In a meeting with the Transportation Commission, city staff said earlier reporting about the city axing the city-wide feedback form for the Complete Streets program sounded “scary”, emphasizing instead that the city will be focusing on feedback more local to the affected areas.
Quick refresher: Complete Streets is an Alexandria program that aims to redesign roadways for the benefit of all users, with pedestrians and cyclists in mind along with motorists. The program stirred up some local controversy over plans to reduce travel lanes on Seminary Road in favor of bike lanes.
The form in question here is a city-wide feedback form meant to collect public responses to Complete Streets proposals. But, as might be expected given some of the intense debates over a couple of earlier Complete Streets programs, the city said it was finding that the feedback collection was being bogged down with responses that might not have been relevant to the streets in question.
“The Complete Streets policy was adopted in 2011, began this feedback form in 2018 to get feedback from residents,” said Transportation Planning Division Chief Christopher Ziemann. “This hasn’t worked as well as we thought.”
Ziemann said public engagement will continue, particularly on major projects like the Rayburn & Reading Avenue Complete Streets Project and the Commonwealth Avenue Complete Streets Project, but for other Complete Streets initiatives, the focus would be shifted to outreach to areas closer to the project.
“Discontinuing [the] feedback form frees up resources to focus more targeted engagement on these types of projects,” Ziemann said.
Staff at the meeting said the decision is about how the city allocates its resources.
Other parts of the staff’s proposal include doing more to divest the Complete Streets program from the repaving schedule. In the presentation, staff recommended a “more proactive approach versus reacting to the paving schedule.” While the Complete Streets program would continue doing improvements alongside repaving, more complex projects could be implemented outside of the resurfacing schedule.
Alex Carroll, an urban planner with the city of Alexandria, explained the decision:
What we end up doing is either A. taking all hands on deck approach on [Complete Streets], which pulls away from other projects, B. rush projects into a short timeframe, or C. we end up having to delay the surfurfacing of the street which results in frustration with residents who just want their potholes fixed.
Staff is also recommending a more comprehensive five-year work plan for the Complete Streets program.
“The headline is very scary, that ‘the city doesn’t want your input’ but it’s a little bit more nuanced than that,” Carroll said.
In the midst of everything else that’s happened over the last year, the Seminary Road debate can feel like a relic of another age, but there was a time when the Complete Streets program was at the center of a community-wide debate.
Complete Streets is an Alexandria program that aims to redesign roadways for the benefit of all users, with pedestrians and cyclists in mind along with motorists. The program stirred up some local controversy over plans to reduce travel lanes on Seminary Road in favor of bike lanes. A form put out by the city allowed locals to weigh in on street resurfacing.
“In 2018, the City began issuing an annual Citywide feedback form for residents to provide input on streets that are being resurfaced,” staff said in a report. “Feedback is usually collected for non-local streets where striping improvements are potentially feasible. Staff analyzes all public comments and produces a report for each street to summarize resident feedback.”
A staff report said that each Complete Streets announcement often comes with significant feedback.
“Every year, staff develops a repaving feedback form to solicit community input on streets that are scheduled to be repaved in the coming paving season, accompanied by an eNews release, webpage updates, and social media engagement,” the report said. “Staff receives hundreds of community comments related to repaving each year, which are then analyzed and summarized in a report for each street. The intention is that this feedback would then be used to inform potential changes to those streets via repaving. The original of this effort was to garner feedback to improve service delivery.”
At a Transportation Commission meeting tomorrow, the city will consider a proposal (page 36) from staff to eliminate a form that allowed locals to offer input on the project, saying the form was often misused and wastes staff resources:
- Much of the community feedback is related to issues beyond the scope street resurfacing
- This results in wasted staff effort and a potential erosion of trust between City staff and
residents- Much feedback does not end up getting used
- The repaving form sometimes creates speculation about what the City is planning to do to
streets that are repaved, which can increase tensions in the community- This approach fails to set accurate or reasonable expectations
Staff are recommending that the form but eliminated in favor of more targeted local outreach.
The report also recommends longer-term planning for the Complete Streets program to help make implementation occur on a more reliable timeline.
“Staff recommends the development of a five-year work plan for Complete Streets with input from the Transportation Commission,” the report said. “This approach would generate clear expectations for residents, City Council, City boards and commissions, and staff for what Complete Streets improvements will be done. Staff anticipates this work plan would be developed in Fiscal Year 2023 and would consider crash data and equity to support and align with Vision Zero efforts.”
Update at 4:50 p.m. — A spokesperson for the City of Alexandria said the city is not “proposing” bike lanes, but that bike lanes are one of several options being considered for North Beauregard Street.
T&ES feels the article is still misleading and not providing accurate information. We request you change the headline to reflect the actual input we are asking from the community.
To clarify, at T&ES we conduct feedback for several streets on the repaving list every year to adhere to the City’s Complete Streets Policy and Beauregard is no exception. Beauregard is scheduled for repaving this year and we are soliciting feedback on ways to make the stretch of road safe for all users, including people that drive, ride transit, walk, and bike. Bike lanes are not being considered or proposed here because the Beauregard Trail CIP project will provide a shared-use path adjacent to Beauregard with bicycle and pedestrian connections to other areas of the City. Further, staff has not developed any design nor proposed potential improvements for the street thus far. Safety improvements will be based on the feedback we’ll receive from the community and safety best practices.
Earlier: Buckle up, here we go again.
The City of Alexandria is looking for public feedback on a plan to repave North Beauregard Street and — potentially — add new bike lanes, along with curb ramps, upgrade crosswalks, and more.
The planned repaving would run along North Beauregard Street from Seminary Road to King Street near Northern Virginia Community College. The street is primarily two lanes in each direction for most of that .8 mile stretch.
Part of the Complete Streets policy adopted by Alexandria in 2011 requires improved accessibility of city streets that, along with other plans like Vision Zero, means added infrastructure for pedestrian and cyclists.
The rollout of that plan has been occasionally contentious, to say the least. A political faction of civic activists arose out of a Facebook page that started with opposition to bike lanes installed on Seminary Road as its rallying cry, though the bike lanes had their fair share of ardent defenders as well.
Proposed changes to the street, according to the city, include:
- Add or upgrade curb ramps
- Add or upgrade pedestrian crosswalks
- Improve roadway signage
- Add bicycle facilities, such as bike lanes or shared-lane markings
- Additional pedestrian crossing treatments
- Minor signal timing changes
Locals are encouraged to submit their feedback online by Friday, March 26th.
Image via Google Maps
The Rosemont community is planning to meet on Thursday to discuss complete streets and traffic issues in the neighborhood.
The meeting is scheduled to include a discussion of the city’s plans for pedestrian safety and congestion problems at some busy local intersections. It’s scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Baptist Church (700 Commonwealth Avenue).
City staff, including Complete Streets Manager Christine Mayuer, are scheduled to attend to speak with residents.
“Please come prepared to address specific issues and desired remedies (for example, solutions to address safety can cause congestion problems, and vice versa),” the group said in a Facebook post. “Top of the list is congestion at Russell/King (including the traffic island at Cedar), but other intersections that have been mentioned include Rosemont/King and Braddock/Commonwealth.”
The Rosemont Citizens Association said in a Facebook post that congestion at the intersection of King Street, Russell Road and Callahan Drive — which frequently gets backed up during peak hours — is at the top of the meeting’s agenda.
Plans for the intersection, near the King Street Metro station, include extending the bike lanes on King Street down to the intersection and making pedestrian safety improvements at the site. The changes were originally planned in 2015, but the city said on the project website that concerns about creating additional traffic congestion led to delays for further study.
“While this project was not intended to address traffic backups, the design will reduce congestion at this intersection,” the city said.
Bike lanes were added along King Street in 2016, but they end before the intersection with Russell Road.
Complete street changes, particularly where adding bike lanes are concerned, have been controversial in Alexandria. The backlash to the addition of new bicycle and pedestrian facilities on Seminary Road has resulted in banners along the street and a very active Facebook page.
Photo via Google Maps
Even while the debate still rages on over the Seminary Road diet, the City of Alexandria is looking at other locations that could be altered to be more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly.
Several streets are scheduled for repaving, which the city uses as an opportunity to look at which ones could benefit the most from being redesigned with safety in mind, to align with the city’s Vision Zero plan — though some have questioned whether the redesigns make the streets safer.
According to a press release:
In 2011, City Council adopted the Complete Streets Policy. This policy required that street improvements be made for all roadway users as part of regular maintenance whenever possible. When streets are repaved, this provides an opportunity to upgrade parts of the street to better serve people of all ages and abilities by improving safety, access, and mobility.
Currently, the City of Alexandria is looking for community input on whether the following streets should be converted to “Complete Streets.”
- Alfred Street (First Street to Church Street)
- Cameron Mills Road (Virginia Avenue to Allison Street)
- Morgan Street (North Chambliss Street to cul-de-sac)
- Rayburn Avenue (North Beauregard Street to Reading Avenue)
- Reading Avenue (Rayburn Avenue to North Beauregard Street)
- West Street (Duke Street to Wythe Street)
The public feedback form for Complete Streets is available online until Friday, Feb. 7.
While individual changes would depend on the street being repaved, the City of Alexandria said changes could include:
- Add or upgrade curb ramps
- Add or upgrade pedestrian crosswalks
- Roadway signage
- Bicycle facilities, such as bike lanes or shared-lane markings
- Speed cushions or other traffic calming devices
- Changes to parking
- Additional pedestrian crossing treatments
- Minor signal timing changes
- Lane striping modifications (i.e. striping a parking lane or narrowing travel lanes)
The city has a list of finished Complete Streets projects, but the list hasn’t been updated since 2017 and does not include, for instance, the completed King Street project that narrowed the street and installed new bicycle lanes.
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
As part of its controversial efforts to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to Seminary Road, the city is planning to install a sidewalk on the north side of the road — if it can get the money.
Much of the Complete Streets project on Seminary Road has been completed but the city is still hoping to add a new sidewalk next to the seminary from which the road draws its name.
“It’s still ridiculous that in 2019 that there are places in Alexandria where we don’t have sidewalks,” Mayor Justin Wilson said. “For me, priority was not about bike lanes, it was about pedestrians. It was about completing the sidewalk network.”
Wilson said the sidewalk would go from just west of Quaker Lane, where an existing sidewalk currently ends, up to the Virginia Theological Seminary.
The sidewalk has been in the plans for the road since the concept stage, according to Sarah Godfrey, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services. Construction will require the approval of a grant request to VDOT made by the City Council in September.
As of December, city staff said work from road resurfacing and roadway markings to new median islands has been completed. Wilson met earlier this week during the morning rush hour with local residents, many of whom expressed frustrations with traffic caused by the narrowed street and the lack of cyclists using the new bicycle lanes.
“It was a good session,” Wilson said. “Probably better to have these discussions in person rather than social media.”
Wilson said he understood the concerns of the local residents, who have labeled it #JustinsTrafficJam in the nearly 1,000-member Facebook group Alexandria Residents Against the Seminary Road Diet. Wilson is, ironically, listed as a member.
“There’s always an adjustment whenever you make a traffic change as people get used to it. I think we expected that going in,” Wilson said. “There’s kind of a rush on both sides to draw conclusions very quickly, but the full story of this will be told over time. We’ve committed to being data-driven — looking at this when it’s done and making sure we’ve achieved the goals of the project.”
Godfrey noted that the city will continue to post weekly updates on the Seminary Road Complete Streets page and update the FAQ.
Photo via Google Maps
Seminary Road has seen delays beyond standard reconstruction work as the city implements the new Complete Streets configuration, according to a staff memo to City Council.
The plan takes the four lanes on Seminary Road from N. Howard Street to N. Quaker Lane down to one travel lane in each direction and a turn lane also accessible to emergency vehicles. The change allows for a new bicycle lane to be placed on the street, part of a push to make Alexandria more accessible to non-vehicle forms of transportation — and a broader effort called Vision Zero to reduce or eliminate traffic fatalities.
The plan has been controversial, with advocates arguing that the change right-sizes transportation uses to make the streets safer and more accessible to cyclists, while critics said the plan will create further congestion for drivers.
In a memo to the City Council, Hillary Orr, deputy director of Transportation and Environmental Services (T&ES), said that the paving of Seminary Road has been completed and crews are now working on implementing the road reconfiguration, but the street has seen additional traffic delays in the month since the project started.
“While we understand that delays are frustrating, the corridor is still under construction and all of the components that work together to make this project work are not yet complete,” Orr said. “While there have been some increased queues during the peak half-hour in the morning, we are still generally seeing vehicles able to get through a signal in one cycle. The evening peak is a bit longer, and we have seen some delays between 5:30-6:30 p.m., with 6-6:15 p.m. as the peak.”
Orr said other delays have been caused by the disconnection of signal hardware that tells traffic lights when there are vehicles on the roads. Once paving was completed, Orr said these were reinstalled and reconnected and those delays have eased.
“With any road reconstruction and design reconfiguration, delays are to be expected while the project is implemented and motorists get used to new traffic patterns,” Orr said. “This is one example of how construction impacts travel times, and there are numerous other instances that occurred this week and caused residents to reach out regarding delays.”
If you were one of the people caught on Seminary Road last Thursday (Nov. 7), Orr said the delays were part of a spike in traffic throughout the region.
As Alexandria readies updates for its city-wide transportation plan, the city opened up the floor to other local government experts for lessons learned.
During a community forum last night (Monday) about Alexandria’s new transportation plan, city staffers hosted transit leaders from D.C. to Columbus, Ohio for a discussion on what Alexandria should focus on.
“This is a really exciting time to be in transportation,” said Director of Transportation and Environmental Services (TES) head Yon Lambert, who referenced the projects to build a new Metro station entrance at Potomac Yard, as well as Amazon’s headquarters and the new Virginia Tech campus.
Scooters Are Here to Stay
One new feature of the upcoming master transit plan, renamed “Mobility Plan,” will be the e-scooter program City Council members are considering expanding.
“When they first started they were like big toys,” said Jordan Davis, who heads the Smart Columbus smart city program in Columbus, Ohio and who noted that nowadays many people are using scooters for practical, routine trips. “So I think they’re here to stay.”
When asked by the moderator, about half the 80-member audience indicated they had used e-scooters and e-bikes.
(Data) Sharing is Caring
TES Principal Planner Jennifer Slesinger said one part of the new master plan will focus on smart mobility. Panelists encouraged planners to make real-time data a part of that.
Davis said said if cities publish provide real-time road condition data, navigation apps like Waze or Google Maps can help cut down on cut-through traffic — like the kind experienced on Taylor Run Parkway, Duke Street, and Seminary Road.
Hillary Orr, Alexandria’s Deputy Director of Transportation, previously told WTOP that the city plans to redirect cars out of neighborhoods and back to “arterial” roadways, and use sensor technology to allow buses longer green light time to prioritize transit riders.
Linda Bailey, who leads D.C. Department of Transportation’s embattled Vision Zero initiative, said real-time data could also allow cities to set up systems where delivery trucks can reserve and pre-pay for curb parking, and drivers can also tap into information about local parking garages.
“I have seen a parking garage that is never full just around the corner here,” she said of the Carlyle Place parking garage, adding that “information gaps” are one of the things technology addresses well.
You Can’t “Build” Away Congestion, But You Can Build Safety
Several panelists echoed the famous phrase that planners can’t “build” their way out of congestion problems.
“The only way out of our congestion is to get out of our single-occupancy vehicles,” said Atherton.
When residents asked what role ride hailing companies play in this, considering some studies show they increase road congestion, ride sharing service Via’s Greater D.C. Area General Manager said he’s “in favor” of congestion taxes like New York City’s new cruising tax to encourage more shared rides rather than single-passenger trips.
But experts said safety could be built: Atherton noted some simple solutions like sidewalks are “pretty nuts and bolts.” Bailey said keeping roads narrow and building fixtures like poles in people’s peripheral vision encourages motorists to drive slower.
The D.C. officials said everyone needs to “remember physics.”
“We need to look at force and mass in order to avoid and mitigate crashes to keep people safe,” she said.
Alexandria released a public survey this summer to guide the plans, which will last another decade, as Alexandria Living reported. Posters shared during Monday night’s meeting indicate that the new plan is being designed around the survey responses, in which residents asked for “safety, accessibility, and ease” in their transit modes.
But don’t hold your breath to see the new document: planning discussions are expected to continue into Spring 2020.
The controversial vote to slim down Seminary Road may have passed, but the arguments over Complete Streets and the program’s future in Alexandria are just getting started.
At Agenda Alexandria, a group that meets monthly to discuss the top issues affecting Alexandria with a panel of experts, advocates on every side of the issue clashed over whether the “dieting” of Seminary Road was necessary and what the future holds for major Alexandria streets. At the group’s Sept. 23 meeting, a city official argued with local residents not just over the new bike lanes, but over changes to Alexandria’s transportation policies.
“Our paradigm in the past has been exclusively through the windshield,” said Nate Macek, chair of the Planning Commission. “Complete streets is about looking at [roads] for all users.”
Macek argued the Complete Streets program, which replaces some motorized travel lanes with extended sidewalks and bike lanes, right-sizes road infrastructure to cater to all modes of transportation.
“Complete streets are about roads for everyone, whether that’s biking, walking, or driving,” said Josephine Liu, vice-chair of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. “That’s also all ages: children, adults, senior citizens and people who may not be able-bodied.”
But for others, the Complete Streets program is a punitive measure against cars that disproportionately favors bicycles.
“It’s about reorienting the streetscape to accommodate every user,” John Townsend, Manager of Public and Government Relations for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “That’s what it is on paper, but oftentimes it doesn’t work out that way. It gives pride of place to certain modes of transportation and that becomes the inherent problem. There’s nothing wrong with accommodating the streetscape to make them safer or accommodate the maximum number of people, but it comes down to making choices and those choices involve who is in and who is out.”
Townsend argued that in terms of voices on the Complete Streets decision-making, cars are “the low person on the totem pole.” Drivers don’t have the same collective voice in city policy that cyclists do and thus their problems — like gridlock — get left by the wayside, Townsend said.
“There is a fanatic minority who want to get people out of cars, lower the speed limits and reduce the size of roads,” agreed Jack Sullivan, former president of the Seminary Hill Association. “They are being heard in the towers of power.”
While the conversation started with Complete Streets on Seminary Road, critics of the plan drove the discussion to other transportation issues across the city. Townsend argued the slimming down of Seminary Road is just a symptom of a broader problem: that transportation planners don’t account for real-world circumstances.
“The one size fits all approach to planning that comes out of the West Coast, goes to the District of Columbia, and then we try to make it fit in Alexandria,” Townsend said. “These planners stay in college and they lay on the grass and they smoke grass and they don’t know how real people live.”
