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:

- 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.

New bike signal on the Mt. Vernon Trail

I've known about this one for a few months, but it's just recently been completed, uncovered, and turned on.

The city of Alexandria got rid of an annoying stop sign on the Mt. Vernon Trail at the entrance to the Porto Vecchio Condominiums...a stop sign routinely ignored by cyclists and at an intersection that already had a traffic signal. What they did was replaced it with an "experimental" (per FHWA) bicycle traffic signal, the second one in the D.C. area (DDOT had "first honors", at 16th/U/New Hampshire NW in DC).

I noticed Monday that the Mt. Vernon Trail signal was finally uncovered and operating, so I went down and took a few photos. These and a few other photos are also in a Flickr set.



A southbound view of the new signal. Note that the "Bicycles Must Dismount" sign is still posted.



A closer view of the signal, looking northbound. Note the "Do Not Block Bike Path" sign for traffic coming out of the condos.



A close-up of the sign explaining how the signal works (in a nutshell, the same as a normal traffic signal).



And yes, just like a normal traffic signal, it turns red.


Of course, no bike ride would be complete without some idiot driver causing a blockage somewhere:


This was at Route 1 and Huntington Ave, where the vans were waiting in the left turn lane. The white work van in particular was pretty egregious.

Density and traffic in the Beauregard corridor

Been lax in posting lately (yeah, yeah)...so I'll try to make up for it here with some happenings from last night's Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting.

A good chunk of the discussion centered on the Beauregard corridor plan. There's a general feeling from basically all parties involved (city staff, local residents, elected officials, etc etc) that transportation solutions for the corridor need to be found, funded, and built before the plan (and it's associated rezoning and redevelopment...up to 7.5 million square feet in some scenarios) can be implemented. The traffic issues with BRAC-133 at Mark Center are further complicating the matter. One commission member mentioned repeatedly that the upcoming traffic situation around Marc Center has reached "crisis level". Another commission member commented that the city can't ignore what's going on in adjacent jurisdictions, noting that development plans at Bailey's Crossroads, Skyline, and Shirlington, and specifically mentioning BRAC-related expansion at Ft. Belvoir, will all have an impact on traffic in the Beauregard corridor.

City staff will respond in part by studying lower levels of density and modeling traffic at the lower densities. But the whole matter has reached a point where two City Councilmembers have written a letter to the city asking city officials to delay plans for higher density in the Beauregard corridor until a "workable and viable transportation plan" can be devised and implemented.

What's interesting about this is that the previous topic at the meeting was focused on funding, and the generally dismal funding situation. Even if the city implements the Commercial Real Estate Tax to pay for transportation projects, the revenue from that wouldn't be enough to fully implement Beauregard area improvements, let alone needed improvements elsewhere in the city.

Getting more money is not looking good. VDOT has effectively said to not count on them. Thanks in part to Congress' inaction, the Federal spigot is running dry. And thanks in part to how the state of Virginia works (and the General Assembly in particular), the only avenues the city has available are the Commercial Real Estate Tax and regular property taxes.

The funding situation hasn't stopped the city from pressing on with planning, though. City staff have developed a preliminary list of "priority transportation projects" for discussion and input...projects that could be funded from the real-estate tax, and have separated them into two tiers. Tier One is all transit-related and focuses on the three proposed "high-capacity transit corridors" from the city's transportation master plan. It also includes the Landmark Transit Center and what has often been called the city's top transit priority: an extension of the Eisenhower Ave Metro platform and new station access on the north side of Eisenhower.

Tier Two includes additional transit projects, namely trolley service to Del Ray and expansion of DASH (with the goal of providing 15-minute headways). Also included are some Complete Streets projects and three bike-related projects: improvements to Holmes Run between Beauregard and Ripley St, a trail extension along Backlick Run continuing to the Fairfax County line, and a new trail between Eisenhower Ave/Mill Rd and South Payne St running along the old Cameron Run channel.

The city has also hired a consultant to study the three high-capacity transit corridors and and develop both more-refined corridors and recommend a specific mode (i.e. bus, BRT, streetcar, etc) for each corridor. The study has just kicked off, but some preliminary concepts are expected by the end of the year with the final report sometime next spring. Several commission members inquired about the public input process for the study. The response suggests that some workshops and public meetings at various points in the schedule were planned, but suggested to me that the public input part needs further thought.

The meeting rounded out with Kevin Posey being elected the new chairman. After the meeting, I discovered just how small of a world it is: one of the commission members has been reading my road posts on a Usenet group for over 10 years. Small world, indeed.

Think I'll just stay home...

Can't bike into town, because of all the rallies mucking things up. Can't take Metro anywhere, between rally-goers and trackwork on the Yellow Line. Can't go east cause 50 is all ripped up. Can't go west cause 66 is single-lane at the Beltway. Can't go north cause it's too late to get out. Can't go south cause 95 is...95.

So I guess I'll stay home and laugh at all the lunacy...

New contraflow bike lanes on New Hampshire Ave NW

Greater Greater Washington has a post this morning about the new contraflow bike lanes on New Hampshire Ave NW, for a block or so on either side of the 16th/U St intersection.

But there's a curious twist to them...the contraflow lane is between the opposing travel lane and the parking lane, as is suggested on the edges of the below graphic:



I don't see anything wrong with the intersection layout itself, with dedicated bicycle signals and the bike boxes on 16th St. But the contraflow lanes on the adjacent blocks are some cause for concern. I easily see this creating a higher potential for bike-vehicle collisions given that vehicles will have to cross the bike lane in order to park or depart from the parking lane. There's also nothing really stopping vehicles from using the bike lane as a staging area or outright parking in the bike lane.

There's a better overall solution for this case. There appears to be enough width on New Hampshire Ave to implement a full-width bike lane curbside, moving the parking lane back to the "opposing flow side" of the street, with the two sides then being separated by a raised curb or bollards.

Though there are a couple disadvantages to this solution...:

• Greater bike-ped conflict potential.


• Greater "dooring" potential (since the bike lane would be on the driver's side and not the passenger's side).

...there are some noteable advantages:

• Parking vehicles no longer need to cross the bike lane, reducing potential bike-vehicle conflicts.


• Physical separation of the bike lane from vehicle lanes (parking or travel) further reduces potential bike-vehicle conflicts, plus the possibility of a vehicle using the bike lane for parking or "staging".


• Full-width bike lane reduces the chance of a "dooring" incident, plus it still allows for snow removal in winter (similar to the 15th St contraflow lane).


• Bike-ped and "dooring" incidents are generally less severe than bike-"moving vehicle" incidents.

Either way, I'm reminded of last year's implementation of bike lanes on 1st Ave N in downtown Minneapolis, MN, which has a little bit of both the new New Hamsphire Ave configuration and my proposed re-configuration. These 1st Ave N bike lanes are curbside, between the parking lane and the curb. But they are also on the passenger side of parked vehicles, with a lower chance of "doorings" than if the bike lane were on the driver's side.

I'm off tomorrow, so I may have to take a bike ride up to check it out...

Why drivers hate us bikes...

My curmudgeonly associate had this to say on Twitter last night:

dear fellow cyclists on H street—cutting other cyclists off & then riding down the wrong side of the road epitomizes why drivers hate us.

To which I'll add red light runners (REGARDLESS of mode) and those who don't even bother to slow down at 4-way stops...both of which I see all the time in Old Town. I'll admit that I don't always stop at 4-ways, but I'll at least slow down to see if cars are coming, because if a car gets there first, they have the right-of-way. Period.

Complete Streets for Alexandria, next phase

A bit late on this, but the big news out of last week's Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting was that Complete Streets was approved by the Commission, with a draft resolution and a draft ordinance being forwarded to City Council to be placed on the docket sometime this fall. There was concern from one Commission member about the lack of a public hearing by the Commission on Complete Streets, but it was explained that City Council will be holding their own public hearing on the subject, and this was acceptable to the Commission member.

The other big news from the meeting was BRAC-133, as the meeting doubled as the Public Hearing on the draft BRAC-133 TMP. There were only three commenters at the meeting, though several more citizens were in attendence.

One commenter was convinced of the need for BRAC-133 shuttle service to include the Eisenhower Ave Metro station, going so far as to comment that it would serve both the Blue and Yellow Lines (Yellow, yes...Blue, no). Another commenter wanted complete separation between the BRAC-133 shuttles and DASH buses that serve Southern Towers. This second commenter also thought that emphasis on bicycle routes and bicycle usage to/from Mark Center is not worthwhile. Unfortunately, I didn't catch much from the third speaker.

The Draft TMP is due to NCPC on July 30.


Last bit from the meeting was an update on some reports and studies. An Environmental Assessment is about to be initiated for the proposed Potomac Yard Metro Station. Traffic analysis for the Beauregard Corridor study is underway, with some findings due out this fall...this study also includes Van Dorn St. A report on Old Town Parking is due out in September. And staff are in the process of starting a 13-month Transitway Feasibility Study on the 3 primary transit corridors in the city's Transportation Master Plan, with the intial study focus on the Beauregard/Van Dorn corridor.

No August meeting for the Commission...next meeting is September 1.

"Let's make a deal", Mississippi style

Mississippi recently passed a 3-foot passing law for vehicles to give bicyclists at least 3 feet of space when passing. Quite impressive, given Mississippi's near-complete rule-by-car mentality.

So yesterday, the SunHerald (Mississippi Gulf Coast newspaper) writes an article about the new law. The comment section, as expected, has some negative comments...many of which have been heard before in the DC region, including on TheWashCycle.

My favorite has to be "Let's Make a Deal":

When cyclists learn to stop at red lights, stop signs and buy tags I give them 3 feet. The cyclists that ride in Woolmarket stay in the traffic lane, go around cars at stop signs and are not equipped to ride in dusk hours. Rural roads that are barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass and have no sidewalk or curd and gutter just screams for an accident. Are riders required to wear helments in this law?

Why is a cyclist allowed to ride on the roads I have to buy a tag to drive on but a 4 wheeler can not?

Perhaps someone should take him up on that deal...though I'd throw in a counterproposal: when drivers themselves learn to stop at red lights and stop signs, we'll deal.

I'll catch it after all...

Transportation Commission meeting apparently got moved to this Thursday, so I'll be able to make it after all. It's also the Public Hearing on the BRAC-133 Transportation Management Plan, so if you're interested in speaking, be sure to be there.

On vacation

On vacation for the next week and a half or so, so I'll be missing next week's Alexandria Transportation Commission meeting where they're expected to approve the draft Complete Streets ordinance and send it to the City Manager (for eventual approval by City Council, expected this fall). Also, don't miss the public hearing part of the commission meeting, covering the BRAC-133 Transportation Management Plan.

Side note, no city-sponsored Ped/Bike Citizens Group meetings until September. Thinking BikeWalk Alexandria will still have their normal meeting in August.

Hopefully when I get back, we'll have a better timeline on the new deck drains for the Route 1 ATL. At least they cleared the dirt piles off the section prone to flooding. Now if VDOT could just clear off the rest of the trail down to Huntington Ave.