Pedestrian- and Bicycle-Friendly Infrastructure
Dear Candidates for Alexandria City Council, What are your plans for making Alexandria more livable? Specifically, how will you implement effective measures and programs to improve infrastructure and traffic flow for pedestrians and bicyclists in the City? The City has made some good progress in the last few years, implementing bike lanes, sharrows and, most recently, joining the Capital Bikeshare system. Clearly, the City has recognized the importance and the benfits of walking and cycling and there are many champions within the staff to move things forward. But this can only be a beginning. In many design plans for new developments and/ or redesigns (e.g. Beauregard Small Area Plan or the Route 1 Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project), it seems as if the needs and requirements of pedestrians and cyclists are still an afterthought instead of an integral part of the design from the very beginning. Alexandria cannot solve the transportation challenges of the future with planning tools of yesterday. Do you support giving priority to the implementation of dedicated cycle tracks, expansion of on-street bike lanes and realization of measures to increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclist on City streets? Do you support measures to increase use of walking and cycling as effective transportation alternatives to motorized traffic, incl. priority funding for bicycle parking, bicycle street access and promotion of cyclist and pedestrian safety, education and awareness. Do you support an effective and dedicated policy to make pedestrian and cyclist safety, convenience and general support a priority for all City transportation projects? (This includes giving pedestrians and cyclists priority over motorized traffic as well as expanding efforts to explain the benefits of non-motorized travel to citizens and to employers.) Do you support further expansion of the Capital Bikeshare system in Alexandria beyond the planned stations? Thank you very much for your attention to this important issue for the future of our City. Eric Wagner
Comments
ride share in the City
Our streets are mostly narrow, and King Street is very popular, with having so many Dash buses, Metro buses, and Trolley's riding up and down our streets, I think to open them to bicyclists is really jamming traffic more than needed especially during rush hours. People using the bike share programs are not necessarily regular bicycle users, therefore they do not realize that the bikes are supposed to adhere to vehicular traffic rules, like turn signals, like stopping at stop signs or stop lights. I think bringing the bike share program to the city is the wrong idea, with the trolleys running up and down King Street and making stops at almost every block, we have enough blockage, and going from the metro to the water can be done with the trolley system.
Environmentally friendly
I agree with Eric that pedestrian friendliness should be built into new plans to increase the ability and likelihood of people walking short distances instead of getting in their cars.
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