started off with a recap by the committee chair of a forum she recently attended. On October 14, there apparently was a "Transportation and Traffic Solutions Forum" in DC, with guest speaker Ian Lockwood, a nationally known expert on traffic calming whose resume includes traffic calming projects on Route 50 in western Loudoun County and a stint as head of the West Palm Beach, FL Transportation Planning Division. The chair was quite impressed with some of the topics discussed at the forum by Mr. Lockwood, namely that widening of arterials may result in death of a business district (as apparently happened in West Palm Beach). Other items of interest included walkability and a roadway grid network.
This sparked a good bit of discussion at the meeting. Meeting attendees were mostly receptive to the walkability aspects, with several complaints about how Route 1/Richmond Hwy *ISN'T* pedestrian friendly. Discussion got less consensual when it came to the other aspects like road narrowing or a parallel grid. Many of the meeting attendees have been supporting (if not outright fighting for) a long-promised widening of Route 1 to 6 lanes, especially recently in light of BRAC changes at Ft. Belvoir and the expected congestion that will result from all the jobs moving to Ft. Belvoir and the Engineering Proving Ground. At the same time, it appears that both businesses along Route 1 and the neighborhoods immediately adjoining Route 1 are opposed to a wider corridor footprint. How to widen Route 1 while minimizing the footprint/impact has long been debated in this part of the county, with some residents and meeting members complaining that corridor businesses and even elected officials have been playing obstructionist to Route 1 improvements.
While a parallel grid was generally supported (from my viewpoint), there were concerns about right-of-way and redevelopment needs/impacts in order to shoehorn such a grid in along the Route 1 corridor.
During the meeting, a resolution was passed requesting the county, CTB, VDOT, and area officials secure funding for something else long-promised: a transit study along the Route 1/Richmond Hwy corridor. There was a definitive preference among committee members that the study be on RAIL transit. I took this as meaning that area residents (as represented by committee members...all from area neighborhood associations) are supported of rail transit along Richmond Hwy but would be opposed to bus lanes or some sort of BRT.
Concerns were also raised about the Fairfax County Trnasportation Bond Referendum (presumably on today's ballot). The question to voters was whether the county should raise $120 million in bonds to pay for transportation improvements. While the fact sheet associated with the referendum points out that the county's intent is to use this bond money for the county's share of WMATA's capital program, the main concern was with the wording of the referendum, which didn't specify this...leading some to speculate that the money would be used elsewhere if other money "was found" to cover the WMATA obligation.
Lastly, there's another forum featuring Ian Lockwood on the calendar. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is sponsoring a Future of Fairfax Forum, with Mr. Lockwood as one of the guest speakers. The forum will be on Wednesday evening, the 17th, in Mclean. Click on the link for more info and to RSVP.
More meetings later in the week, including the Alexandria Transportation Commission. Stay tuned.
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