Blog - Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling (FABB)

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Board of Supervisors Endorses Bicycle Parking Guidelines

At their meeting yesterday the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors officially endorsed the county's Bicycle Parking Guidelines that have been in development for almost 10 years. Kudos to the Board, and to FCDOT staff for their work over the years developing the guidelines and working them through the approval process.

FABB began advocating for these guidelines in 2007 when we met with Supervisor Smyth to discuss the importance of the county having guidelines for developers and others to implement safe, convenient bike parking. The guidelines will be applied to all new developments in the county. While existing developments are not required to install bike parking, they now have guidelines to use when bike parking is provided.

Below is information provided to the Board of Supervisors at their February 14, 2017 meeting:

ACTION - 3
Endorsement of the Fairfax County Bicycle Parking Guidelines

ISSUE:
Board of Supervisors endorsement of the Fairfax County Bicycle Parking Guidelines (Attachment I).

RECOMMENDATION:
The County Executive recommends that the Board endorse the Fairfax County Bicycle Parking Guidelines (Guidelines) to provide guidance to the development community on the number, type. and location of bicycle parking proposed with new development.

TIMING:
Board action is requested on Febmary 14, 2017, to allow the recommendations in the Guidelines to be implemented expeditiously.

BACKGROUND:
Bicycle parking is needed for the County to meet its goals of encouraging multi-modal transportation as stated in the Comprehensive Plan. Residents who choose to bicycle need safe and secure locations to park when they visit friends and family, shop, and work. The type, quantity, and adequacy of bicycle parking that currently exists varies from location to location. The Guidelines will provide direction to facilitate adequate bicycle parking in all future development.

In the Washington D C . metropolitan area. Arlington County's. the City of Alexandria’s, and the District of Columbia's zoning ordinances prescribe the required number of bicycle parking spaces in each of their zoning districts. The parking ratios suggested by the Guidelines were determined after researching these ordinances, as well as bicycle parking ratios and guidance from multiple jurisdictions around the country.

Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) staff presented information about the Guidelines to the Board Transportation Committee on May 19, 2015 (Attachment II). The presentation discussed the various sections of the document, what the process currently entails without these guidelines, and examples of how the document would be used to guide bicycle parking as a part of development. The Board instructed the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to conduct further public outreach with the development community to supplement its previous outreach with the bicycle community.

FCDOT released an “Announcement to Industry” in November 2015, with a link to the Guidelines online and asked for feedback by the end of January 2016. The following is a summary of the comments received and the response by FDOT:

I. Comment: Short term bicycle parking ratios for commercial development appear to be high (1 space/20,000 sq. ft.) and location guidance within the streetscape may not be feasible.

Response: The FCDOT bicycle parking ratios were developed after a review of local and national jurisdictional bicycle parking rates, and are the same as Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. The guidance on bike rack location is the ideal siting, and may not always be possible. FCDOT understands the need to be flexible and work with developers on the design and location for bicycle parking.

II. Comment: Long term parking ratio in urban activity centers and transit station areas (117,500 sq. ft.) is high and location guidance may be difficult to meet.

Response: The FCDOT bicycle parking ratios were developed after a review of local and national jurisdictional bicycle parking rates, and are in line with these jurisdictions. The guidance on bike rack location is the ideal siting, and may not always be possible. FCDOT understands the need to be flexible and work with developers on the design and location for bicycle parking.

III. Comment: Guidance on wayfinding and bicycle parking signs should be included in the document.

Response: FCDOT added information about bicycle parking signage to the document.

IV. Comment: Fairfax County might want to look into the alternative framework in line with LEED v4 BD&C bicycle facility credit criteria, which is based on the use and projected number of visitors to a building (with an example of a data center or server farm).

Response: FCDOT selected to use the model many of the surrounding jurisdictions use and recommended by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals Bicycle Parking Guidelines, which identifies bicycle parking rates by building use and size. However, adjustments may be appropriate, depending on the building use. Adjustments can be discussed on a case by case basis.

In addition to these specific comments, many stylistic comments were received and incorporated into the document.

FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact to the County as a result of this endorsement.

ENCLOSED DOCUMENTS:
AttachmentI: Fairfax County Bicycle Parking Guidelines
Attachment ll: Presentation to Board of Supervisors on May 19. 2015

STAFF:
Robert A. Stalzer, Deputy County Executive
Tom Biesiadny, Director, Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT)
Eric Teitelman, P.E.. Chief, Capital Projects and Traffic Engineering Division, FCDOT
Chris Wells, Capital Projects and Traffic Engineering Division. FCDOT
Adam Lind, Capital Projects and Traffic Engineering Division, FCDOT

ASSIGNED COUNSEL:
Joanna Faust, Assistant County Attorney
Sara G. Silverman, Assistant County Attorney

Labels: bicycle parking guidelines, supervisor smyth

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:08 PM permalink

(0) comments

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Providence Community Center bike racks

Fairfax County has developed draft Bicycle Parking Guidelines that we hope will be approved by the Board of Supervisors in the near future. The guidelines are desperately needed. Very few retail, commercial, or multifamily developments have bike parking. Where there is parking it is usually a type that is not recommended by the new guidelines and it it often installed or placed incorrectly.

In December of last year we noticed bike parking had been installed at the new Providence Community Center. We were pleased to see 7 standard U-racks installed near the entrance to the building. So far, so good. Unfortunately they did not adhere to recommended placement guidelines; they were much too close to the edge of the concrete and one of the racks was too close to the soon-to-be-installed adjacent sidewalk handrail.

We reported the problem and Supervisor Smyth asked staff to fix it. We're pleased to report that the problem has finally been fixed (and that there were bikes parked in the racks when we took the photo below yesterday evening). Additional concrete was added to the edge so that bike wheels wouldn't be extending into the grass. Unfortunately the rack that was too close to the handrail was removed and not placed elsewhere. Thank you Supervisor Smyth for your help.

At FABB's request, it was Supervisor Smyth in 2007 who initiated the development of the bike parking guidelines. Providing adequate, properly placed bike parking should not be this difficult. Let's hope the Board adopts the new guidelines soon.

Providence Community Center bike racks - Dec 2014

Providence Community Center bike racks - July 2015

Labels: bicycle parking guidelines, providence community center, supervisor smyth

posted by Bruce Wright at 5:58 PM permalink

(0) comments

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Board of Supervisors to review Draft Bicycle Parking Guidelines

Fairfax County bicycle program staff recently presented the draft Bicycle Parking Guidelines to the Board of Supervisors. According to the slide presentation from the Board's Transportation Committee meeting on May 19, the Board will review and comment on the guidelines and then the county "will begin the public process to have elements of the guide adopted into PFM [Public Facilities Manual] as standard."

The guidelines are split into urban and non-urban. It's difficult in a large county like Fairfax to apply a single standard. The urban guidelines are very similar to Arlington County bicycle parking standards.

FABB has been advocating for these guidelines for many years. In 2007 we met with Supervisor Smyth to ask for her support for county bike parking guidelines. Later that year she asked the Board to "direct staff to investigate and report within three months how other jurisdictions are addressing these issues and develop specific standards for the County to use as part of the land development process, and to further examine how these standards could best be introduced whether through adoption of a Board Policy, an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, or incorporation into the Public Facilities Manual." Her motion was supported unanimously. It has been a long process but we're finally getting close to having real bicycle parking standards in Fairfax.

Labels: bicycle parking guidelines, supervisor smyth

posted by Bruce Wright at 8:45 AM permalink

(0) comments

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Tour de Tysons recap

Today bike riders took over a few streets in Tysons during the Tour de Tysons races and Family Fun Ride. The weather was ideal (except for the wind that tried to blow our tent away). FABB volunteers gathered nearly 90 signatures on our petition to urge the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to adopt the Bicycle Master Plan. Thanks to all our volunteers and to everyone who took the time to stop by and sign the petition. We plan to have an online version of the petition soon.

Convoys from Vienna and The Barns at Wolf Trap arrived as the event got underway. Liz MacGregor held a well-received talk entitled Getting There By Bike! About 30 riders participated in the Family Fun Ride. Actually there were many more riders than that. We didn't expect to see so many of the racers warming up during the Fun Ride. I guess they wanted to have fun as well, but why were they riding so fast?

Thanks to Bill Luecke of National Capital Velo Club and Kate Maholchic of Tysons Partnership for inviting FABB and providing all the logistical support. We hope that events like the Fun Ride will lead to more open streets type events in the future, with the goal of a full-fledged ciclovia held in Fairfax County in the coming years.