Townsend Van Fleet of the Alexandria Waterfront Commission wrote a letter to the Alexandria Gazette Packet recently criticizing the introduction of Capital Bikeshare to old town.
In an historic venue like Old Town Alexandria with its narrow streets already crowded with pedestrians, tour buses, metro buses, dash buses, delivery trucks, trolleys, garbage trucks, skate boarders, joggers, and cyclists, putting more bikes on our narrow streets is just an another impediment and not one that we would consider in our best traffic practices.
He's also critical of the method of funding (with local dollars instead of FHWA money) and with outreach ["Believe it or not the Old Town Civic Association has not even been briefed on the proposed implementation of the bike share program"].
Jonathan Krall of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee wrote a response pointing out that bike share would at best add only a trivial number of bikes to the road
about 2,000 bicyclists per day visit the Alexandria waterfront. Capital Bikeshare, by contrast, will roll out this summer with only 70 bicycles in the entirely of Old Town. Next to those already present, an additional 70 bicycles constitutes a very small molehill indeed.
He also points out that those cyclists represent an opportunity.
Studies show that for a store front business bicycle traffic is like foot traffic — it is easy for a cyclist to stop and shop. People who shop by bicycle shop locally and shop often. They are important to our community and to our finances.
I would add that bike share should help to REDUCE congestion. This is because ti will get some people out of their cars or taxis and onto bikes. Since much of traffic congestion is caused by people circling the block looking for parking, that results in a benefit. And cyclists often travel in the empty spaces between pulses of traffic, or on trails, or in bike lanes or on quiet side streets or in other places where cars are not. In fact a recent report on creating a bike network in Alexandria recommends this.
it is difficult to find room for dedicated facilities on King Street. Instead, dedicated facilities are proposed for Prince and Cameron Streets.
If you're concerned with congestion, then you want more biking, not less.
Well said, Jonathan.
Posted by: Rootchopper | June 01, 2012 at 04:01 PM
I would want the stations to be on Prince or Cameron instead of King, just to encourage users to use those alternative routes. Gets them away from cars and pedestrians until they're ready to stop and shop. I'd also want some stations near public parking - park the car, then use a bike to do your local transport.
Posted by: John F. | June 01, 2012 at 04:50 PM
Prince and Cameron are certainly good routes but I also think that there is no need to create "ghettos" for CaBi kiosks. They should be on King Street and directly on-street.
BTW, there was another response to Van Fleet by David James. I don't know him but he put the finger right in one of the gaping logical holes in Van Fleet's letter.
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/jun/01/letter-bikes-reduce-traffic/
Posted by: Eric_W. | June 01, 2012 at 06:57 PM
Unlike building a highway, widening a road, etc, they beauty of CABI is that the stations and the bikes are movable. Why not try it for 2 years, and if Mr. VanFleet's worst fears become true, its easily fixed.
Posted by: SJE | June 01, 2012 at 07:24 PM
Townsend Van Fleet sounds like a 19th century shipping magnate.
Posted by: SJE | June 01, 2012 at 07:25 PM
"Bikes reduce traffic."
So true, such an important advocacy message, so rarely heard.
Posted by: contrarian | June 01, 2012 at 09:51 PM
One of the greatest things about Old Town to me is the narrow streets with lots of pedestrians and cyclists.
It's amazing that someone could consider these things a "negative" in a community, but it takes all kinds I guess.
Posted by: TurbineBlade | June 01, 2012 at 09:54 PM
On the other hand, one of the worst things about Old Town is the narrow sidewalks. What they should do is build a new parking garage somewhere around there on the existing parking lots, eliminate the parking right on King Street, widen the sidewalks (and provide real space for outdoor dining) and maybe put a cycletrack in the leftover space. And that will happen sometime between never and not a chance.
Posted by: Kolohe | June 02, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Bikes can reduce other forms of traffic, but wasn't there a study showing that when it comes to alternate transportation, most CaBi use wasn't from people ditching cars but rather ditching public transportation like Metro? Which can increase street congestion.
As for "just" 70 bikes, if it's successful in Old Town the impact will be more like a few hundred bikes, with a given bike used all day multiple times by different people, whereas many Old Town bikers are essentially passing through. A few hundred extra full-time-equivalent bikes is not a trivial addition to 2000 once you're near the critical congestion point as is the case in Old Town.
I hope they get CaBi there, but there's merit in some concerns.
Posted by: Christopher Fotos | June 02, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Some people who live in Alexandria really need to get over themselves and their precious Old Town. If Manhattan is able to find room for hundreds of stations this summer, I think Old Town can find room for less than a dozen.
Posted by: nittanyhokie | June 02, 2012 at 03:52 PM
There was a report that showed Not a lot of trips replaced car trips HOWEVER a significant number was new trips rather than replacing transit trips. So there is still a net increase in activity generated.
Posted by: X | June 02, 2012 at 04:43 PM
I respectfully disagree with Christopher Fotos: the critical congestion is caused by CARS. geet rid of cars and the congestion disappears...in my opinion, he's wrong and DOESNT EVEN KNOW IT. you know, if women only knew their place we woldnt have any domestic violence issues...
I also disagree with
Townsend Van Fleet of the Alexandria Waterfront Commission.
In an historic venue like Old Town Alexandria with its narrow streets already crowded with pedestrians, tour buses, metro buses, dash buses, delivery trucks, trolleys, garbage trucks, skate boarders, joggers, and cyclists, putting more bikes on our narrow streets is just an another impediment and not one that we would consider in our best traffic practices."
its time to stop pandering to the ill-informed like this guy. its time to stop even listening to people, with whom I disagree.
the impedimnet, kind sir, to LESS CONGESTION is the CARS!!!!!!!!!!!! how lacking in my experiences does one have to be to not see this?
go to the mall this beautiful weekend: note the tour buses destroying the ambience and making for a visual eyesore...but it was CABI that would destroy the character of the Mall according to the NPS!!!???? oh man, you just gotta laugh at these idiots. they are absolute, unrecoverable morons. why bike advocates dont call out thse fucking idiots is testament to how little power bicyclists have...you know, kinda like organized labor, or black men, or sexually mature women or...
Posted by: give up | June 02, 2012 at 06:31 PM
Umm. I think it replaces a few car trips, but mostly, in inexact order, walking, cabs and transit. Only the last substitution results in a net addition to Commodore Van Fleet's list of clogging agents, which is wildly overstated in any event. It is cars that clog Olde Towne.
Posted by: Crickey7 | June 02, 2012 at 06:51 PM
Do we need a comment policy here, or have I been reading GGW too much?
Posted by: Jim Titus | June 02, 2012 at 08:30 PM
Christopher, the study showed that the primary shifts of CaBi were from transit and from walking, but about 13% of trips would have been made by car. That would likely be different for Alexandria - with limited Metrorail - than DC. In addition the study also showed that CaBi users wound up using more transit in total than before - possibly because people got rid of their cars altogether. And, if some people move off of transit, that makes room for/improves the service of those who stay would should attract more transit users. So a transit user who becomes a CaBi user, is likely replaced with some number of other transit users less than 1 but more than 0.
Posted by: washcycle | June 02, 2012 at 10:40 PM
Hey, thanks for the detail on the study, WashCycle, very helpful and interesting.
@give up, thanks for the performance art.
Posted by: Christopher Fotos | June 03, 2012 at 11:03 AM
christopher, washcycle -- I agree with washcycle. It will be very interesting to see the data as it plays out in Alexandria. (Note that the Cabi data wrt transit trips foregone is comparable to that in Montreal. OTOH, with reduced reliability from subway service, crowding at peak periods, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.)
Posted by: Richard Layman | June 04, 2012 at 06:11 AM
@ Wash, Rootchopper Thanks!
@ Eric_W That letter is brief and worth a read. Van Fleet seem to think cars are required and everything else optional. One exchange that happened during the Waterfront Commission meeting went like this:
Van Fleet: "Pedestrians were everywhere, nothing was moving!"
Commission Chair: "The pedestrians were moving."
@ Kolohe You are correct. I suggested to a city councilman that parking be stripped from one side of King St to make room for a cycletrack and he looked at me like I was speaking Martian. Sadly, he is one of the better ones (transit/smart growth oriented) and I will be voting for him again next Tuesday. My current fun idea is a cycletrack on King from Union (e.g. Mt Vernon Trail) only up to Market Square, where a ____load of bike parking would be installed. That would be a loss of 25 measly car-parking spaces.
@ Christopher and all. The idea that CaBi replaces transit is somewhat of a red herring. For me, it gives me the option of replacing the last leg of a transit trip or the walking leg of a transit trip with a bike ride. I'm sure I'm not the only person who faces multi-stage transit trips and looks to bikeshare to replace one or more of the stages. As Wash pointed out, CaBi increases transit use. My suggestion is that it does so by making transit faster (eliminating one or transit-wait-periods and speeding up the "last mile").
And "replacing walking" is absolutely a red herring. Biking takes 1/4 the energy of walking, so people get where they are going sooner and less tired. That makes people more productive, even if "productive" means hitting four venues instead of two on a Saturday night. In DC, walking represent something like 30 percent of all trips, so CaBi has the potential to speed things up quite a bit.
Posted by: Jonathan Krall | June 04, 2012 at 11:49 AM