Alexandria wants to turn Royal Street into a "Neighborhood Bikeway" and work on that could begin this spring - though it seems like part of the project is behind schedule already. The concept for a bikeway, or bicycle boulevard, on Royal Street came out of a pair of studies in 2013 and 2016 and the project was broken up into 3 parts because of overlapping studies.
Section 1 of the Royal Street Neighborhood Bikeway and Pedestrian Improvements, between Bashford Lane and Oronoco Street, was discussed as part of the Council-approved Old Town North Small Area Plan. The community engagement for planning Section 2 (from Oronoco Street to King Street) will begin in Fall 2017. Both Sections 1 and 2 are slated for resurfacing in 2018. Section 3 (King Street to Jones Point Drive) has not been funded to date, and therefore it is an inactive project.
If the community engagement for section 2 happened in Fall 2017 it has been lightly advertised. Hopefully both section 1 and 2 can still be resurfaced and painted in 2018. It might help that the bikeway is to be part of the Bicycle Beltway that will be approved by MWCOG soon, but I think the lack of a design makes getting a real bicycle boulevard in place by this time next year unlikely. Even more so if they plan to do robust community engagement first.
residents of Old Town opposed the project on the basis of safety concerns and expected loss of parking places.
I have the impression that this project was killed, or at least put on indefinite hold, after pearl-clutching by the neighbors around the time of the initial King Street Bike Lane kerfluffle, but I'm not involved enough in Alexandria advocacy to really know for sure.
Posted by: Chris Slatt | January 03, 2018 at 08:55 AM
18th century street widths combined with a local constintuency that really, really, likes to drive everywhere and park there cars means that so extremely obvious bike projects in Old Town like this one can't get off the ground.
It's a weird spot because those conditions make Old Town pretty bike friendly today but it's a very low ceiling until you actually acknowledge that cyclists could use some space as well.
Posted by: drumz | January 03, 2018 at 09:21 PM
I would suggest on the subject of cycling and tunnels that for a cyclist, the tunnels on the roadway along the Seine in Paris are well worth renting a bikeshare bike for several hours on a Sunday morning when they are freely available to pedestrians, roller skaters, and cyclists. https://api-site-cdn.paris.fr/images/91962.pdf
Posted by: Michael Neubert | January 04, 2018 at 07:43 PM