Alexandria Transportation Survey and trail connections

[Jonathan Krall]

Bruce,

Thanks much for the information!  I didn't realize that work 
had been done to identify opportunities to make trail connections
on city property or to identify and improve existing dirt paths 
that people have made in an effort to get where they want to go. 
In other studies [1], these have been called "neighborhood trails" 
or "demand paths."  

I am not surprised that such proposals get a lot of NIMBY resistance, 
since bike paths always seem to get this resistance (maybe people 
don't like it when their property values go up?).  In any case, it 
seems to me that to make something like this work we need to ally 
ourselves with groups that are sympathetic, such as children 
(the Safe Routes to School program) and seniors (Alexandria Commission 
on Aging?).  I confess that I don't know much about how local groups
are dealing with health and transportation issues associated with 
aging-in-place seniors, but do know that AARP supports Complete 
Streets on a federal level for precisely this reason (which is why 
I joined--and I wrote to tell them so).

Maybe we can discuss this at the Bike-Ped Program Meeting tonight.

Thanks Again!

Jonathan

[1]  http://prj.kittelson.com/tigardtrails/


On Wed Jul  7 14:35 , "Bruce & Linda Dwyer"  sent:
>
>Reminder: Â Take the survey at http://proj.cicresearch.com/Alex10s.asp
>; it has lots of opportunities to give your opinion on transportation options,
>like more biking and walking.   Don’t forget the section to
>make suggestions. 
>
>Jonathan
>suggested more trail connections. Â See the Open Space report from July
>2004 page 17 for a list of potential locations. Â For BikeWalk Alex
>Old-timers, we put this list together when I was a member of the City Open
>Space committee. Most of the opportunities are still available. Â We fought
>for some of them and lost, mostly because of NIMBY resistance. 
>
>http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedfiles/recreation/info/OpenSpacePrioritiesOpportunities.pdf
>
>On
>the other hand, I made a quick review of the 1998 Bicycle Transportation and
>Multi-use Trail Plan adopted by City Council. Â Of the 21 project we
>identified, 15 of them are either completed, under construction, or in adopted
>detail plans. Of the remaining 6, several have been overtaken by events and a
>few I am not sure what the status is. Of the 17 changes recommended to the bike
>route designations at the time, only part of one has not been changed, Pickett
St from Van
>Dorn to the Fairfax
> County line. At any rate,
>I feel that the City has a pretty good track record regarding the 1998 Plan.
>
>Perhaps
>appropriate agenda items for the next advisory meeting could be to:
>
>1. Â  Â Close
>out and update the current status of the 1998 plan items. Â (Yon probable
>did this in the updated Master Plan.)
>
>2. Â  Â Discuss
>the status and viability of the neighborhood connection plans. 
>
>Have
>a good summer biking. 
>
>Bruce
>Dwyer