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Complete streets, incomplete BRAC

First off, an apology on the lack of posting lately. I was either sick or out-of-town during last month's meetings, and I spent most of my free time in May on roadtrips or working on some of my other projects (one or two of which I may post to the blog here later).

Two main highlights out of last night's Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting: Complete Streets, and a brief preview of the BRAC-133 TMP.

The draft Complete Streets ordinance is now out on the street. A draft Commission resolution was also created, though I missed the reasoning behind why there's both an ordinance and a resolution. Language in the draft ordinance is borrowed heavily from the National Complete Streets Coalition Policy Elements.

City staff are accepting public comments on the draft ordinance until June 23, after which the ordinance will be considered by the Transportation Commission at their July meeting. The goal is to have the proposed ordinance to City Council for consideration in the September/October timeframe. Mayor Euille does not anticipate any issues preventing passage by the City Council, so there's a good chance this will be a "done deal" before the end of the year.


The other big item at the meeting was a quick preview of the Transportation Management Plan for BRAC-133/Mark Center. Although the preview was a bit short on plan details, it did include some interesting numbers. For the origin study, the consultant was able to obtain and utilize home zip code data for ALL the federal employees who will be moving their workplaces to Mark Center, a number which comprises some 70% of the total building population...a *VERY* impressive percentage for an origin/destination study. That number was then scaled up to represent the total 6400 employees.

The biggest number: over a quarter (28%) of employees are coming from within Fairfax County, with most of those along the 95/395 corridor or along Fairfax County Parkway between Newington and Fair Lakes. 23% are coming from Maryland, with about half of those being within Prince George's County. Arlington and Alexandria house 10% and 7% respectively...numbers that some Commission members think will increase as workers try to move in closer to Mark Center. 6% commute from within D.C.

Though much of the transportation focus to Mark Center has been on the 95/395 corridor, and the zip code data preview was hard to read, a rough estimate based on the zip code data is that only about a quarter of workers are commuting along the 95/395 corridor. 1/4 of 6400 is 1600, still a large number, and a number that represents workers already along that corridor and not newcomers after the move to Mark Center. But it's a lot less than some people were expecting.

Some interesting mode split numbers as well, based on a survey of workers made last October. Roughly 2 out of 5 drive alone today, a number that is expected to increase given Mark Center's more-car-dependant location. 18% use transit as their primary mode, but 45% utilize transit either sometimes or for part of their commute (yes, there's some overlap within these numbers). However, only 31% are expected to continue using transit in some form after relocation. One of the talking points and an eventual goal of the TMP is to figure out a way to raise that number back up to the existing 45%.

Unfortunately, the only mode talked about in any detail during the TMP preview was the proposed shuttle service. Currently, the consultants are studying shuttle service (free for workers, at 10 minute headways during peak hours, and occasional service mid-day, though at least every 30 minutes all day to/from the Pentagon) from 5 locations: West Falls Church, East Falls Church, and Ballston along the Orange Line, from the Pentagon, and from the King Street Metro station in Alexandria. Of course, these preliminary locations are all subject to further study/refinement/consolidation (one problem noted with Ballston and EFC is the apparent lack of locations to facilitate the shuttle pick-up/drop-off/loitering). Also, the city has requested that Van Dorn St and Franconia-Springfield be included in the list for study. The consultant is hesitant with Van Dorn St, given that it only serves the Blue Line and expect limited ridership, but they're more receptive to considering Franconia-Springfield as you have both the Blue Line terminus and a stop on the VRE Fredericksburg line there. They still prefer shuttle service from King St due to the multiple modes converging there...Blue and Yellow Lines for Metro, both VRE lines, and potentially commuters crossing over the Wilson Bridge from Prince George's County.

Although we didn't get to see it at the meeting, the draft TMP was given to the city of Alexandria for review last night...I have assurances from city staff that it will be made available/promulgated to the public in some form. The schedule for city/BRAC Advisory Group comments on the draft TMP is to have them to the TMP study team by 20 July to be incorporated into a later draft version of the TMP that is due to NCPC by 30 July.


A few other notes from the meeting:

- The Eisenhower Ave Widening project is being considerably rescoped/scaled back in order to redirect funds to other projects within the city. To cut down costs, and also due to the unlikelihood of getting Right-Of-Way proffers from adjacent developers, the rescoping will be to 4 lanes with a narrower median, narrower sidewalks (narrower from the original plan, but still at least as wide as today), and narrower lane widths in order to keep the project within the existing ROW. Even with the rescoping, it's still expected to provide pedestrian and traffic improvements. The redirected money will be used to buy 8 new buses for DASH, construct the bike/ped improvements between Holmes Run and Eisenhower Ave (the planned bike/ped underpass under Eisenhower), and provide $1.3 million for improvements to the Eisenhower Ave Metro station (the city wants to add a station entrance on the north side of the street...very needed IMO).

- The Commercial Real Estate Tax (mentioned in a blog post a few months ago) was not approved by City Council for the FY2011 budget. However, the Transporation Commission is still looking into the idea and created a subcommittee to examine how the city might be able to utilize it and build public support for the tax to expand transportation options, with the goal being to have tangible public support and a tangible list of potential projects to present to City Council in time for the FY 2012 budget process.

- A last note, relating to parking meters. Unlike what I'd reported in April, the city is significantly increasing parking meter rates...up to $1.75/hr citywide. They're also implementing an "All may park, all must pay" policy, but I'm not sure what that entails except that handicapped parkers will also have to pay.

DDOT moves planned cycle track

Stephen Miller over at GreaterGreaterWashington is reporting that DDOT is moving the previously-planned cycle track along I Street to M Street. Amongst other reasons, this was done since an M Street track would have less traffic impact, allows for potential bus improvements along I Street (to be studied with WMATA), is only one block from the planned eastbound cycle track on L Street, and provides better bicycle connectivity in the long run.

Blue bike lanes

Found almost by accident as I was perusing Google Maps:




These are on Columbus Blvd in Philadelphia. The blue paint was used where the bike lanes were crossing other traffic areas.

Pennsylvania Ave bike lanes

They're going in! (photos by Eric Gilliland). I should take a trip up there soon myself.

Alas, one part of the earlier bike lane plan is a no-go: the Commission of Fine Arts pulled the plug on painting the bike lanes green.

Andrews AFB biking/jogging restrictions

A couple months ago, I wrote an article about what bicycling on Andrews AFB could be like, providing both low cost and medium cost options that could be combined to improve the culture of bicycling on the base.

And boy does it need it. I just discovered this morning that the base PROHIBITS bicycling and jogging on the stretch of Virginia Ave through the golf course. UNSAT!

NOVA Streetcar Meeting quicknotes

Just got back home from the Northern Virginia Streetcar Coalition meeting. Will post a more fleshed-out article either tomorrow or over the weekend, but for now, here's the collection of Tweets I made from the meeting...you'll catch the basic gist from these.

• At the NOVA Streetcar Coalition meeting. Curious to see what they're going to put out.


• Abi Lerner (Alex): CCPY transitway needs to be done in a coordinated fashion btwn Alex & Arlington.


• Curbside or medianside? (medianside chosen for Route 1 part of CCPY)


• Beauregard/Mark Center-BRAC: connect to Columbia Pike?


• Alex. priority is CCPY/Rte 1 first, then Beauregard/Van Dorn 2nd, then Duke St 3rd.


• How to accommodate future conversion to streetcar without creating environmrntal impact & preserve flexibility for Federal funding?


• Alexandria wants to further study future conversions to streetcars before making a final decision.


• *NO* intent in Alexandria to go with overhead wires.


• Arlington: mention of 15K/day bus ridership on Columbia Pike.


• Relating Columbia Pike Streetcar project to Federal policy vision of current administration.


• Arlington to initiate Federal New Starts process for Columbia Pike soon.


• Arlington County plan (approved by board as policy) to increase Crystal City density by 68% over today.


• Arlington has $6M in grants to build their segment of CCPY transitway.


• Arlington doesn't think there's a viable alternative to overhead wires yet. Still looking to pursue overhead wires.


• FFX Co def of major transit corridor is basically "major public transit facility (which may be HOV lanes) provided based on alternatives analysis


• FFX Co Board endorsed long-term goal of rail on I-66 west of Vienna.


• Plan to build bus ramp from 66 HOV lane to Vienna station.


• If 28 gets widened, would likely include HOV lanes. Other transit modes unclear/unstudied.


• FFX comp plan endorses 176' ROW for Rte 1, preserves ROW for LRT in median.


• No LRT envisioned along 95/395.


• Mention that 1/3 of inbound 66 traffic in morning is heading to Tysons.


• MWCOG: big on projects that provide connectivity btwn systems. Mentions 43% of Purple Line users predicted to xfer to/from Metro.


• Ron Kirby (MWCOG) must've been around for awhile. He called it Shirley Hwy instead of I-395.


• NVTC: NOVA transit ridership up 3% in FY 2009 over 2008.


• NVTC: FY 10 transit in NOVA cost $700M. 65% local (including fares), 20% state, 15% Federal.


• NVTC: per state statutes, VA supposed to cover 95% of transit costs not covered by fares or Feds. They obviously fall far short.

More on the Commonwealth Ave bike box...

I got an E-mail back from the city about the bike box I mentioned in my previous post. It was actually striped by a contractor for the adjacent Triangle property redevelopment and was done as part of that redevelopment. City staff felt a bike box here was justified due to the large number of bicyclists, the signal cycle, and what the city perceives as difficulty for bicyclists making the left turn from SB Commonwealth to SB Mt. Vernon. The city will monitor its use and looks forward to input from users.

Right now the city budget is tight, but they are considering adding bike boxes at other locations...I couldn't get a specific list of intersections being considered, though, but I'll keep trying.

Bike box in Alexandria

My cohort at TheWashCycle is reporting that Alexandria has installed a bike box on Commonwealth Ave at the 5-legged mess with Mt. Vernon and Hume Aves. It's purputedly the first bike box in the region.

I'll have to get over there sometime to take a look.

More on the new alts for I-395/Seminary/BRAC-133

Last month, I described one of the new alternatives proposed by the BRAC Advisory Committee for the BRAC-133 project at I-395/Seminary Rd/Mark Center. But at the time, there were no online maps and all I had was a paper copy of the proposed concept.

After some further searching, I found this PDF on the city's website, which shows maps of the new alternative, also shown in the graphics below.




This first image shows the interchange concept in relation to the surrounding area. Of note are both the removal of the existing Seminary Rd flyover, and the traffic circles on Seminary at both the I-395 ramps and at Beauregard St. Both traffic circles are optional, but given the high traffic volumes both would likely have to be signalized even if they were built.




This second image shows a sketched out lane schematic, detailing the turn and through lane changes associated with the alternative. Note that, due to the removal of the existing Seminary Rd flyover, an additional lane each way is added along what is now the Seminary Rd ramps to I-395.


There's also a second alternative being suggested, which can be found on page 5 of this PDF.

Lastly, there's a PDF showing the wide range of conceptual alternatives originally considered for the project.