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DDOT's Kathleen Penney resigned.

DDOT Associate Director and Chief Engineer Kathleen Penney has resigned. Penney heads the Infrastructure and Project Management Administration (IPMA), which is responsible for the engineering and building of DDOT projects from street repaving to new bridges.
Sometimes the engineers genuinely can't make something work in a way that fits with safety rules or turning radii for trucks, but I've heard that the delayed improvements at 15th and W, NW and lack of progress on the 15th Street contraflow bike lane had something to do with IPMA's lack of enthusiasm.

Arlington and Alexandria among the three highest rated Virginia cities and counties for cycling and walking according to the new Virginia Active Transportation Index. (FABB doesn't agree with Fairfax's score).

Notably Three localities (cities and counties) earned the highest possible Virginia Active Transportation Index score of 11 points:

1. City of Alexandria

2. Arlington County

3. City of Harrisonburg

New Hampshire Avenue gets a new website to go with it's new plan that includes the goal to "Rebuild New Hampshire Avenue as a multi-use boulevard with pedestrian and bike friendly design;" (tip)

Frequent commenter Froggie put together his wish list for bike improvements in the Huntington area. It has a lot of good suggestions (as noted in the comments the Holmes Run trail was recently repaved).

Richard Layman on sharrows.

Comments

[Chris]

The different jurisdictions are so different in Virginia (rural to urban), I don't really know what use this map is. While I have always contended that the utility of bike lanes is over-rated, the utility for them in rural areas with little traffic is even sillier. For instance, I see that Page County is listed lowest on the scale, perhaps because the bicycle facilties are virtially nil. Yet, I can tell you that I know from my own experiences that the roads out there are safer by far then any of the three jurisictions listed at the top.

[Froggie]

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out why Chesapeake and Virginia Beach were rated so high...

[Eric W.]

Having grown up through my teenage years in Hampton Roads, I have to say I share the same question as Froggie. My sister still lives in Hampton, and besides a few random seemingly purely recreational loop-style MUPs, there is jack crap in the way of cycling infrastructure down there, and all the roads are 20 lanes across w/ 100 or higher speed limits, too (hyperbole, but you get the point)...

I think to myself sometimes how I'd be able to bike commute down there the way I do here, and as much as I'm sure I'd figure out a way to try to make it work, it makes me realize that we have it real good in this neck of the woods, relatively speaking...

[Washcycle]

The scoring is more on planning and laws than infrastructure.

Localities were surveyed about biking and walking resources. The data from responding localities was translated into the newly developed

Virginia Active Transportation Index. Localities received scores from 0-11 on the index based on the number or resources they reported.

The following elements, each suggesting a level of commitment to bicycles and pedestrians, were included in the index:

comprehensive transportation plan, bicycle plan, pedestrian plan, greenway plan, bicycle advisory committee, pedestrian advisory committee, greenway advisory committee, law requiring persons 14 and under to wear a helmet, paved bike trails, striped bike lanes,
and grants.

[Chris]

I'm confused, because it seems like most of those planning elementsw are about planning for infrastructure. Further, do you really need plans and advisory committees if there's not really any major problems involving pedestrians and bicycles? Seems to me these things are more important to jurisdictions where there is a lot of traffic.

[Froggie]

Definately seems like the index is biased towards larger urban areas which are required to have more comprehensive planning tools...

[Froggie]

On a different note, I rode Holmes Run yesterday...noticed the section that was repaved that others have mentioned (both here and on my blog).

That was the worst segment, so the repaving is an improvement. However, it feels like all they did was an overlay, so the tree root problem will return there in a few years. Then there's the rest of the trail, which I would classify as being in fair condition at best...the worst areas being south of Duke St (vegetation growing on the trail), the approach to the tunnel under 395, the Beauregard St area (very narrow sidewalks connecting the trails, and also some unpaved segments), and various areas north of 395 that also have vegetation growing ON the trail, thus narrowing it. So IMO, a reconstruction is still in order.