FABB Blog

 

Telegraph Rd public hearing

No one spoke out in opposition to the proposed bike lanes at the Telegraph Rd public hearing held last Thursday. The VDOT project that includes a segment of Telegraph Rd between S. Van Dorn St and S. Kings Hwy. Some concerns were expressed about the proposed design that places the bike lanes placed between the through lane and the long right turn lane. However, as Supervisor McKay stated, regardless of the final design, there are now provisions for on-road bike facilities on the road.

One suggestion that was floated was to keep the bike lanes to the right of the right turn lane, then have a bike box at the Telegraph Rd/S. Kings Hwy intersection to allow cyclists to move left to continue straight on Telegraph Rd. While the bike box may work OK when there is a red signal, when there's a green signal bicyclists would be forced to take the lane and make an awkward movement into Telegraph Rd traffic at the intersection.

At the meeting one of the project team members was showing a simulation of traffic along this section of road. Unfortunately it did not include bicycle traffic, an all too common problem with traffic models. We think it's time that bicycle traffic be given equal status with motorized traffic when it comes to all types of transportation modeling, especially in urban areas. Seeing the flow of bicycle traffic with different configurations would be a great asset in developing the final design.

Labels: telegraph road, vdot

posted by Bruce Wright at 1:43 PM permalink