FABB Blog

 

April FABB meeting

There was a good turnout for the monthly FABB meeting last night. Cindy Englehart, VDOT Northern Virginia District bicycle/pedestrian engineer gave an overview of her trip to Europe with other bicycle professionals to check out innovative bicycle/pedestrian facilities for improving pedestrian and bicyclist safety and mobility. She described how in some locations cyclists are routed through roundabouts differently based on the number of lanes. Where there is only one lane, cyclists mix with other vehicle traffic. Where there is more than one lane, cyclists use a separate track parallel to the roundabout.

In bus/bike lanes travel speeds are lower to facilitate the mixing of the two modes. She also showed an example of where cyclists are given multiple options for movement through intersections. See the report of the project entitled Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety and Mobility in Europe.

After recent staff reductions, the NOVA bike/ped staff will have less time for reviewing bike/ped facilities contained in transportation projects. The two remaining staff will concentrate more on research.

Charlie Strunk discussed bicycle activities in the county, noting that a lot of time is being spent installing bike racks that were recently purchased.

We left the meeting early to provide testimony at the Planning Commission public hearing on proposed comprehensive plan language for the Tysons Corner area. We argued for bike facilities on Routes 7 & 123 and for funding of bike facilities in preparation for the opening of the Metro stations in 2013.

We'll provide more info on the FABB meeting once the minutes are completed.

Labels: FABB meeting, vdot

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:45 PM permalink