FABB Blog

Cyclists in the Interstate 66 corridor are hoping that the proposed highway widening project also will create an opportunity to add new bike facilities.

However, for residents in Dunn Loring and Oakton already concerned about the highway encroaching into their yards and a community school, one proposed bike trail signifies to them another 10 feet of property that they might lose.

“There is simply no physical way to fit a bike lane in the I-66 corridor, at least through Vienna. Simply adding extra travel lanes is stressful enough,” Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Dist. 34) wrote on his Ox Road South blog, expressing the concerns of his constituents. “There’s no point in reducing the right of way take for new lanes, if you’re simply going to take it for a bike path.”

Bruce Wright, chairman of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, said his organization is working with VDOT to ensure that the project includes bike facilities that were planned for in the county’s bicycle master plan and other planning documents.

For example, this includes adding bike and pedestrian facilities to bridges across I-66 that would be replaced due to the road widening. A similar effort was made when the 495 Express Lanes were being constructed.

“This is a great opportunity to provide safe, convenient bike and pedestrian access,” Wright said.

The biggest point of contention is a potential major trail that runs parallel to I-66, like the Custis Trail in Arlington County, which connects the Washington & Old Dominion Trail to the Key Bridge in Rosslyn.

Wright said the high number of both commuters and recreational users of the W&OD and the Custis Trail show that there is great demand for these types of major trails.

“What we really need are better first-class trails for everyone,” he said.

It is illegal in 40 states and the District of Columbia to open the door of your parked car into the path of a bicyclist. But in Virginia it remains perfectly fine, after the state House of Delegates again shot down a bill to prohibit “dooring” on Monday morning.

For the second year in a row, Fairfax City state Sen. Chap Petersen (D) championed the bill for a couple of reasons. One, to protect cyclists from suddenly slamming face first into the steel and glass of a car door. Two, to allow local police to assess some fault (and a $50 fine) so that insurance companies could not reject medical claims filed by injured cyclists on the basis that “no one was found at fault.”

Last year, the dooring bill passed the Senate but died in a tie vote in the House Transportation Committee. This is an issue of great interest in Northern Virginia, where more folks are riding bikes to work or using Capital Bikeshare to get around and having to coexist with our infamous traffic.

If your senator voted for the bill, a note of thanks is in order; if they didn’t, a note expressing your disappointment. More importantly, ask your House delegate to please support this bill when it gets to the House.How Senators Voted

The bill introduced by state Sen. Chap Petersen, of the ever-shifting Fairfax City and County district, to prohibit the “dooring” of cyclistspassed the Virginia Senate by a 23-17 vote Tuesday. Last week the Senate Transportation Committee approved it 7-6.

The bill instructs car drivers and passengers — as laws do in at least 40 states and D.C. — not to open their doors in the path of cyclists or any oncoming traffic. With no violation currently on Virginia books, injured cyclists often are rejected for medical coverage by insurance companies because no fault was assessed.

The bill was angrily denounced as an “asinine measure” and “embarrassing” by a Norfolk columnist.

Michael Gilbert of the cycling advocacy group Ride Richmond pointed out that the bill protects moving cars and drivers, who can be forced to swerve around or hit open car doors in traffic, as well as cyclists. Petersen said on his blog that the bill passed in part because “Senate Democrats stayed in peloton formation to support me . . . It now moves on to the Pyrenees, i.e. the House Transportation Committee.”