Seminary Road could be a Complete Street

Back in 2015, VDOT began work on a new active transportation bridge over I-395 at Seminary Road.

This is one part of a set of transportation projects designed to make travel easier around the nearby Mark Center, where many federal employees were transferred under the Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC).

The new bridge, which opened in 2016, connected Mark Center Ave north of I-395 with Kenmore Ave south of it (where one can visit the shell of an old Steak and Ale). But other than a couple of blocks of bike lane on Kenmore, it didn't connect to much. It's a large expenditure that created an impressive facility that as of yet is not meeting its potential.

Not wanting to squander such an impressive piece of infrastructure, Alexandria wants to take advantage of scheduled repaving of Seminary on the southside of 395 to create a complete street from the new bridge to Quaker Lane where it can connect to bike lanes on Janneys Lane. It also gets cyclists to Gerald R. Ford Park, which it seems is a thing that exists. 

You can complete a survey about the project here. 

Seminary Road was identified in the Pedestrian and Bicycle Chapter of the Transportation Master Plan for potential improvements to ensure the safety, mobility, and accessibility for all roadway users.. Data analysis conducted through the Vision Zero Action Plan also showed that Seminary Road was a corridor with a high number of KSI (killed or seriously injured) crashes. 

Since the reduction of the speed limit on Seminary (from Quaker to Library Lanes) in 2016, data has shown that safety has improved. However, to sustain this benefit, the roadway design must reflect the posted speed limit as well as encourage and better accommodate people walking, biking, driving, and riding transit. 

There was a walkabout in early May and a public meeting later that month about the Complete Street Project. Unfortunately the public was both for and against bike lanes. 

Those for bike facilities liked protected bike lanes or at least those with a buffer. Those against thought it would make traffic worse or present a hazard for drivers.

Because this is a repaving project, I'd say there are low odds of getting a protected bike lane, but buffered lanes are possible. While bike lanes might slow traffic, they might also make traffic better. They might do both. But I don't see how they can make a hazard for drivers. Either way, maintaining automobile traffic flow is not a part of "Complete Streets".

At an upcoming public meeting they will present design options and concepts, some with a lane reduction, some without. 

We hope to have a decision with input from the community by September so that the road can be repaved and we can implement short-term recommendations in the Fall. This may be pushed to Spring depending on a variety of factors.

I don't think I've ever ridden on Seminary. I'm not even sure I've driven on it, but people who have or would have weighed in already.

Bike facilities requested were climbing lanes on steep areas, protected or buffered lanes, turning the slip lane at Howard into a bike-only connection

And the people who wouldn't, have weight in too

bike lanes only encourage unsafe biking

the street specifically Seminary is for cars to go and from, I am sick of accommodating bikers!!

Please stop allowing the 25 actual bike riders in Alexandria to restrict parking or eliminate travel lanes at the expense of 99% of the population who cannot and do not bike.

When bikers obay the law and they are treated like drivers then you make the changes.

On that last point, if you look at slide 7 here, it shows that the average driver is exceeding the speed limit and that lowering the speed limit didn't do much to slow speeds. So even if adding bike lanes does slow traffic, that seems to be a good thing considering that traffic is now going too fast.

If they can eventually make Seminary bikeable from Quincy to Dawes, it would really fill in the area between Holmes Run and Four Mile Run. And if they could add a trail along the tributary of Holmes Run from the Mark Center, through the Winkler Nature Preserve to the Holmes Run Trail, that would be something. 

Comments

[Accidental FIRE]

Yes, all drivers, when not stuck in slow traffic, are speeding and breaking the law on virtually all roads, almost 100% of the time. Some of those comments are ridiculous-funny.

Thanks for posting this, will vote

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

Washcycle

Please note well, the purpose of a road diet here would be to calm traffic, making the road safer and more comfortable for pedestrians (go on streetview and see how close the narrow sidewalks are to the road) and also safer for drivers (especially people turning onto and off the road) It is opponents of a road diet who want to make this about people on bikes. FYI.

[drumz]

Funny comments by people who hate cyclists aside, there's no good way to cross 395 by bike around there anyway except the Holmes Run Trail.

[scoot]

Sanger is an excellent crossing. And far more reliable than the HR tunnel which floods.

[washcycle]

What about the Seminary Road crossing mentioned in this post?

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

Yes. You can cross at Holmes Run, at Sanger, at the Seminary ped bridge, and for the more confident, on Braddock. However Washcycle's point that for the large number of people who live in dense Southern Towers just north of the Seminary crossing the lack of safe accommodations on Seminary is a major barrier, stands.

[drumz]

South of there. My experience is more with Duke Street or Edsall.

Much more north of there and I was spending more time on a detour than I was just white-knuckling across the interchanges there.

In an old job it would have been perfect if there was something either along the train tracks towards Cameron Run or further up between Edsall and Duke.

[FxCountyCyclist]

@Port City - I agree with you. But all over Fx County this chorus of "spoiled bicyclists" is gaining traction. Telling them the road diet is for their traffic calming is of little use. And as long as the infrastructure proposed is fragmented or doesn't connect to things, it reinforces their complaints and keeps many cyclists from using the lanes where they do exist.