Alexandria held a meeting last month to present the three alternatives on Seminary Road between N Howard Street and N Quaker Lane.
Alternative 1 will just repave the street as it is, but 2 and 3 add bike lanes on the outside with either a 2nd lane in the westbound direction or a center turn lane.
The alternatives also change some of the intersections, by removing exclusive turns, adding LPI or removing Right Turn on Red, for example.
Alternative 3 is the best option according to GGW:
Alternative 3 is the option that the Federal Highway Administration recommends to address safety issues on roads like Seminary Road. It is also the most pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design of the three. It includes painted bicycle lanes with a one-foot painted stripe (a buffer) between the traffic and bicycle lanes. There's also an opportunity for protected bicycle lanes to be installed in the future.
This is a complete streets project, so the bike lanes are part of the point. If they don't add bike lanes, after putting them in the Transportation Master Plan, then this project will be a failure.
Locals don't like the project, but for once the problem is not parking. Instead it's cut-through traffic and reduced throughput on the road. In addition they complain that
- No one bikes this road and why would we want more scofflaws
- The road is already safe enough, so no need to slow people down to make it safer
I don't know how one can claim that there's no safety problem, when people continue to be injured in crashes on this road - and they do - but it's definitely in line with our generally "oh, well" cavalier attitude towards road injuries and death. But the point of Vision Zero is to stop seeing injuries and deaths as OK, as long as they're below some threshold. The threshold where they're OK is zero. And this road isn't there yet.
Several of the identified changes will make the roads safer, by reducing collisions at intersections and slowing traffic speed. Here are the other reasons for the project
1. Improve mobility and access for all roadway users
2. Provide continuous, safe, and comfortable places for people to walk
3. Provide more frequent and safer crossing opportunities along the corridor
4. Minimize delay at intersections, and encourage speed limit compliance
5. Where excess roadway capacity exists, explore opportunities to reconfigure the corridor to better serve all modes
So even if you successfully make the argument that getting drivers to drive slower doesn't make things safer, there's still the other elements.
As for the argument that no one bikes the road, that's neither true nor relevant. A review of Strava data shows that people do ride it. And if no one rode it, that might be because it is too inhospitable and that a complete street could fix that.
The claim that it will limit throughput is addressed and it will slow traffic at the worst of rush hour, but people are driving too fast anyway. Mostly though the road will function the same.
Four-lane undivided roadways often already function like three-lane roadways. This is because people driving often use the outside lanes to avoid traffic that is slowed or
stopped in the inside lane to make a left turn.
Spillover traffic is addressed as well
For the majority of road diets, the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) remains constant, indicating little to no diversion to neighboring side streets. Preliminary traffic analysis for the Seminary Road project has shown that while average queue lengths may be longer during the peak hour, the amount of delay remains comparable to existing conditions due to modified signal timing and thus should not encourage cut-through traffic.
Staff will closely monitor conditions on side streets after the project is completed (regardless of which alternative is selected) to evaluate impacts on neighboring streets. Data that was
collected after the King Street road diet showed no traffic diversion onto key connector streets. In fact, traffic volumes actually decreased on side streets.'
The comment period ended April 10th, but I mean you can still fill out the form.
Please check your email.
Posted by: ACyclistInThePortCIty | April 12, 2019 at 03:28 PM
Still don't understand where exactly people are supposed to "cut through". Poring over google maps I can certainly identify some routes but it strains credulity that doing so would ever be faster than just staying on Seminary.
Posted by: drumz | April 12, 2019 at 04:36 PM
People are irrational. Someone claimed it would take them 30 minutes to get to Bishop Ironton school because of Seminary Rd. A friend did it in 6 minutes at the times the guy said it took 30. My friend made to the start of I-66 in 30 minutes, not exactly a few miles within town.
Posted by: Zack Rules | April 12, 2019 at 05:40 PM
Irrational? Have you been on Seminary since the road diet. The trip takes at least 30 minutes now. Just as predicted!!!!
Posted by: Rachel | November 15, 2019 at 02:25 PM
This story says it take 15 minutes - and I'll note that they're still doing construction. https://patch.com/virginia/oldtownalexandria/frustrations-arise-seminary-road-lanes-are-reconfigured
Posted by: washcycle | November 15, 2019 at 02:42 PM
“While we understand that delays are frustrating, the corridor is still under construction and all of the components that work together to make this project work are not yet complete,” Orr said. “While there have been some increased queues during the peak half-hour in the morning, we are still generally seeing vehicles able to get through a signal in one cycle. The evening peak is a bit longer, and we have seen some delays between 5:30-6:30 p.m., with 6-6:15 p.m. as the peak.”
Orr said other delays have been caused by the disconnection of signal hardware that tells traffic lights when there are vehicles on the roads. Once paving was completed, Orr said these were reinstalled and reconnected and those delays have eased.
“With any road reconstruction and design reconfiguration, delays are to be expected while the project is implemented and motorists get used to new traffic patterns,” Orr said. “This is one example of how construction impacts travel times, and there are numerous other instances that occurred this week and caused residents to reach out regarding delays.”
If you were one of the people caught on Seminary Road last Thursday (Nov. 7), Orr said the delays were part of a spike in traffic throughout the region.
“This was largely due to major delays on the interstates as well as higher than normal travel times on key corridors across the city,” Orr said “When there is higher than normal congestion in the region, the city tends to see more cut-through traffic. On Thursday, while travel times were approximately 60% higher on Seminary/Janneys, they more than doubled on corridors such as Route 1, Duke Street, GW Parkway and Van Dorn.”
This week, Orr said staff is working on installing new signage and markings as well as continuing to work on median islands.
https://www.alxnow.com/2019/11/12/higher-than-normal-delays-on-seminary-road-as-complete-streets-is-implemented/
Posted by: [email protected] | November 15, 2019 at 02:44 PM