Alexandria Bike Year in Review

The April edition of Local Motion has a break down of Alexandria's accomplishments. This includes:

• Installation of 6.2 miles of bikeway lanes on Pickett Street, Taney Avenue, Kenwood Avenue, Monticello Boulevard, Old Dominion Boulevard, and Commonwealth Avenue.
• Installed nearly a half mile of new sidewalk along including Edsall Road, West Nelson Avenue; approved a Safe Routes to School sidewalk project on Cambridge Road.
• Improved over 20 individual intersections with new crossing signals, median refuges, crosswalks, and other infrastructure that improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Installed over 90 new bicycle racks.
• Conducted two bi-annual Street Smart campaigns, each in the spring and fall, targeted towards drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to raise awareness about safety. Each campaign included specific enforcement waves with tickets issued to drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The Alexandria Police Department issued over 1,000 warnings and more than 400 citations.

And it had trail updates too

Eisenhower Avenue Trail
In fall 2008, the trail on the south side of Eisenhower Avenue east of Lake Cook was resurfaced. The trail now connects with a new shared-use path that continues west toward the bridge over Cameron Run near the Vola Lawson Animal Shelter.

Tarleton Trail
Construction will begin this year on improvements to the unpaved connection between the Holmes Run Greenway and North Gordon Street, which will improve access from North Gordon Street and establish a formal – though unpaved – trail connection.

Chambliss Crossing of Holmes Run
The City is conducting a study of Holmes Run, near Dora Kelly Nature Park, to a landing on the northwest side of the run at Glen Hills Park in Fairfax County, which examines building a pedestrian/bicycle crossing and the impacts on stream bank erosion. The City is also incorporating stream bank stabilization and restoration plans and shared-use path connections. This $750,000 project includes funding for construction and is expected to run through fall 2010.

Photo by obgfoster

Comments

[Eric]

The Chambliss crossing of Holmes Run is something that obviously deserves to be done. I have yet to ride up that way, but when I was exploring bike trails in the area on Google Maps, the lack of a crossing there was a glaring issue IMHO. Since I live in Alexandria, this is a trail I would definitely ride. Exciting if it gets done...

[Allen Muchnick]

It's vital that bicyclists strongly support the Holmes Run crossing at Chambliss St. This long-desired connection would greatly improve access in four directions but faces significant opposition from some local neighborhood residents.