FABB Blog

 

Letter to NVTA and VDOT regarding improving biking in Northern Virginia

Local bike organizations recently signed on to a letter to Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and Virginia Department of Transportation asking them to "establish continuous and high-quality bicycle routes in each of Northern Virginia’s major transportation corridors."

With new transportation funding available to reduce congestion and improve mobility in Northern Virginia, now is the time to create first-class bike facilities along our major transportation corridors. The group is asking "VDOT and/or NVTA to conduct an in-depth study of what needs to be done to establish continuous bicycling routes consisting of high-quality facilities in each of the following ten major transportation corridors:


1) Dulles/VA-7
2) Loudoun Co Pkwy/Belmont Ridge Rd/Bi-County Pkwy/Gum Springs Rd/VA-234
3) VA-28
4) Prince William Pkwy
5) Fairfax County Pkwy
6) I-66/US-29/US-50
7) I-495 (Capital Beltway)
8) I-95/I-395/US-1
9) VA-123
10) Braddock Rd/ VA-620."

According to the letter, "VDOT and the localities have already identified much of the needed bicycling facilities in VDOT’s Northern Virginia Bikeway and Trail Network Study, released in 2003, and local plans. The VDOT study made excellent recommendations, but, unfortunately, very few have been implemented."

The group also asked that "VDOT and/or NVTA establish a bicycle advisory committee for Northern Virginia that is focused on implementing this initiative."

We hope to meet with NVTA and VDOT leaders to discuss these requests and determine next steps.

See a copy of the letter.

Labels: bicycle advisory committee, northern virginia regional bikeway and trail network study, northern virginia transportation authority, vdot

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:55 PM permalink

 

Bicycle Master Plan status

The Fairfax County Bicycle Master Plan Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) met on Wednesday to discuss the latest draft of the plan.

The plan consists of three parts, the Recommended Bicycle Network Quadrant Maps, the Proposed Comprehensive Plan Update, and  a series of Policy Briefs to provide context and additional detail for the policy and programmatic recommendations included in the plan update.

See below for caption

The BAC spent a considerable amount of time discussing the Comprehensive Plan Update which describes the benefits of the plan, the plan vision and goals, bicycle facility selection and design policy, programs that support making Fairfax more bike-friendly, and a section on plan implementation. The BAC comments are being compiled and a final draft of the plan will be prepared, with the goal of presenting the plan to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors by the end of the year. The draft plan will be available to the public in the near future.

Photo caption: Some members of the bicycle advisory committee. From left: Charlie Strunk, Doug O'Neill, Anne Mader, Fionnuala Quinn, Bruce Wright, Dennis Frew, Bob Patten, Steve Still, Erik Backus, Randy Dittberner, and Peter Christensen.

Labels: bicycle advisory committee, bicycle master plan

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:38 PM permalink

 

Herndon bike/ped committee looking for volunteers

If you live in the Town of Herndon and want to help make the Town a more bicycle-friendly place, this is your chance. The Town is looking for volunteers to serve on the bike/ped advisory committee:

Labels: bicycle advisory committee, herndon

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:12 AM permalink

 

While Fairfax zeros out bike program operating funds, Arlington raises $1million

From TheWashCycle summary of the June Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting (emphasis added):
That's what's available  for next year. This is work that is already underway (Are we envious? Yes):

Labels: arlington county, bicycle advisory committee

posted by Bruce Wright at 1:04 PM permalink

 

Vienna bicycle advisory committee forming

The first meeting of the Vienna Bicycle Advisory Committee will be held on Thursday, October 15. According to the Vienna Transportation Safety Committee website: "The Vienna Transportation Safety Commission would like to invite all Vienna residents interested in bicycle safety to attend the first meeting the the new Vienna Bicycle Advisory Commission. This will be a voluntary commission and it is open to all residents. The meeting will be held on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 at 8pm in the lower level conference room." Town offices are located at 127 Center St. South, Vienna.

If you're interested in bicycling issues in the Town of Vienna, this is a good opportunity to become involved. Among the topics to be discussed are the proposed changes to the Town Bikeway Plan that we discussed in an earlier post about the decision of the Town Council to defer action on the changes.

Labels: bicycle advisory committee, town of vienna

posted by Bruce Wright at 12:23 PM permalink