Alexandria's Cameron and Prince to become "enhanced bicycle corridors" in 2017

As part of a repaving program, bike lanes and sharrows will be added to Cameron and Prince Streets (and Duke and Royal) in Old Town Alexandria. The corridors, which are about 75% bike lanes and 25% sharrowed lanes, will connect the King Street Metro and the Mt. Vernon Trail. The King Street Metro itself is becoming a bicycle hub, with lanes on Commonwealth and King Street west of the Metro and trails along Buchanan and through Hoffs Run converging on it. 

The lanes, which come straight out of the city's recently updated Bicycle Master Plan, will be built without removing parking or traffic lanes, but sharrows will be used where the road is too narrow. The project will be about 75% bike lanes and 25% sharrows.  The lanes are not expected to result in any new traffic delays, but should have a calming effect bringing speeds closer to the 25 mph limit.

In addition the project will add pedestrian countdown timers and curb ramps.

Yvonne Weight Callahan, president of the Old Town Civic Association said "I don't regard Complete Streets, specifically on Cameron and on Prince, as particularly necessary projects." She then goes on to list several incidents where pedestrians or dogs were injured or killed by motorists. If only there were some program meant to prevent those crashes. That program might even be viewed as particularly necessary, but I can't think of one.

[Aside: Callahan mentions that a pedestrian was recently hit by a cyclist in the Wilkes Street Tunnel (bad) and that the cyclist then rode away (worse)]

Interestingly, she notes that the city can't fine drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians unless it is in a "specially-marked crosswalk" meaning that there are signs there stating that fines can be imposed. The city attorney and Police Department are working to fix the ordinance. 

Comments

[Jim Durham]

The City of Alexandria’s Waterfront Commission received a presentation this week on this project from Ray Hayhurst, city Complete Streets Coordinator. The presentation was generally well received. For example, Commission members noted the safety and accessibility improvements for people who walk, such as new countdown signals, ADA-compliant curb ramps, repaired sidewalks and slower traffic speeds from narrowed vehicle lanes. One Commission member emphasized the value of the bike lanes by illustrating their importance for people who are younger than many of the Commission members. He emphasized the importance of projects like this to Alexandria’s future. Well said.

[Casey Kane]

Here is the Waterfront Commission Presentation, additional information about the project can be found here

[Chris Slatt]

"sharrows will be used where the road is too narrow"

LIES.

Sharrows will be used because parking and pandering to motorists is more important to the City than safety.

Prince between Peyton and Fayette has TWO lanes of parking and TWO travel lanes going the same direction. Same with Cameron between Union and Fairfax.

This area has parking on every damn street. This area has a well-connected street grid. If traffic is "bad" on Cameron or Prince, cars will slide over a block.

That the City can't decide for this ONE corridor in the vicinity that bikes are going to be slightly prioritized over storage for your private vehicle or saving 15 seconds on your trip in your car shows that they haven't actually gotten serious yet about biking. They'll do whatever they can do without pissing anyone off, but no more, even if that tiny bit would make the difference between a bunch of disconnected bike lanes and an actual safe, connected facility.

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

Chris

What would really have made a difference here would have been PBL's. Given that they were not going to take that fight on, I don't think expending political capital to connect the door zone bike lanes and avoid the sharrows would be worth it.

[lexican]

Has the president of the Old Town Civic Association ever biked on Prince or Cameron? The traffic moves so quickly and drivers are very aggressive, especially at Patrick and Henry where drivers jockey to make turns, run lights, speed, and fail to yield. I don't walk or ride on these streets anymore after far too many close calls. King Street, with it's slower traffic and stop lights, feels much safer. Shame on Alexandria for continuing to prioritize the subsidization of private vehicle storage over the safety of people.

[freewheel]

These bike lanes are much needed, especially for people coming off Metro who want to ride CaBi around Old Town. It would be worth it to sacrifice a few parking spots so bicyclists can feel safer. It's the right thing to do for safety and for business as well.

In fact, if Alexandria didn't hold parking as priority #1, it could do wonderful things in Old Town like making the end of King St (from Lee St to Union) a pedestrian plaza, with restaurants offering sidewalk seating. They've experimented with that in the past, and it seemed to be a success. Just do it already. FYI Alexandria, tourists aren't excited by your on-street parking.

[west ender]

I doubt the president of OTCA cares about the cycling experience.

I say build the lanes, which then makes it more feasible to upgrade the lanes to complete lanes or buffered at a future time.

[Zack Rules]

FYI, the specially marked crosswalk will be fixed tomorrow at the Council's morning session.

Certainly, that is terrible about the Wilkes St Tunnel.
I have heard several people say that they have been hit or know someone who has been hit by a cyclist, but their injuries were not serious enough to contact emergency services nor report it to the police.

The key problem in Alexandria is that whenever there is a trade-off between people who walk or ride bikes, and cars, the cars win even for stupid reasons unsupported by evidence. For example, these bike lanes could be protected by narrowing the traffic lanes by 1' each and putting them between parking and the curb. They might lose a parking space at the end of a few blocks to daylight that intersection but that is a something that would have to be done anyways.

[Old Town Outsider]

The president of OTCA equates Complete Streets with bike lanes, which is obviously wrong.

"Complete Streets is a transportation policy and design approach that requires streets to be planned, designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of their mode of transportation."

So a complete street is designed for pedestrians walking through Old Town, a church goer walking to Alfred Street Baptist Church, or young child riding her bike to school.

And neither the president of OTCA nor the Mayor ride a bike.

[Jonathan Krall]

FWIW, Mayor Silberberg once joined members of BPAC for a bike ride where we were able to talk about bike facilities and bicycling access issues first hand. At the time she was the Vice Mayor. She basically didn't "get" that people riding bicycles deserve equitable access to roads, but she did do the ride with us.

As for OTCA, they have no use for tourists, bicycles, or tourists on bicycles.

I still believe that an inviting bike lane leading from Union Street into Old Town would pay for itself very quickly in increased revenue. This plan does the opposite. What the many riders on the Mt Vernon Trail will see as they pass through Old Town are sharrows on Prince and Cameron Streets and a sign that says "Bicycles must obey all stop signs." Once again, it seems that Alexandria doesn't want our dirty cyclist money.

[washcycle]

To be fair, when I'm biking I don't have pockets and thus keep my cyclist money in the front of my bike shorts.

[DE]

"What has it got in its nasty little pocketses?"

Always get cycling clothes with pocketses. Unless buying racing attire, and then get jerseys with pocketses. Then you can carry money for espresso.