Alexandria’s DASH bus system has been going through a pair of ambitious, headline-grabbing overhauls, but city leaders are still working out how to pay for them.
In 2021, DASH went fully fare-free, meaning anyone could ride a DASH bus at any time without paying for a ticket. At the same time, the bus network has been undergoing a full-electric conversion, gradually swapping out all of the diesel buses for electric buses.
Alexandria is hoping a federal grant could help push Alexandria’s DASH bus network a little closer to full electrification.
A memo from Deputy Director of Transportation Hillary Orr to the Transportation Commission said the city is hoping federal funding can help cover a sizable budget gap looming for electric bus replacement plans.
One year into the city’s permanent dockless mobility program, data shows electric scooter ridership still hasn’t recovered to its pre-pandemic highs.
In a meeting of the Transportation Commission earlier this month, Sean Martin, shared mobility coordinator, told the Commission that electric scooter and bike ridership has crawled its way back from the lows of 2020 but is still around 65,000 riders shy of pre-pandemic levels.
Anyone riding a scooter through Old Town might want to be mindful of a new “slow zone” coming to one of the neighborhoods.
The City of Alexandria is implementing a slow zone in the Robinson Landing neighborhood as part of a pilot program. The pilot cuts dockless scooters and e-bikes speed to eight mph, below the established city limit of 15 mph.
Alexandria’s Duke Street transitway could have dedicated bus lanes, but it’s unlikely they’ll run the full length of the corridor.
At a presentation to the City Council on Monday, city staff offered a look at how plans for the Duke Street transitway plans are coming together.
It’s been 12 years since Alexandria joined the Capital Bikeshare network and it’s starting to show on some of the city’s oldest stations.
After more than decade, some of the stations have started to show some wear and tear. A memo from Hillary Orr, deputy director of Transportation & Environmental Services, said after years of expansion the City of Alexandria is focusing this year on replacing some of those older stations.
As the city works through some of the most high-crash intersections, it’s setting its sights on twin troublesome intersections in southern Old Town: the intersections of Duke Street with Route 1 (South Henry and South Patrick streets).
The Duke Street intersections with Route 1 are among the most crash-prone in the city, with over 70 crashes at the intersection since 2014, the city said in a release. Of those, four resulted in severe injuries and more than 20 resulted in non-life-threatening injuries.
Daniel Pearson from the Philadelphia Inquirer recently took his city to task for high traffic fatalities despite a Vision Zero pledge — a commitment by localities to get their pedestrian deaths down to zero. But Philadelphia isn’t alone: many cities vocally promoting Vision Zero plans, many of those cities are faced with continually increasing traffic fatalities.
So, with 2022 in the rearview mirror: how do Alexandria’s crash statistics measure up against the “vision zero” goals?
Alexandria plans to eliminate right turning on red at several intersections along Patrick and Henry street, but some of its neighbors have gone even further.
Allowing right turns on red started along the east coast in the 1970s as a fuel-saving measure and it became nationwide policy in the 80s.
A few intersections along Patrick and Henry streets could turn into “no turn on red” intersections as part of an effort to clamp down on crashes in Old Town and Parker-Gray.
Both streets were identified as high crash corridors in the city’s Vizion Zero Action Plan. The city said over a dozen people have been struck and injured walking on Patrick and Henry streets in Old Town since 2016.
Alexandria is hoping to get $400,000 from the state to help with resurfacing — particularly for the city’s iconic King Street.
The City Council is set to review a grant application to the Virginia Department of Transportation’s State of Good Repair program.
