Evening.

Welcome to the City of Alexandria's Traffic and Parking Board public hearing meeting for Monday, February the twenty third, twenty twenty-six.

This is going to be in person and virtual.

So those of you are here in person, welcome, and those online, uh, welcome also.

I have a few announcements I'd like to make before we get started.

Before I begin, I would like to briefly review logistics and meeting procedures and expectations to ensure we conduct business.

There's an overflow room with extra seating available where the meeting will be shown just past the elevators on the left-hand side.

There are signs in the hall directing you to the overflow room.

This meeting follows Robert's rules.

We welcome public participation and value hearing from members of our community.

During the public comment period, speakers will be invited to the podium one at a time and have three minutes to speak.

And Sheila will be calling out probably five names at a time.

And so if you're in the overflow room, you'll have time to come in here to speak to the board.

And then once we've gone through all the in-person speakers, we will move to speakers online.

For those in the audience, please refrain from talking, cheering, clapping, or otherwise reacting during public comments or board discussion.

We want every speaker to be heard clearly and without interruption.

If direct if disruptions occur, I may issue a warning.

Continued disruption may result in removal from the meeting room.

Thank you for your cooperation.

And I see everyone's seating, but if somebody does come in and is wants to stand, the fire marshal won't let us have standing people, so they'll have to be directed to the um overflow room.

So with that, are there any deferrals or withdrawals?

No.

Okay, no referrals or withdrawals.

Then we go to the next item, the minutes.

Does anyone have any changes to the minutes from the last meeting?

Mr.

Chairman, I would like to signify that I was here at the last meeting.

Well, that's a crucial change.

Thank you.

We'll get that noted.

Any other additions?

Do I have a motion then to adopt a uh minutes as modified?

A second.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Uh minutes are passed.

Okay, now we go to the public discussion period.

Uh this is for uh members of the public who are here who want us opportunity to speak on any item that is not on the agenda.

Uh so if you plan to speak on the agenda tonight, you've submitted your speaker form and we'll take care of you.

But uh, is there anyone who wishes to speak on any other non-agenda item?

Is there how do we check the overflow room?

Okay.

Okay.

And so if you wish to speak online uh about uh a non-agenda item, please raise your hand and Sheila will recognize you.

I think well, this is gonna be a quick meeting.

Um so next we move to uh written updates.

Are there any does anyone have any questions or comments on any of the written updates?

Yeah, Annie.

I just wanted to say thanks for the update on the taxi cab.

Um uh new taxi cab company that we discussed at the September meeting.

Um, and I uh don't think I've ever said this before, but I look forward to our next taxi cab discussion.

True pleasure.

Anyone else?

Okay, Kristen.

Just also wanted to know.

Thank you for the um update, the first kind of update on the day lighting request process.

It was interesting to see how it's going so far.

So I look forward to future updates.

And then I just have one on the market square uh garage.

I still haven't figured out where bike parking has landed.

So if we could get an update perhaps next month on where the bike parking that was in the garage moved to, that would I think be useful.

Okay, we're gonna move to consent items.

Uh items five and six.

Are there any comments from the dais or speakers signed up for either one of those?

Oh, I'm sorry, if online if you wish to speak on items five or six, please raise your hand.

Okay, hearing no comments, is there a motion to approve these?

Sorry, Casey.

It looked like somebody raised their hand and lowered it.

I just want to make sure we're not missing them.

So if if you want to speak online, keep your hand up.

They do want to speak.

We have one speaker online.

Okay.

Uh, which item are you wanting to speak on?

Item five or item six.

Carolyn Griglione, I have allowed you to speak.

Okay, great.

I thought all the people that were online were going to speak after the people that were in person.

I understood that comment to mean that.

But anyway, I am not talking about anything on the agenda.

Oh.

So we've already closed the public hearing on the agenda.

So we'll go ahead, Carolyn.

We'll let you uh have your say.

Okay.

I guess I didn't understand it clearly.

Uming, Chair and board members of the traffic and parking board.

My name is Carolyn Grig Leone.

And I um once again asking information.

I did get a response today, but I wanted in the record during the meeting.

The status of the blue tubs at the intersection of King Street and Bullregard.

I started asking about this project and this information at least four years ago.

And every time I hear, oh yes, we're going to be working, oh yes, we're going to be working on it, and we guess.

And now I've got a response that says we'll be starting this at the end of the summer.

Who follows these requests, these comments?

How are these followed?

Are they put in a database?

Does somebody check them?

Does somebody follow through and give responses so that we know that things are moving along?

Or is it left up to us to have to continually come and ask the same question over and over?

Thank you, Carolyn.

Any questions for the speaker?

Yeah.

Can you answer that, Hillary?

Sure, I can answer that.

Um Hillary Orr, Deputy Director for Transportation.

Um, Caroline, I believe you're talking about the King and Beauregard Intersection Project, which has been going on for several years now.

Um we have had quite a few delays with design and with our coordination with the state, but this project is being advertised for construction this spring.

So we do anticipate that it will begin construction the summer.

We do try and update the project website so folks don't have to come to meetings to ask questions.

We are trying to put information out through that.

We also provide quarterly capital status reports to city council that give updates on uh on these various projects.

But we look forward to finally getting this project to construction this summer.

Thank you.

Okay, now moving back to the consent items.

Items five and six.

Are there uh there was no discussion?

Do I have a motion to approve?

Yeah, I couldn't hear you.

Sorry.

I'll still move.

Go ahead.

Second.

Okay, all those in favor of approving items five and six.

Opposed.

Both motions carried.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, just as a reminder, we were told we need to be sure even when we're talking to each other that we talk into the microphone because they don't pick up as well to the side.

Okay, now on to item seven.

Parking removal and additions, old town circulator parking modifications at bus stops.

Good.

Is that too loud for everybody?

Okay.

Um, good evening, members of the traffic and parking board.

Um, my name is Silas Sullivan.

I am a transportation planner for the city, and tonight I'll be presenting to you on the old town circulator stop rebalancing effort.

Next slide, please.

A little bit about the project's location here.

Um circulator runs from King Street Metro Station to the Braddock Road Metro station.

Um last winter, um, we usually have first phase of this project occurred on King Street where we rebalanced the bus stops there.

Um, so this effort really is focused on the rest of the circulator route along Madison Street, Montgomery Street, and North Fairfax Street from City Hall Market Square up to Braddock Road Metro.

Um this corridor serves various residential, commercial, and recreational uses between Old Town and Old Town North.

Next slide, please.

Um, some existing conditions along the corridor.

I think citywide, there were a record 5 and 0.7 million Dash riders in fiscal year 2025.

Kind of carrying on to that the importance of this corridor.

This is one of the highest ridership routes in the city of Alexandria.

Lines 30 and 31 specifically are high frequency network.

They have a large span of service and also very frequent with buses coming every seven and a half to 12 minutes throughout the day.

Some of the concerning conditions along the corridor are currently the lack of ADA accessibility.

Only 10 of the 26 bus stops between Market Square and Braddock Road are ADA compliant right now.

And that could mean a range of things, but just really to show you through pictures, one of which means that there's not clearly a clear and unobstructed boarding area at the bus stop.

So this is usually you'd call a concrete pad, but really it's a flat level surface for a rider to board and alight the bus.

Also at several bus stops along the corridor, parking blocks the bus stop, which means that as evidenced by the picture on the left, you'll have riders trying to board and alight through parked cars, which is a dangerous condition and also is not really feasible for riders of all abilities.

Further, um, one additional point I'd like to say is that currently the stop pairs along the corridor are inconsistent.

Um basically this means that if you get off going eastbound, the westbound bus stop isn't right across the street.

It might be a block up or down the street, um, which really isn't the best condition in terms of making sure the pedestrians stay on the march crosswalks.

And also um imagine you are commuting to and from work.

Usually you would like to go to and from the same place.

So board and alight the same spot.

It's important to show that you know, this is a permanent service.

This is an important service.

Um incomplete stop areas do not um show that.

Next slide, please.

Um we really had five primary goals and objectives um of this rebalancing effort.

First and foremost is to improve access at all bus stops along the corridor and bring them up to ADA compliance standards so that riders of all abilities can safely board and alight the bus.

Next is um we would like to pursue amenity enhancements where feasible.

I do want to highlight the where feasible comment.

Um not all locations along these corridors are created equal.

Um, old town is historic.

Um the sidewalks are narrow in some cases, and staff would never propose installing seating or other amenities where um conditions would prohibit the safe circulation of riders.

Again, kind of carrying on that um accessibility comment.

Next, better bus stop payers, um, improving the recognition of the service for locals and visitors to make sure that if you are boarding in one location, you can get there and then leave in the same location later on.

Um, and also this kind of better bus stop areas and poobs, stop spacing throughout the corridor.

So instead of having a bus stop every block, maybe it's every two blocks, um, so that the bus can run um better on time performance, which is our next goal as well.

Finally, um, really the project team was very conscious about the importance of parking along the corridor.

Um so the city worked collaboratively with Dash to identify opportunities where bus stops could be rebalanced, although bus stops could be removed or relocated to give parking back to residents along certain corridors or certain um parts of the corridor where parking might otherwise need to be um modified or removed to allow for the safe access of the bus to the curb for boarding and alighting.

Next slide, please.

So important plans and policies.

Um chapter four of the Alexandria Mobility Plan specifically calls out that bus stops must be accessible for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Um it also does provide some context that um enhancements should be made to amenities to improve comfort and safety for transit riders.

And again, just touching base on the project that happened last winter, where um staff, Dash and City staff um removed six bus stops, added two more on King Street to improve all the project goals.

Stop spacing, um, on-time performance and ADA access.

Next slide, please.

Um just a note on the partnership between transportation and environmental services, city and dash, um, clarify for folks that the city is responsible for the physical bus stop infrastructure.

So the city's responsible for the ADA boarding area, amenities at the bus stop location, and then Dash is responsible for the transit service and the transit operations.

Next slide, please.

Taking us into the proposed condition.

So at left on the screen is the existing stops along the corridor.

And I will get into further detail via east and westbound on the corridor on the next slides, but just want to highlight here the existing condition, which is 26 bus stops between Market Square and Braddock Road Metro.

On the planned condition, there are 21 bus stops.

So in total, staff propose to remove 10 bus stops and add five more.

Doing so, creating better stop pairs, ADA compliance across the corridor, and also improving on time performance as well.

Next slide, please.

So our proposed conditions going east.

Propose to add four bus stops and remove five.

As you can see on the map here, they are highlighted stops that would remove parking, the numbers denoted in red, and then stops where parking would be added or given back are noted in green.

So staff is asking for the ability to remove to give parking back at this location, but I do want to note that Dash was unable to post a rider notice at this stop already.

So pending if the board chooses to adopt the proposed modifications for the corridor.

Dash would need to post a rider notice at this location to remove the bus stop.

Next slide, please.

Propose to remove five bus stop locations and add one.

And again, the same note at Madison and West Street here.

Sometimes it's hard to try and convey this to the public that you know not to speak for Dash in the transit operators, but you know, stop locations aren't as simple as just you know throwing a dart at a map and saying, hey, let's stop here.

Um a lot goes into that, including you know taking note of activity generators.

Are we close to you know residential developments, schools, parks, um, churches?

Or is this a transfer point?

Um, for example, probably should have said this on the eastbound map, but for example, going eastbound, it's important to keep a stop, say at Fairfax and Pendleton, because that's the last stop before line 34 veers off of lines 30 and 31.

Um, so keeping making sure that activity centers and um those transfer points are identified or important for kind of best utilizing the service.

Next slide, please.

To summarize the large maps of changes here and there, um we propose to remove up to 24 parking spaces along the corridor and add up to 24 parking spaces back through modification of existing no parking and bus stop locations.

In total, um, this would mean no net change in the number of parking spaces available along the corridor as it exists today.

Next slide, please.

Some notes on community feedback.

Um, project signs were posted at all proposed parking room modification bus stops in the month of January for three weeks.

Um separately posted rider alert notices at all the bus stops, except for Madison West Street for potential alteration.

Um further staff had project information on the website, which depicted reasoning for the project as well as proposed stop changes and maps.

Um we had a feedbook feedback form live for three weeks in January.

Um we received nine comments.

Three comments were specifically directed toward um the bus stop at or the proposed bus stop location at Queen Street and North Fairfax Street going westbound, so going toward Market Square.

In fact, I believe separately residents submitted a very valuable piece of information, kind of proposing their own alternate plan for the corridor.

We took note of that.

The city and Dash collaboratively reviewed it against a numerous factors, essentially trade-offs between that and our existing plan.

How does this impact ADA compliance?

Overall project goals.

Ultimately, staff deferred that the existing plan was our preferred alternative.

I will note that ultimately in our preliminary deliberations for this project versus where the that proposed stop is versus moving it behind to the next block behind it.

We chose to keep it where it is now because we had only asked to remove two parking spaces at this location versus four.

So if we moved it across the street, we would need to double the parking asset at this location.

But again, we do did appreciate that valuable um input from the residents.

Further, in the feedback form, we received specific comments about the bus stop going again toward Market Square at Madison Street and St.

ASAF Street, right in front of the Harris Theater and the Royal Restaurant.

Ultimately, staff chose to not retain this bus stop location in our proposal because of a few factors, one of which being there's a big utility pole in the existing bus stop in the sidewalk and the need to remove significant amount of parking at this location and really the inability to expand the sidewalk there to make it ADA compliant.

Noting that the bus stop on the same block, one south at Pitt Street has a curb extension and seating.

Finally, um Dash wrote a letter of support for this project.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for Silas?

No questions?

Okay, I I actually have one.

You mentioned that utility poll.

And it strikes me that we've run into this problem before where utility poles happen to be in a bad place.

Um and we kind of move past them.

Do we document those somewhere so that maybe we create a utility pole removal project list uh to you know fund doing fixing those uh throughout the city?

We've had this situation on sidewalks where the utility poles are in the wrong spot, but it's just way cost prohibitive at this point to address it.

But how does the city track those?

So I will say we do maintain the robust bus stop inventory of factors that impact the stop locations.

I myself do not track utility pole placements.

Um not sure if other staff could speak to that, but I can I can see and get back to you as well.

So we're actually um kicking off a pilot where we are scanning our roadways.

Um we started this off to look at maintenance, pavement condition, potholes, but we're seeing that the technology can pick up a lot of other assets as well and help us digitize those them.

So um utility polls is something that we could look at and um through that pilot, we would be able to see if we're getting accurate information about where the poll is located and how much sidewalk width is on either side of it to know if it's creating ADA issues.

So that's a good suggestion.

And we're about to kick this off, so it'd be a great way to get that in a digital inventory.

Perfect.

I'll add one more to that, which is the location of the push buttons for people to cross the cross across the street.

Uh, those buttons are sometimes in the most illogical location for somebody who's visual.

Uh if you can't see, I don't know how they find some of those.

So if you can capture that, that also would be good.

Thank you.

Yes.

Um, I'd like to move back to the the queen stop.

I guess I I'm not quite sure what the understanding.

I could you explain a little more about uh the community feedback and and why you why Dash and after communications determined to stay with the current uh recommendation.

Yeah, sure.

So um ultimately we kind of took that location versus the other location.

Um obviously we went through kind of pros, cons about specific locations at all bus stops along the corridor.

Basically, is it near side?

So is it before the intersection or is it far side um across the intersection?

Um at this specific location, our original thought process was if it's far side, so across the intersection, um, you only need to remove two parking spaces to achieve ADA compliance versus if you have it before the intersection, you need to remove four parking spaces.

Um so that really aligned with that goal um at first and foremost.

Um, when even when taken into the other consideration of the valuable input that um the residents submitted, um, it really came down to um access that far side of the intersection has a clear front door boarding area than the near side.

Um I know there is a large tree on the far side stop, um, of which we would not touch.

We're not touching any trees or anything beyond.

Um, I know that if it was near sides before the intersection going westbound, there might need to be some tree trimming there.

Um not for that to direct the conversation, but um anyway.

All right, thanks.

I just wanted a little a little more detail whether it was solely the parking or if there were some other factors, and it sounds like there were other factors going into this.

Thanks.

Anyone else?

Do we have any speakers on this?

We have two speakers in person so far.

We'll have Scott Corzine followed by Ellen Mosher.

And then if you're interested in speaking on docket item seven online, please raise your hand.

I understand that my slide won't work.

Five slides.

My slides don't work on this.

So I'm gonna uh direct your attention to the graphics on these slides, and I'll wait till you give them out.

Okay.

Great, good evening.

I'm Scott Corazon.

I live at 300 Queen Street at the corner of Queen and Fairfax.

On pages two and three of the slide deck I've provided you and did so earlier, you'll see that we've proposed to Dash Bus an improved and less expensive way to rebalance the stops on both the east and westbound routes of the old town circulator.

The small X's and checks inside were Dash bus's original plan, and the larger red donuts show the stops our plan would additionally eliminate, and the large green donuts show those that we would either keep or add.

Our plan better meets Dash Bus's target objectives and saves money by further eliminating six OTC stops without service degradation.

Tonight, using slide four that I would direct your attention to, we asked the board to consider three much better alternatives to the pro proposed Queen Fairfax stop.

We use the city zone software tool and measured curb length for each alternative, shown in yellow for the curb length of the stop, and the length of each to the city hall stop shown in either green or red.

The best alternative is not to move the westbound princess Fairfax stop at all.

It has 61 feet of space, and the proposed stop at Queen Street has 39 feet of space, and our buses are 40 feet long.

It'll better serve ARHA riders and those from the new developments plan for the 300 block of Fairfax.

Its distance to City Hall remains below the NATCO target and improves the other Fairfax stops to approximately 765 feet apart.

But if this stop must be removed for some reason, the optimal relocation spot is midway on the 300 block in front of a commercial establishment with a full 50 feet of space, where neighbors enjoy off-street parking and won't be impacted, unlike at the southwest corner of Queen.

That stop would be directly across the street from the proposed eastbound stop.

The next better option is the northwest corner of Queen and Fairfax, which offers us full 67 feet of space for buses.

This location also doesn't impact residents there who also have their own driveway.

Each of these three alternatives better meets Dash's goal to approach the national target of 1,320 feet between stops, as you can see, measured from City Hall.

Each provides more spaces for buses, eliminates fewer critical parking spaces, and eliminates zero vision zero safety issues at the already heavily congested space where Queen and Fairfax have to accommodate large tour buses that turn on to Fairfax.

Any questions for the speaker?

Any?

So you said we who do you represent?

Just my neighbors and I yeah, not an organization.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the speaker?

Thank you.

Do I have a motion?

We have more speakers.

Oh, sorry.

You're right.

Next speaker is Alan Mosher, and then we'll move to two folks online.

We have Christopher Christopher followed by Asa Orn Brown.

Hi, my name is Ellen Mosier.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

And um Per Scott's Corzine's research on Fairfax Street, the space between King and Queen on his um on the slides that he gave you is 769 feet.

However, a bus stop would not be at that corner of Queen and Fairfax, it'd be 50 feet closer to King Street.

So it would be about 719 feet away.

In other words, it'd just be a block and a half from the King Street stop.

And so it doesn't make a lot of sense to move a bus stop a block and a half from the next stop where it currently sits on Princess and Fairfax is about you know three blocks away.

And that seems a little more logical to have it three blocks away than a block and a half.

Next, um basically on uh bus stop guidelines, it says that you know bus stops should not partially or fully block a driveway, and bus stops need to be um allocated so you are 10 feet from the crosswalk, and this has a crosswalk, and the space that's provided from the crosswalk to the alleyway is only 39 feet.

So if you have a 40 foot bus plus 10 feet from the crosswalk, that's 50 feet.

This space does not allow a bus stop to be there without wiping out most of the stop uh the the block, and then the bus stops in the middle of the block, and you're only a block and a half from the next bus stop.

Um right now, the way the pairing is with both the both uh northbound and southbound bus stops being at Fairfax and Princess, they're basically side by side each other, and it seems like where they are right now seems to be a good location for both of them.

Uh thank you.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Now we've got folks online too, you said.

Yes, our first speaker is online, is Christopher Christopher, followed by Ace Oren Brown.

Christopher Christopher, I'm gonna allow you to speak now.

Uh good evening.

Can you can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Oh, great, great.

Good evening, Mr.

Chairman and members of the board.

My name is Christopher Brown, and I appreciate the opportunity to join you online.

I apologize for being out of town.

Um I live at 226 North Fairfax Street.

And if you look at that, I think Scott or Mr.

Corzine had a photograph of uh of my house and his house or where this proposed bus stop is.

You'll be able to see both my house and my driveway and everything that's going on right there.

I've lived here for 36 years.

Um so as such, I've seen a lot of changes in old town.

And change is inevitable.

I understand that.

And I have to say most of the changes that I've seen over the 36 years have been for the better and better very positive.

And I think ultimately the goals of this proposal are positive.

However, this putting a stop at this location is is both inappropriate and just very unfortunate.

There's an awful lot going on right there.

If you come away from the intersection, the first thing you encounter is a storm drain, an old original one, which started out with a stone top on my since been replaced with concrete.

You next come to a tree well with a large sycamore tree in it, and then and then you come to my drive in.

And right directly behind the tree well is my uh stairs enter in the front door of my house.

The distance between the tree well and my front steps is is only passable for one person.

I mean, it's it's a little a little over three feet wide.

So to put a bus stop at this location, particularly one that you're trying to make AVA compliant and try to get it around all those facilities.

I just don't, in all honesty, think uh it's it's doable.

It I heard um in the presentation of staff that the primary motivation in choosing this location over some other location, which uh which we think is probably preferable as Mr.

Forzano, uh was the fact that this location only removes two parking spaces, the two right in front of my house, and the other one would remove four.

The fact that it's only 39 feet long uh is as raised by this measure is relevant, I think.

But it seems like you're taking advantage of my driveway to pick up the extra space.

Anyone that has ever tried to back out of the driveway between cars and or hopefully not between the bus.

It's it's a challenge.

We're taking a risk every time we do it.

And the way we do it, my wife and I do it.

We we back out extremely slowly and kind of get the rear end of our car out into Fairfax because you can't really see the cars are coming from the north.

So you just kind of inch out there and wait, wait until somebody lets you out.

To try to do that around the bus, I have to tell you it's gonna be much more difficult and and much more bigger.

Um, I think the proposals that were outlined are superior area.

Uh I think they bear at least some consideration before we move on this item.

And I would I would hope that you would look favorably on this.

Uh thank you very much.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for the speaker?

Our next speaker is Asa Orrin Brown, followed by Tim Chase.

Thank you so much.

Uh, I'm a big supporter of this project.

I think it's great that you're working on ADA compliance uh and accessibility at the bus stops.

It's uh a big problem throughout the city.

Um I just want to make sure uh that you're consulting with the high school for the Madison bus stop removal.

Uh I'm guessing the one at North Fayette is their preferred bus stop for students um because of the crosswalk there.

Uh, but just I just want to be sure that there's more than a sign that there's direct outreach to the satellite campus of the high school.

Uh those two stops are the main way that most students reach that school.

Uh, there are a few walkers, there are some metro riders, there are some bikers as well, but a lot of the students take the public dash bus because there's no school bus bringing them there.

So I just want to be sure that a part of that process I involves reaching out to the school directly and students at the school uh to make sure they're being accommodated.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can you answer his question?

Yeah.

Um I'll need to touch base with Dash about their particular outreach at that stop location, but I do know that they are aware of the significant um at West Street, I assume the speaker is referring to.

Um they are aware of the significant um amount of um alightments that happen at that stop because of the um satellite campus there.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tim Chase.

I'm gonna allow you to speak.

That's all the speakers I have online.

So if you want to speak on this item, please raise your hand.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, good deal.

Uh good evening.

My name is Tim Chase, and I live at 224 North Fairfax.

So uh next door to Mr.

Braun and Mr.

Uh Corzine.

Um, and just south of that Fairfax and Queen Street intersection.

Um, fully agree with uh what Mr.

Corzon pulled together with regards to a way to rebalance.

Um and I understand the importance of getting this rebalancing right, the importance of and all the value that that uh particular bus line provides to the city.

Uh, with that said, I'd like to just take a couple minutes and talk about uh traffic and safety concerns with the proposed stop.

And I think we've heard a couple here, but but real briefly on traffic, having two stops at Fairfax uh at the Queen intersection, both of which will have buses stopping immediately after crossing the intersection, is significantly going to stall traffic.

Um this is a busy intersection as it is, it's gonna get busier when 301 Fairfax is built.

And uh when buses stops stop with their back ends in the intersection, traffic is basically shut down.

Cars can't go through the intersection and things will be jammed up consistently.

Um the likelihood of buses stopping in both directions is going to be increased, obviously during rush hour when we need uh the best flow we can possibly get.

Um and obviously when the buses are are stopped, it's not just gonna impact Fairfax, it's gonna be everything on Queen, cars trying to turn and all the rest of it.

So um, this is a tough alignment when when we've got buses with the back ends in the intersection.

I can't frequently come up Fairfax and turn north on or come on King Street and turn north on Fairfax.

There's one of these stops there, and I often miss a light because a bus's back end is sitting there in the road.

So um so it's a challenge in general.

Um second part of this is around safety, which is really the biggest concern.

Um, we got a lot of foot traffic at this intersection.

Uh Queen is a primary entryway, obviously, to Founders Park.

There are restaurants along Queen Street there in the summer, there's just a lot of activity coming up and down the street.

So when buses again are stopped with their tail ends in the intersection, you're gonna have uh pedestrians crossing behind the buses, looking around the edges of buses, hoping nobody's coming the other way.

And we've got the bad behavior of people being frustrated with buses blocking intersections that'll cross into the other lanes.

I think it sets us up as a community for an unfortunate event because life goes on with these buses back ends there, and people just just will not have the visibility as to what's going on as drivers or as pedestrians.

So with those as considerations, um, I uh you know, I'd advise in general we don't have situations where buses stop right after intersections.

And unfortunately, we got a corner here where we're doing it with two bus stops.

So um, you know, what would ask for the reconsideration to make sure we really want to get in that kind of situation?

So that's all I had.

I really do appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Any questions for the speaker?

Any other speakers, Sheila?

Oh, we have one more speaker.

Martha Eckdahl, I'm gonna allow you to speak.

Oh, hello.

Thank you so much.

Um, my name is Martha Actal, and I'm one of the 5.4 million dash riders as a commuter to Alexandria.

And I just wanted to provide some balance to the other comments.

Um, I recognize that as homeowners, it is difficult to live in a community where there are a lot of bus riders and a lot of people frequenting old town.

Um, I just wanted to speak on safety.

As far as I know, the bus drivers do receive hundreds of hours of training to drive.

Um, and they also hold way more passengers than single passenger vehicles.

So there is a traffic element there that is saved by having more people ride the bus and making it easier for cars to get through.

Um, and then I would also assume that um stop placement does take into account the intersections.

Um, I know that in DC there is a big movement to change bus stops to post intersection to avoid getting caught at lights um and stop signs.

And so I would imagine that what is being proposed here is following some other guidelines.

So I will yield the rest of my time.

Thank you again.

Uh thank you.

Any questions for the speaker?

Okay.

Okay, that's it.

Uh, so are there any more questions for staff?

Uh oh, sorry, got to close the public hearing.

We have to vote on that.

No, okay, close the public hearing.

Um, any more questions?

No.

Anyone want to make a motion?

Any I move that um we recommend the director of TNES remove up to 12 on-street parking spaces and add eight on-street parking spaces on North Fairfax Street, remove up to three on-street parking spaces and add nine on-street parking spaces on Montgomery Street, and remove up to nine on-street parking spaces and add seven on-street parking spaces on Madison Street.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

I have one question for you then before we vote.

Uh, which is would you consider adding add up to seven, add up to and add up to?

Yeah.

Okay.

So to clarify, then you're suggesting Yeah.

So um for adding the parking spaces, it's an up to eight, up to nine, and up to seven.

And we had a second.

Any further discussion.

Hearing none.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

I seven.

Thank you, Sas.

Okay, dock item eight, overnight parking district, uh, Beverly Hills.

Hello, everyone.

Max Sevillers, parking curbside management.

Uh tonight I'll be presenting on a um petition from uh residents of 10 blocks in Beverly Hills for the creation of a new restricted overnight parking district.

So photos here shown um in the presentation are uh two of many from the parking survey that the city uh ordered with uh an independent contractor conducted during the hours required to um as stipulated by a city code to create this district.

So as you can see here, one was at 12.08 a.m.

one was at 1215 a.m.

This is on uh January 14th.

And as you can see, many of the streets overnight on many of these blocks are uh pretty well occupied.

So uh with restricted overnight parking districts in general, uh we do have one.

Uh it's 12A, it's in the west end and kind of bits and chunks.

Um, and so this would be our second one in the city.

Uh it does not require any physical permits to um be exempt from the posted restrictions, and the um an overnight parking would be prohibited from midnight to 6 a.m.

uh nightly on all blocks with those posted restrictions, unless your vehicle is registered with the city.

So you pay Alexandria personal property taxes on that vehicle, or if you're displaying a guest or visitor permit for that district.

And um as shown in the image here, the signage would be identical on every block.

This uh slide here shows the proposed um boundaries of this new district, of course, like any of our other districts.

Um this could be expanded, it could also be um reduced in size.

Uh, but this is the current proposal.

This is what you're voting on tonight.

Um we've kind of uh the blocks are numbered a little uh differently than they are in old town, for example, but we've kind of separated them into 10 separate blocks, and this is what it would end up looking like as a district.

And uh as you can see, that's West Glebe to the north, um, where you're heading into our landria, and then this is kind of the uh the northern side of Beverly Hills.

These are the stipulations laid out in city code for establishing a new restricted overnight parking district.

Um, so you know, very simply, all property in the district must be um zoned for residential use.

No district um shall include property that's included in another existing district, and the district must include a minimum of 200 on-street parking spaces.

So I went through uh every block uh that was proposed by um this group of residents for this new district, and even accounting for all the no parking spaces, all of the fire hydrants, anywhere where you wouldn't be allowed, uh no parking within 20 feet of intersection of curb lines, that sort of thing.

Um we still uh there were still about 400 417 spaces, so it uh more than met the uh the requirements for creating a new district, and uh to establish a new district, they were um it would require them getting at least 66.7 percent of the households in the district to sign the petition in support.

Um so there were a hundred and thirty households in the proposed district, and they they were required to get 93 as a result, they got 95.

Um so they met that requirement, and then the the last requirement was for us to conduct a survey of the parking conditions sometime between midnight and 6 a.m.

Um on a weekday.

So we did that.

Um it was a Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.

Um, and it was just after midnight with our independent contractor.

Um, and they did indeed find that um at least 25% of the vehicles parked in the district were not registered with the city, which means that they are eligible by city code to establish this district.

This is just a quick little table I whipped up of um the uh averages for every block um that I cobbled together.

Um I mentioned earlier.

And um, as you can see, parking occupancy on many of the blocks is pretty high, especially given the lack of retail in the area, uh the lack of night life in the area.

So they the residents have been, you know, notifying us of this issue for years.

And so it was good to get some some numbers there in our database for that.

And then the final column on the right shows the number of the percentage of unregistered vehicles.

And as you can see there, none of none of the blocks have less than 25% occupancy of unregistered vehicles, and some of them are quite high, almost 100%.

In terms of outreach, uh the residents canvas door to door on all 10 blocks, and like I said, collected 95 signatures of support.

Uh city staff, you know, we've been emailing with residents from Beverly Hills for years about this.

Um we've also emailed with residents from Arlandria and Hume Springs about this issue.

Um, and you know, I we we try to coordinate an effort.

This is a resident-led um process.

This is not something that the city did on their own.

I tried helping coordinate and connecting you know, concerned citizens together, but this is a resident-led process, and um, this is eventually what was brought forth to us.

So it was these 10 blocks in Beverly Hills.

Um we emailed all the Zoom registrants about this as well because we saw that there was a little bit of confusion back in January.

Um the January Patrick Parking Board meeting was obviously postponed, canceled.

Um, and so we re-notified all of all of the registrants again in February.

And um City staff posted a public notice on each of the 10 blocks in the district, and we also notified the Northridge Civic Association in January as well as February.

And with that, uh, we recommend the board recommend the city manager approve the creation of a restricted overnight parking district in the Beverly Hills neighborhood.

Thank you, Max.

Any questions for staff?

Question.

Yes, Mark.

Um, who are these people that are parking here that are non-resident?

Uh sense of why they're why that's attractive to parking here.

I think it's attractive because there are no restrictions, and it is within walking distance of other you know, helpful uh like destinations essentially.

Uh there's there's bus lines, you know, there are there are restaurants, there's it's but there are no restrictions.

Whereas as you get closer to where the bus routes are, closer to where the retail is, there are some restrictions.

And um, but yes, we don't have any data on who exactly these unregistered vehicles are.

We just know they're not registered with the city.

Thank you.

Interesting.

So I am seeing an awful lot of vehicles here.

If we're creating this district, I'm a little worried that we're just gonna kick them out to the surrounding area.

How easy is it to basically add blocks to this district once it's created to if that becomes an issue in the future?

Uh it's it's pretty simple.

It's essentially the same kind of petition form.

Um, and they would just need to get that 66.7% of approval, and we could bring it before you all and expand the district.

Um going back to this, you may have sort of answered this, Max, but on not regist vehicles not registered in the city.

If I understand correctly, uh uh individuals in the military uh, you know, can maintain their uh car registration in any state.

And is there any way for the city to know when they're looking at you know parking on a street that's not like I assume that's not registered in the city of Alexandria then?

Like there would be is there any way to know military or not military?

Uh there that wasn't something that we asked finance to look into.

I don't know if that's something they can look into.

I do know that every household in this district um does have some sort of or the majority, large majority of them have some sort of access to off-street parking as well.

So if there are military households or some, you know, we have snowbirds in the city as well.

Um they could park off street during those hours.

Um so you mentioned that one of the um efforts before coming to the solution was an increase in parking enforcement.

Was that something that um can you just explain how that was or wasn't effective?

Yeah, I think um as you can see that just the sheer number of uh vehicles uh and the levels of staffing we have between midnight and 6 a.m.

Um I in addition when there are no restrictions on the street, the only thing we have is a 72-hour rule.

Um, and the other one would be commercial vehicles, uh, the enforcement of commercial vehicles, but it can be very difficult to identify what really is a commercial vehicle.

And then my other question, um, so if we create this um district, is the cost of getting a guest or visitor permit for residents the same as in like other RPPs?

What is how much is that?

Like if they have uh you know someone out of town who's visiting and they want to be able to tell them they can park on the street, how much would that be?

Yeah, so yeah, no, no physical permits uh for an overnight parking district, so residents wouldn't have to pay anything, but their guests um it's free for up to five days per month, and then it's five dollars per permit, and that can actually be for multiple days.

So it's a very, very low cost for visitors, yes.

Sorry, I'll guess past the are those consecutive days are just five days total per month.

It's the it's like a five-day guest permit is like free, but if you because you can have a visitor permit up to 25 days, and that would be five dollars, 25 days per month.

Perfect.

Thanks.

So I have one question about adding more uh streets to this.

We got a fair number of emails and letters from folks who live on Elbert Street, so across uh Glebe Road, yeah.

And they sort of contended they've been trying to fight this issue for a number of years themselves, and and nothing happens.

So would they be eligible to uh join this parking district?

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, it's residential.

However, one of the nuances on Elbert Street is there's kind of mixed housing.

So you've got single family, you've got townhomes, and you've got apartments.

And I know there's an issue of trying to get petition signed for people who are in apartment buildings.

And I think we talked about this on a in a different uh uh area, which is that uh in the case of apartments, you could get the signature from the landlord or the manager uh in lieu of.

Um so I think that would be helpful to clarify for any of these other areas that would like to join this district, that there are uh ways to ensure that they get their you know, the full number that they need to get to be able to be added uh to this.

Because I think what uh some of those letters implied was that when we solve this problem on uh the south side of Glebe Road, Glebe Road, we're just gonna push it to the north side of Glee Road.

Right.

And so we need to be prepared to uh support them also.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any other questions, discussion.

Uh we've got uh speakers.

Yes, we have um several speakers.

It's gonna be Jeffrey Boyle, followed by Richard Coyne, followed by Dana Stefanelli, followed by Meredith Taylor.

If you're interested in speaking online, beyond that list, please raise your hand.

Who's the first one?

Jeffrey Boyle.

Jeffrey Doyle.

Hello, and hello, and thank you.

Uh Jeffrey Boyle, I live at 3811 Brighton Court, uh, which is right uh about a block outside of the proposed district.

And I guess I'm sort of looking for clarity and then a question and maybe an acrest for an accommodation.

Um I I'm I'm a resident of the city.

It sounds like this would not affect me.

Is that true?

Yeah, your your block is not included yet, but you could expand to include it.

But if I but say, okay, so like when we have out-of-town guests, um, I'll give them one of my parking passes.

We got limited parking in the cul-de-sac, and then I'll put my car out on old Dominion.

It sounds like that wouldn't be a problem still, right?

Because I'm a because I'm okay.

Correct.

Okay.

Then the other question is since we're outside of the district, and if I had an out-of-town guest and I wanted to have them park out there instead, if I was usually a generous host, and I move my car instead of them.

Um could we, even though I'm outside of the district, could I apply for the guest pass?

No, no, you'd have to be in the district to get the permit.

Yes.

Okay, all right.

Um I would request that maybe that would be something that could be considered if you're close to it, because there's not really any for anywhere else for my guests to park.

So that would be my one request.

Yeah.

That's it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And next speaker is Richard Coy, followed by Dana Stefanelli, followed by Meredith Taylor, followed by Devin Wells.

Good evening.

Uh Richard Coyne with uh Brighton Square Homeowners Association.

We're a block a couple blocks over off of West Glebe.

Um, as uh my neighbor just mentioned, we do have situations where we have overnight guests, and on occasion they will need to park on um old dominion back in Beverly Hills, because we do have limited number of parking spots in our community.

So as mentioned that it's not included.

We do ask that you would consider including over towards uh Brighton Square, possibly in this, so that in the event we do have like an overnight guest or situation that they would be able to apply for a guest spot, obviously for um those that are eligible and registered in the city to do it.

Otherwise, we end up having to find somewhere half a mile, a mile away just to park a car, especially given with the increase of uh uh large apartment complex just down the street.

So we do ask that you consider expanding it to include some of the smaller HOA communities that have very limited parking.

Thank you.

Thank you for your input.

Uh essentially, they could apply to be part of it.

So you would need to go through the application process to get your community as part of the uh this.

So we can't do it blank.

You have to do it yourself.

Yeah, if you could like to do that.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Dana Stefanelli, followed by Meredith Taylor and then Devin Wells.

Hi, I'm Dana Stefanelli.

I guess I'm part of the Brighton Square contingent tonight.

Uh I would just mention we do have several military families in our community with out-of-state tags, so they would be adversely affected by this.

Uh and uh apparently we'll have to apply to be included in the zone, but uh I don't think anybody knew any of that.

So uh some some time delay or something to allow us to accommodate them would be helpful.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Meredith Taylor and Devin Wells.

They'll be online.

Meredith Taylor, I'm gonna allow you to speak.

Hello, can you hear me all?

Yes.

Hi, uh, my name is Meredith Taylor, and I'm speaking in support of this petition to establish an overnight parking district in Beverly Hills.

Um, I was a leader of this effort and have spoken with councilman McPike as well as members of TES in support of this.

I also would like to highlight I am a retired military spouse.

My husband retired after uh 27 years of service about a year ago.

And so I'm familiar with the process of applying for um cars to register in Virginia and getting for car tax relief through that process.

It is something that military families would have the option to do so that they would not be adversely affected by this.

Um when we purchased our home on Tennessee nine years ago, parking was rarely an issue, but increasingly over the last six years, our streets have increasingly filled with commercial and constructor vans, Uber and Lyft vehicles, and out-of-state cars.

Many left for days with flat tires and severe damage.

On some blocks, like at the intersection of Tennessee and Norris, almost every single car has an Uber or Lyft sticker.

These cars vastly outnumber the resident cars as shown in the TS statistics.

You ask how why how and why people are parking here.

We've heard anecdotally that our neighborhood appears in Facebook groups for Uber and Lyft drivers as a quote unquote safe place to park and convenient to bus lines.

Consistent with the contractor's report, these vehicles appear to be largely unregistered in the city of Alexandria.

They congest our narrow streets, they hinder emergency vehicles, school buses, and tax collection.

I can nearly barely see around the intersection of Tennessee, North Overlook, and Old Dominion, with numerous construction vans blocking site lines and creating visibility issues.

My own car, as well as several neighbors' cars, have all been totaled in hit and run nighttime accidents with cars coming through the neighborhood.

And those are just most of the most significant ones, not counting minor vehicle damage.

We've had trash and inappropriate activity, litter, marijuana coming from parked cars, beer bottles, and even a disturbing daytime incident where an Uber driver approached a child and offered her money as she was playing out in front of her house.

These things are just simply not acceptable from a safety perspective in Alexandria.

The excess vehicles create problems with drop-off and pickup at Beverly Hills Church Preschool.

And for the many children that are crossing to and from St.

Rita's and Grace Episcopal School.

We've met, as I mentioned, with the um the representatives from TES and with councilman, and they encouraged us to support this district.

I want to say that despite only having 95 supporters, almost 100% of the people who actually we spoke to about the petition who lives on these blocks signed and supported the petition.

We had virtually no people who who did not want to support it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Any questions?

Next speaker.

Our next speaker is Devin Wells.

I'm going to allow you to speak.

Okay, I think it's working now.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I'm only speaking on the issue of uh military registrants.

We live on Alabama Avenue, which is adjacent to the district, but because we traverse on Kentucky Avenue, which is also the bus line for our children's bus that comes every morning.

As to the military issue, we we were in the military, much like Meredith.

We retired and our cars were registered out of state before my husband retired.

And even out of state registered vehicles were registered, they were registered to our Alexandria address.

I'm unsure how they checked the residency status, but if you had run our out of state plate, you would have seen that we are registered to an Alexandria address.

And so if we tie the registration to the registration address, I don't know if that will actually affect military individuals.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions?

More speakers.

Close the public hearing.

Are there any comments?

Questions for staff.

And somebody want to make a motion.

I'll do this one too.

I move that we recommend the city manager approve the creation of a restricted overnight parking district in the Beverly Hills neighborhood.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Okay.

Uh all those in favor.

Oh, sorry, discussion.

Okay, all those in favor.

Casey.

Can I just um ask if it's possible for staff to do uh affirmative outreach to some of the communities that have spoken up that are also interested to make sure that they're clear on the process for um and timeline for um considering this process as well that are not included in the current proposals boundaries.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay.

We got a second.

So uh all those in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

Okay.

Look at that.

We're on to docket item number nine.

And this is uh uh docket is uh travel lane and parking modifications for the Braddock Road corridor improvement projects.

And Alex, you're gonna Alex, before you get started.

Um when Alex finishes with her presentation, we're gonna take a short break for those of us up here on the dais to go use the restrooms.

Um, but we'll get back to all of the uh public hearings as soon as that.

I promise it won't be more than 10 minutes.

Thank you.

Okay, good evening, uh, members of the board.

My name is Alex Carroll.

I am the complete streets program manager for the city of Alexandria.

And as Casey stated, I'm here to talk about traveling and parking modifications for the Braddock Road Corridor Improvements Project.

I do want to sort of give everybody heads up.

It is going to be quite a lengthy presentation tonight, longer than our normal ones.

So get comfy.

We'll be here for a few minutes and appreciate your time and attention.

Next slide, please.

So we're going to go ahead and get into some background.

Next slide.

Starting with the project location.

So the area that we're talking about this evening is Braddock Road between West Street and Russell Road.

Braddock Road is a minor arterial roadway.

It is a major east-west connection across the city of Alexandria.

There's a number of notable land uses around here, most notably the Braddock Road Metro Rail Station, which you can see here on the slide on the eastern end of the project area.

We also have George Washington Middle School on the eastern end of the corridor.

We also have multifamily residential, mixed use, commercial, retail on the eastern end, and then in segments two and three between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road is primarily single family residential townhomes and duplexes.

Next slide, please.

So a little bit of background to kind of uh illuminate everybody on how we got here.

There's a number of uh adopted plans and policies uh that sort of drove uh city staff to explore some improvements in this area.

Uh first and foremost is our Alexandria Mobility Plan, um, which specifically recommends a bicycle connection east of Russell Road.

There's also a number of relevant um strategies and policies in that plan, um, including creating a safe, well-maintained and comfortable walking and biking environment, um, building out a connected bicycle network uh for people biking of all ages and abilities, um, increasing transportation choices by reducing or eliminating barriers to transit, and then promoting equitable allocation of curb space and allocating it in an equitable manner for its highest and best use.

Um, additionally, the precursor to this plan, the 2016 pedestrian and bicycle master plan called for uh improvements to the trail access.

Um in this area, we have the Potomac Yard Trail and the Metro Linear Trail, both of which meet Braddock Road in the project area.

And uh the that plan called out for making improvements to that area.

Uh additionally, we have our Vision Zero Action Plan, uh, which was adopted in 2017.

And through uh this plan, the cities adopted a goal of eliminating fatal and severe crashes.

Uh, part of how we do that is employing a safe system approach, which involves taking um preventative action to minimize crashes and recognizing that crashes are preventable.

Uh, we also have our complete streets policy that requires staff to incorporate complete streets infrastructure where possible.

Um, our environmental action plan, which was adopted just a few years ago, which calls for prioritizing low-carbon transportation modes.

And then lastly, um, just a couple of years ago, the city completed a safe routes to school walk audit uh for George Washington Middle School, um, which involved looking at the area around the school to identify opportunities for infrastructure improvements.

Uh, and among those recommendations was to um explore crossing improvements uh where the Potomac Yard Trail uh meets Braddock Road.

Uh next slide, please.

Um, I do also want to note that the portion of this corridor has been identified by the state as a priority for pedestrian and bicycle access and safety.

Um, this is from the uh VTrans, which is the Virginia Statewide Transportation Plan.

Uh, you can see on the eastern end uh near the metro station, it's rated as a high and very high priority for pedestrian and bicycle access, respectively.

Uh, and then between Mount Vernon Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue, it's rated as a high priority for pedestrian and bicycle access.

And then between Commonwealth and Russell, it's rated as high for bicycle access and medium for pedestrian access.

Uh and so in 2024, the uh city applied for technical assistance from the Virginia Department of Transportation to be able to study um improvements in this area.

Um, because this was also among their statewide priorities, they did grant that request.

And so um in 2024, they awarded um the city some technical assistance uh to to study this corridor.

And that's how this project was initiated.

Next slide.

So the project goal is, of course, to make it easier, safer, and more comfortable for people of all ages, modes, and abilities to travel on Braddock Road.

Next slide.

A little bit of project timeline just to kind of show where we're at.

We start with issue identification, which I just blankly called pre-2024 because there's been some uh there's been many cases over the years going back to the 70s of identifying issues in this area that need rectifying.

Um, and in various adopted plans, it's it's been recommended to uh to improve areas of Braddock Road.

Um, of course, we are currently in the planning and conceptual design phase that started in 2024, and here we are in 2026.

Um detailed design, uh, assuming that we conclude the planning and conceptual design phase would uh proceed after that and go from 2026 to 27, and then implementation would be expected in 2027 to 2028.

And then community engagement has been a part of this project and then would continue to be a part of uh the rest of the project lifecycle.

Next slide.

Uh so I'm gonna spend a couple of minutes talking about existing conditions uh on the corridor.

So you know, I noted before that we broke the segments up into three different segments because they are kind of distinct in their own ways and they all look a little bit different.

Um, you can see here how that is also the case when you look at the traffic conditions.

We have four signalized intersections in the study area.

Um if you look at the section between West Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, um, that's our area with the highest traffic volumes.

Uh ranges from about 13,000 to 15,000 vehicles per day.

Um, it sharply drops off once you get west of Mount Vernon Avenue because there's quite a lot, turn quite a lot of turns between Mount Vernon Avenue and Braddock.

Um and the vehicles per day is around 6400.

Uh, and then it picks back up again a little bit uh west of Commonwealth Avenue, where we've got about 7500 vehicles per day.

We also have heard reports uh from residents that speeding is a concern in this area, and we were able to validate that through our data through our data collection on the segment between West Street and Mount Vernon Avenue.

The 85th percentile speed uh ranges from 25 to 31 miles per hour, depending on which direction you're going.

Um, the second segment is between 29 and 30, and then between Russell and Commonwealth is the highest speed set we saw, which is 31 to 32 miles per hour.

And I'll just remind everyone that this entire corridor is um posted speed at 25 miles per hour.

Next slide.

I want to talk about the existing pedestrian conditions as well.

There are definitely several things here that uh came up during our existing conditions assessment.

Um, one through our own staff observations and through community feedback, which is the multiple threat crash risk at the two crosswalks near the metro station.

These are two uncontrolled crossings.

Um has uh a set of flashing beacons, uh, and the other one closer to 7-Eleven and George Washington Middle School does not.

Uh, however, both of the crosswalks require people to cross two lanes, reach a median, and then cross another two lanes of traffic.

Um, this is a really uh high risk scenario that we've observed.

Um, and what we've also heard validated from residents is that what will often happen is people start to cross the street.

A driver in the first lane might stop to let them cross, but then that driver blocks visibility for drivers in the next lane, uh, and the driver in the next lane does not stop.

And so there's been a lot of reports of near misses.

Um, this is a uh a scenario that we are very concerned about because this type of crash does when it does happen, does tend to be more severe because people are driving at speed when the collision occurs.

Um, next, we also observe very long crossing distances throughout the corridor.

I think as we all know, Braddock Road is kind of a like runs diagonally a bit across the city.

Um, and so it has these uh skewed intersections that result in very long crossing distances for people.

This uh photo is that is an aerial of the intersection of Braddock Road and Mount Vernon Avenue, um, where the crosswalks are as long as 100 feet.

Um, and so just for comparison's sake, crosswalks across Patrick Street or Henry Street in Old Town are only about 50 feet, so about half that distance.

And crosswalks at, for example, West Street and Pendleton Street, which is a very fairly conventional intersection, are 40 feet.

So these are tremendously long crossing distances where a lot of um residents, including families and their children are walking to get to school, to get to shops.

Um, and that any any additional time that people spend in a crosswalk is additional time that they're spending exposed to motor vehicle traffic.

So that is something that we also observed.

Uh additionally, there are narrow sidewalks throughout the corridor.

Um, in some cases, those sidewalks do not have any kind of buffer and are right up against moving traffic, so they can be quite uncomfortable.

For the most part, these sidewalks are about four to five feet wide.

Our standard minimum in the city for new sidewalks is five feet, with six feet being the preferred minimum.

And the reason we do that is for ADA access, but also so that people can comfortably walk side by side and have sort of a normal journey along the sidewalk rather than having to feel pinched during during their walk.

Next slide, please.

So looking at the existing bicycle infrastructure, this is a map of the existing bicycle routes in this area.

So the brown lines are the shared use paths.

So you can see that the Potomac Yard Trail meets our project area on the north side.

And then it's sort of offset with the Metro Linear Trail, which continues on the other side of the railroad bridge and continues down to near uh towards the King Street Metro Rail Station.

This is a really important spine in the bicycle network that allows people to get to Arlington and DC.

All of the blue lines are current existing bicycle lanes.

And so you can see on Braddock Road, we do have bike lanes that are existing between Mount Vernon Avenue and West Street on the eastern end of the corridor, and then just west of Russell Road.

We also have dedicated bicycle lanes.

However, as we look into the middle of our project area, we do have a gap in those lanes between Russell Road and Mount Vernon Avenue.

And so as we're thinking about building a citywide bicycle network that allows people to use bicycling as a form of transportation for, you know, to get to work, to run errands, to make some trips.

And so when we talk about bicycle infrastructure on Braddock, I want to make sure that we're not thinking about it in isolation and in a vacuum.

It is a puzzle piece to a much larger network that the city has adopted in its plans to build so that we can encourage a low-carbon forms of transportation.

Next slide, please.

So I want to show a couple of photos as well, just to give you an idea of what that looks like.

So all of these are sort of starting from the metro area and heading west.

So starting from the left photo, this is if you're on Braddock approaching Mount Vernon Avenue, you can see there's a bike lane on the right next to the curb.

That bike lane uh directly conflicts with the right turn lane that exists there.

So right turns can turn in front of cyclists.

Uh, and then when you're actually trying to continue through the intersection to continue up Braddock Road, um, that bike lane is actually very, very offset from the travel lane.

So you end up having to get way over and make this very awkward, um, uncomfortable transition from the bike lane to the shared lanes that then continue west of Mount Vernon Avenue.

And you can see those shared lanes in the center photo where there's one lane in each direction.

Um, there in this photo, there's parking on one side, uh, and then there's the shared lane markings indicating where folks should ride.

Uh, and then uh in the third photo, this is on Braddock looking at west towards the Russell Road intersection.

Um, there is no bicycle infrastructure here, but on the other side of the intersection, west of Russell Road, there is a bike lane that picks up.

And so um you can just kind of see how the infrastructure varies throughout this area, and it's not super um inviting for somebody who's wanting to bike.

Next slide.

And lastly, um the existing transit conditions.

So, touching on all modes here, this is a very, very transit-rich area.

Um, and so that is something that we were very cognizant of as we were going through this process is thinking about the importance of the city's regional um transit connections and our local transit connections and how we make those more accessible and available to people in these neighborhoods.

Of course, we have the Braddock Road Metro rail station, um, but there's also a number of bus lines here provided by both Dash and Womata that provide service to DC, the Pentagon, Old Town, Northern Virginia Community College, and a whole host of other destinations that are available to residents in this area.

Uh, next slide.

Um, I do want to focus for a moment on the area immediately adjacent to the metro station because I think it bears uh some walking through what some of the issues are.

Um, and I apologize, I I don't have control of the PowerPoint, so I can't do the whole cursor thing to point things out to you.

So I will do my very best to just describe it.

Um, so here we are looking at an aerial of Braddock Road with north being immediately up.

Uh, we've got the metro station on the north side of Braddock, and you can see we have the Potomac Yard Trail on the west side of the railroad tracks.

And you can see we have the Potomac Yard Trail on the west side of the railroad tracks that terminates at Braddock Road.

And then you have the Metro Linear Trail on the eastern side of the railroad tracks on the south side of Braddock Road that will take you down to the King Street Metro rail station and to Old Town.

A couple things I want to note are there's two lanes in each direction under the bridge, and there is a one-way bicycle lane in each direction.

And then of course we have the two crosswalks, uncontrolled crosswalks serving those trail connections.

I mentioned before that these are both very challenging for people to use, particularly as a pedestrian because it's a very high-risk scenario where you're having to cross multiple lanes at a time.

There's also a tremendous number of children who walk cross, particularly at the Potomac Yard Trail Crossing every day to get to school, to go to 7-Eleven to hang out with their friends.

And so it's just a very risky scenario for anyone, but especially for kids who are using this area.

The other thing I want to note that is a little bit nuanced and requires some explanation is how difficult this area can be if you're biking or scooting, recognizing that we do have bike lanes here, but they're not actually really meeting the needs given the geometry of the different facilities that are intersecting here.

So for example, if you are biking south down the Potomac Yard Trail and you want to get to the Braddock Road Metro rail station, you essentially have three choices, all of which are bad.

You can again stay on the north side and bike on the sidewalk, which of course is not something we want to encourage.

It's a very crowded sidewalk.

There's a lot of pedestrian traffic there.

Or you can cross at that risky crosswalk, get to the bike lane on the south side of the street, bike in the correct direction, and then cross again at the other crosswalk that we've already established is quite risky.

So none of those really work very well.

And so that is something that we looked to address through this project as well.

Next slide.

Thankfully, I think here we've had a fairly low number of crashes compared to some of our other corridors, especially given the amount of activity around here.

We've had 17 total crashes, one of which was a pedestrian crash.

Um, but by and large, the types of crashes that we saw were rear-end and angle crashes.

Um of those 17 crashes, eight resulted in injury.

Um, and this was outside of the study time frame, but I do it, I would be remiss if I did not note that there was a pedestrian fatality in 2015 at the intersection of Braddock Road and Commonwealth Avenue.

So we did take that into consideration as well.

Uh, next slide.

So, as part of our existing conditions assessment, we also gathered uh community input to try to get a better understanding of how people use this area, what their experiences are like, what they uh what they like about the corridor, what they didn't like about the corridor, what some of their concerns were.

Um, and so when we asked folks their concerns, the top concerns that we heard were uh speeding, which of course I've already shared.

We've documented through our data collection and crossing safety.

And um, I could tell you and summarize some of what we've heard, but uh sometimes I think it's helpful to hear a little cross-section of some of the things we heard from residents directly.

So if you'll indulge me, I'll just read some of these quotes from narrative comments.

So I've been hit, been nearly hit in cars by cars in that crosswalk three times in the past 12 months with lights activated.

Um, this is that uh crosswalk right in front of the Braddock Metro Rail Station.

Uh I'm new to biking and I want to do more of it.

I do find busy stretches of road without clear bike protections make biking feel much more daunting.

My child will be walking to George Washington Middle School next year, and I'm definitely nervous about him crossing Braddock Road.

Braddock Road is super unsafe for anyone not in a car.

Braddock Road doesn't really work well for anyone.

I have not witnessed any mobility issues on East-West Braddock Road for the 15 years I've lived here.

Um, so I did just want to provide a little bit of cross-section of some of the comments.

Um, again, I mean, all of this is provided in your docket, the full, the full narrative comments that we received, but I wanted to highlight um some representative comments from each sort of category.

Uh, next slide.

Um, so taking all of that information, all of the existing conditions information, some of the input that we heard, uh, staff then took to developing design options for the corridor.

Next slide.

And so just a reminder of the segment.

So we've got segment one between West Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, segment two between Mount Vernon and Commonwealth, and segment three between Commonwealth and Russell.

Next slide.

So starting with segment one between West Street and Mount Vernon Avenue near the metro station.

So in the image above, we have the existing typical section.

There are two lanes in each direction.

There's the one-way bike lane in each direction.

There's a median and in some places that that median is actually holds the pillars for the bridge.

And then we've got sidewalks on either side.

We did produce an option that reimagines this section of Braddock Road to try to address some of the issues that we observed and heard from residents.

So this option reduces the number of travel lanes to one lane in each direction.

It retains the bike lane on the south side of the street, which is the left side.

And then on the north side of the street, which is the right side of that lower image, uses that extra space to create a protected two-way cycle track.

There's also space here on the south side of the street, which is the left side of the image to have a large buffer area that could be used for commercial loading.

Next slide.

And because that typical section really varies so much throughout this whole segment.

So the two-way cycle track, I'll just say only connects the two crosswalks and the two trails.

It doesn't extend throughout that entire segment.

And that is really intended to address the issue that I mentioned before about people biking and scooting between the trails and the metro station, not really having a good option to make that connection.

So in this scenario, we would have the protected two-way cycle track on the north side of the street.

This would allow people biking or scooting down the Potomac Yard Trail to stay on the same side of the street to not have to interact with motor vehicles and be able to bike lawfully to the metro station in the correct direction.

The bicycle lane on the south side remains because there might be people biking who need to stay on that side and continue, say down to West Street and get into Old Town.

So we we left that there.

And the other big thing that this does is reducing the number of lanes addresses that multiple threat crash risk that I mentioned before with the two uncontrolled crosswalks.

We heard numerous reports from residents who have experienced near misses or witness near misses.

And of course, we know from industry guidance that this is just a very high risk scenario to begin with.

So what this allows is for people to cross one lane at a time, essentially eliminating the risk that you're gonna have a driver swerve around or continue and not stop the way that they're uh required to stop.

Uh, west of the crosswalk at the Potomac Yard Trail, um, the two-way cycle track kind of goes away and becomes a one-way uh protected bike lane again and then opens back up at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Braddock and becomes a more conventional cross section with turn lanes and the one-way bike lane and things like that.

Next slide.

Okay, so looking at segment two between Mount Vernon Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue, we have our existing conditions.

Again, this is a typical section.

So there's one lane in each direction.

And then in this typical section, there's parking on both sides, but there's also sections where there's parking on one side.

Um, we presented two options uh for this area to fulfill all of the existing plans and policies that we've already talked about.

So the there's a climbing lane and a parking lane option.

This one recognizes the desire for on-street parking in this area while still acknowledging that there uh is a necessary bicycle connection here, and so it retains the one lane in each direction, um, but then puts a bike lane on the north side of the street, which is the uphill direction, and then retains parking on the opposite side of the street.

Uh we also presented a bike lane option that removes parking entirely from this segment and installs bike lanes in both directions.

And then next slide.

And then similarly for segment three between Commonwealth and Russell Road, there's one lane in each direction with parking on both sides.

Um, this section is a little bit wider than the previous section.

So there's a again the climbing lane and parking option, but then the bike lane option actually uh there's enough space to install uh protected bike lanes.

So we presented those two options.

Next slide.

Okay, so those are the corridors.

Bear with me.

Um there's also some options that were identified for the intersections themselves.

Um, I do want to note that the intersections could sort of be mixed and matched with the different options as needed.

Um, so if something you know shows a bar bike lane on a certain side or shows parking, it can be adapted to to meet any of the corridor options that were presented.

Um, starting with the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue.

So today, you know, north is up again.

We've got going westbound.

There's quite a few turn lanes to accommodate the higher volumes of traffic that are intersecting here.

So you've got a dedicated left turn lane, there's a single through lane and a single dedicated right turn lane, and then the bike lane.

Those continue into just one lane on the opposite side of the intersection.

And then going eastbound, there is a dedicated left turn lane, and then there's a dedicated through right lane.

And then on Mount Vernon Avenue, which is our north-south street here, looking southbound, similar situation.

We've got a dedicated left turn lane and a dedicated through right lane.

Next slide.

So we came up with two options for this intersection.

The first was a compact intersection option that acknowledges some of the options we presented for the bike lane configuration.

So attempting to connect the bike lanes through the intersection required reconfiguring some of that space.

So in the westbound direction on Braddock Road, we compress, we offered compressing the turn lanes into instead of three turn lanes, you have two.

So it's a dedicated left turn lane and a dedicated through right lane.

And then you have the protected bike lane next to that that continues through the intersection and actually better lines up with the opposite side of the intersection compared to what I shared before, where you had to make that weird jog to actually continue through.

And then in the eastbound direction on Braddock Road, the lanes are proposed to be consolidated into a single approach lane where you could make your left, you could make your through movement, or you could make your right turn.

And then no changes to Mount Vernon Avenue.

And then we also presented a larger intersection configuration, which is pretty uh largely unchanged from what's there today.

So looking in the westbound direction, you still have the three separate movements.

You have the dedicated left, the through, and the right.

But what this does is uh brings the intersection into compliance with the latest guidance for treatment of bicycle lanes at intersections where a bicycle lane should not be to the right side of a dedicated right turn lane.

Uh, and then the eastbound lanes remain the same in this scenario as the existing condition.

Next slide.

Uh so this is the intersection of Braddock Road and Commonwealth Avenue.

Um again, north is up.

So Commonwealth Avenue is sort of that north-south um street, and then Braddock goes straight um left to right.

Um so in the existing uh conditions, looking westbound, we have a dedicated left turn lane and a through right lane.

Um you will notice there is a parking box right behind the westbound through right lane that can actually conflict with a lot of the vehicle movements, particularly in the afternoon, um, because people will stack up to get into that through right lane and they have to kind of bend around the parking if there is if there is somebody parked there.

Uh in the eastbound direction on Braddock, there is no dedicated lanes.

It's just a single lane that you can make any movement from.

And then on Commonwealth Avenue, similar, you have the dedicated left and then the other movement separated from that.

So next slide.

Uh so looking at the options we presented.

Um, this first option is a bicycle lane connection on Braddock, but also on Commonwealth Avenue, uh, recognizing that Commonwealth is also one of the city's major bicycle routes, um, and there are existing bike lanes, both north and south of this intersection.

Um, and so wanted to um take some steps to make those connections as well.

And so what this uh configuration is proposing is consolidating the turn lanes on all approaches to the intersection to create space for this protected bike lanes to be able to continue through the intersection.

Um, I think the other important thing that this does is shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians.

I'll remind everybody that this is the location where we did have that pedestrian fatality.

So we were also thinking about pedestrian safety here and how we can minimize pedestrian exposure to motor vehicles.

And so allowing people to cross fewer lanes of travel just minimizes their exposure overall.

Uh and then in the second option, we have um no bike lanes on Commonwealth Avenue.

Um, so those configurations on Commonwealth remain the same.

Uh, but then we do have the bicycle connections on Braddock.

And so those turn lanes on Braddock are consolidated for the purposes of that, and then still do provide those pedestrian benefits of reducing the number of vehicle lanes that need to be crossed if you're walking.

Next slide.

Uh so then lastly, we have the intersection of Russell Road.

So this is a very complex unconventional intersection, much like the intersection with Commonwealth Avenue, where it is skewed due to the angle of the the way the streets intersect, but it's also like a five almost six-legged intersection where a traditional intersection is only four legs.

So we have uh Braddock going um east to west, and then we have Russell Road going north to south, and then that that street up towards the right is West Alexandria Avenue, um which is a one-way street that goes westbound into the intersection.

Um so there's a lot going on here.

There's also the Braddock Road uh canon that is right here at this corner, and so it's a historical uh marker there, and um there's also kind of a weird slip lane type of situation.

Um so there's a lot of a lot going on at this intersection that can make it quite complicated, can make it pretty intimidating if you're if you're walking or biking.

It's just very open and exposed, and it's got very long crossing distances.

And so that is uh also something that we were um looking to address.

So next slide.

So we had two options uh for this intersection.

So the first option is a hybrid option between the the bike lane on Braddock and the parking.

So having the bike lane on one side and the parking on the other.

Um so the bike lane is on the north side that would continue westbound, that's our climbing lane.

Um, and then that would require consolidating the westbound lanes from a uh dedicated left and a through right to a left through right.

So a single lane where you could make all movements.

Um we also introduced uh some painted curb extensions.

Um, they're just illustrative here.

This isn't necessarily what they would look like on the ground, but these sort of black and white striped areas indicate where we could carve out some additional space for traffic calming to just narrow the space and encourage people to drive a little bit more slowly, maybe reclaim some pedestrian space as well.

Um that eastbound left from Braddock Road onto Russell is removed in this scenario where uh we would no longer encourage people to use that sort of slip lane to make their lefts.

They would actually just stay on Braddock Road and make their left from the rest of the intersection with the through lane.

Um, and that is uh presented in in both uh options here.

Uh and then the second option is a bike lane option, uh, which has the bike lanes in in both directions on Braddock Road.

Um, I will note one of the things that we uh presented as an option early on in the process was to reverse the direction of West Alexandria Avenue.

Again, this is a very complex intersection.

And so it was considered as a way to uh simplify the intersection to just reduce the number of movements going into this intersection and be one less signal phase to contend with, one less uh movement uh to contend with as we're trying to manage um operations here.

Next slide.

Okay, so those are the options.

I know that was a lot.

I expect questions later.

Um, but I do want to talk through some of the things that we considered during the design and after we came up with the design options so that you kind of understand how we arrived at our staff recommendation.

Um, next slide, please.

Um, we did do quite a bit of community engagement with this project going all the way back to March 2025.

If there is an overflow room if you wish to make noise.

We began the community engagement period in March 2025 with the community input period that I shared before.

Um that survey had over 270 responses.

We reached out um to neighborhood civic groups, we sent emails to project stakeholders, we put up signs in the project corridor.

Um, we published press releases and a project web page to gather feedback from folks.

Um, and that was the first comment period.

Um, of course, we then went ahead and developed the design options, and then following the development of the design options, uh, we had our second community engagement period, where again we published a press release.

We put signs up in the project corridor, posted on social media, um, shared emails with stakeholders.

We reached out to all the folks who had completed the first survey to let them know that hey, you gave us your your input.

Now we have design options for you to comment on.

Um, we've had numerous community and stakeholder meetings.

We had a project um open house, we've had about 10 um meetings with civic associations, with neighborhood groups, we've had on-site walks with different civic groups to kind of walk them through the corridor.

Um we lastly had our online feedback form where we gathered um comments on the on the design options and that um that online feedback form received over 500 uh responses.

So really the community engagement began in March of last year and has continued really up until February of this year.

Next slide.

And so here I'm summarizing specifically the community feedback from the second online feedback form.

Again, this feedback form received 587 responses from community members.

And so this is summarizing that survey feedback.

So just at a high level, you know, we had really broad support for the project goals overall.

So, you know, providing safe pedestrian crossings and providing places for people to bike or scoot.

We did also ask people how they felt about the different options for removing parking or adding bike lanes or retaining parking.

And generally what we found from those 587 responses was that over 60% of people felt positive or neutral about removing parking.

Looking at the area near the metro station, we asked about the two-way cycle track.

73% of people felt positive or neutral about that.

And then lastly, we asked about the removal of travel lanes near the metro station to accommodate some of the other features that we talked about.

And 65% of people felt positive or neutral about that.

I do want to note that of course there is a lot of feelings and sentiment on many sides about this project, and there's a lot of passion here.

So even though this is a high-level summary of what we heard from the online feedback forum, I'd of course be remiss if I didn't note that we have received extensive feedback with concerns about the removal of parking on Raddock, particularly from residents who live immediately adjacent to the corridor.

So I just want to caveat that to say that yeah, we heard one thing from the community feedback form.

And then we also heard some different sentiments from people directly in the project area.

Next slide.

So I you guys have the full community feedback and comments in your docket, but I do want to just highlight some organizational uh letters that we did receive about this project.

So we've received letters both in support and in opposition to uh the project.

So in terms of letters of support, those came from the Delray Citizens Association, Alexandria Families for Safe Streets, the Alexandria Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee, and the Environmental Policy Commission.

And then in terms of uh letters of opposition, we received those from Rosemont Citizens Association, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Um, there was also a resident petition that was received that had uh a number of signatures as part of that.

And then we also received um a letter of opposition from the Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations.

Uh again, the primary concerns that we heard number one concern that we heard was parking.

Of course, um, this is a residential area.

There is on-street uh parking that is currently available to uh residents, and so the idea of losing that parking was of course um a major concern for those folks.

Um, we also heard concerns about traffic operations when we're talking about consolidating some of the turn lanes at the intersections, how that was gonna work and how that was going to impact how people travel, uh particularly by vehicle through the corridor.

Um, and then we also heard concerns about emergency access and how emergency vehicles would be able to adapt to any of the changes that were being proposed.

Um, so I do want to know I'm gonna go through a little bit of some of the technical considerations that we made through this process and just note that you know, when we do any of these projects in the transportation industry, we're adhering to a lot of standards and guidance that exist at the local level, at the state level, and at the national level.

And so these are all things that are going to our analysis and our considerations.

So we've got uh things like the manual on uniform traffic control devices, which sets standards for pavement markings and signs for the entire country.

We've got the highway capacity manual that helps us um helps us uh determine how to do a traffic analysis and how to make traffic projections.

Um we've got the National Association of City Transportation Officials, which is a consortium of cities who have developed design guidelines specifically for urban areas.

And so there are all these things that are that are going into this process that we're um constantly consulting and considering.

Uh, next slide.

Um, so there is, of course, a portion of this project that includes a road diet, which um, if you're not familiar with the term, involves just the reduction of uh travel lanes.

And so there is some very high level guidance from the federal highway administration on this, which I've shown here that gives you a very general barometer of in uh what cases a road diet might be appropriate.

And so looking at the section between West Street and Braddock Road, we're right in that like 13 to 15,000 vehicles per day range.

And so looking at the federal highway guidance on this just high level says that this is a good candidate for road resizing in many instances.

Next slide.

And again, I'm just going to hammer this home because I think it's super important is reducing that multiple threat risk.

So that is a major benefit of the road diet in this scenario is providing fewer lanes to cross, eliminating that multiple threat risk.

The road diet here would also introduce traffic calming.

We did see some high speeds through that area up to 31 miles per hour.

And so, you know, whenever you reduce the number of lanes, drivers can only go as fast as the car in front of them.

And so that naturally has a traffic calming effect for the roadway overall.

And then reducing that that lane on each side also introduces space for other roadway features that are needed in this area.

Next slide.

And so the inputs are things like traffic volumes, lane configurations, signal timing.

And then from those inputs, we can introduce different scenarios.

So we can say, what if what if we change this lane?

What if we change the signal timing to this?

And then that gives you an output, and that output is the vehicle performance.

And so what we're showing here, the numbers are all delay measured in seconds per vehicle.

And then there is a score next to it or beneath it.

That is the level of service score, which is a common standard in the industry to just assess traffic performance that ranges from A to F.

And so these are pretty much sitting right in the middle.

I do want to note that, you know, there's quite a bit of nuance with the level of service as an indicator because naturally we when you hear A to F, you think A must be the best.

In an urban environment, we do not strive for an A in most scenarios because that's essentially free flow conditions.

It invites speeding.

It means that you're operating the street in a way that excludes all other uses.

And so C's, D's in an urban environment are very, very common and are almost, I would say the standard in in many cases, recognizing that we don't want to put all of our eggs into the traffic operations basket.

We also want to put some eggs in the safety basket and the uh let's keep our streets not super wide basket, and we don't have we don't have right of way to widen our streets basket.

Um so it takes all of that into consideration.

So then looking at how the different alternatives perform, you're gonna see they look pretty much the same.

Um you might be wondering why that's the case.

I'm gonna explain that in a few minutes, but um for now, um, just recognizing that the existing conditions um are around the B to C range at each of these intersections.

We also modeled a future no-build scenario that factored in um projected future growth, um, and then and then compared um the intersection options.

And so what we found is that pretty much all of the options with some signal timing adjustments don't really change the delay, the average delay to too much.

Um, there could be some additional queuing here and there, but overall, like uh we would expect that drivers would make it through the light in one cycle generally as they do today.

Next slide.

Um, I also want to talk about integrating bikes and transit because I uh, of course, want to uh continue to bring us back to the fact that the city has five metro rail stations.

Um, this is of course in the immediate uh area of the Braddock Road Metro Rail Station.

The entire project corridor is within a mile, is less than a mile from the Braddock Road Metro rail station.

And so thinking about how we get people to and from that transit service is really important.

Um, and of course, people can walk there today and they do.

Um, but thinking about how we expand the reach of transit and um integrating bikes and transit is a nationally recognized way to do that.

The American Public Transit Association encourages the integration of bikes and transit to create safer and more convenient connections, to expand the reach of transit, to create safer, healthier and more livable communities, and to manage parking demand.

The Braddock Road Metro Rail Station doesn't have a park and ride option.

It has a kiss and ride and it has bus stops, but it doesn't have a park and ride option.

It's not uh it's not a suburban metro rail station where we would expect people to park their cars and get and then get on the train, or at least it's not encouraged.

And so, how do we uh think about other ways to get people to that station and then all of the destinations that it takes you to beyond that?

Next slide.

Uh, and so here um this is from a study that uh Womata, the Washington Metropolitan Umit Authority did uh, and that was looking at walksheds and bike sheds around metro stations.

Uh so this is the half mile walkshed around the Braddock Road Metro Rail Station.

It is an area of about 0.4 square miles, uh including 3,800 households and 2,000 jobs.

Next slide.

And then you look at the bike shed.

Um, and this is a common rule of thumb in the industry where um uh access to fixed rail transit or the willingness um to uh or feasibility to connect to fixed rail transit for walking is about half a mile, and for bikes is within three miles, um, which is about a 15 minute bike ride.

Um, and you can see the reach of this is is much larger than the walkshed alone.

Um it encompasses 9.9 square miles, uh, 44,000 households and 91,000 jobs.

Next slide.

Uh so I'm gonna talk a little bit about parking.

Um, there are quite a few parking policies that the city council has adopted through our Alexandria Mobility Plan.

So, of course, it's relevant to bring those up here.

Um, the one of the policies is that the city ensure parking availability and that we seek to maintain parking availability in the city's residential and commercial districts, recognizing that some people may need to walk a short distance to their destination.

Uh, and then policy C from the Alexandria Mobility Plan is to promote equitable allocation of curb space, treating all curb space as a public asset that should be allocated in an equitable manner for its highest and best use.

Um, and so uh one thing uh additional from policy B in the Alexandria Mobility Plan is that the city will seek to ensure a reasonable parking option is available by strategically aligning curb space with its highest and best use and managing on and off-street parking.

Uh in the Alexandria Mobility Plan in the in the parking chapter, there are also curb use categories that were created to try to identify the various demands for curb space in the city.

So we have things like the city plan priorities, which are safety improvements, bus lanes, bike lanes, electric vehicle charging, things like that, access for goods, loading zones, deliveries, access for people, bus stops, pickup and drop-off, bike share stations, uh parking, which includes metered parking, residential parking and bike parking, and then activation, which includes parklets and in-street dining and public art.

So these are all the various potential uses for our curbside uh in the city.

Next slide.

And then we have this curb space prioritization framework that was adopted in that plan that uh go ahead and click forward one more time for me.

There we go.

Um that uh prioritizes those curb uses depending on the adjacent context, right?

So looking at you know how we prioritize curb space on main streets is going to be different from like an industrial area.

And so looking at um this area where we've proposed parking modifications that would fall into the residential category.

Um, and so the highest priority really for all of those categories is the city plan priorities, and then we have access for people, um, which includes bus stops and things like that, pickup and drop off, and then we have parking, access for goods, and activation.

Um these are also things that we were considering.

Um, those city council adopted priorities as we went through this project.

Slide.

Um, so the parking landscape.

Um, this uh, of course, there is parking in the area, which we've established, but there is also a residential permit parking district that covers part of the project area.

That's district six.

And the next slide.

Um, because we were uh proposing scenarios that that impacted parking, we did do parking analysis to try to understand how parking is utilized in the project area to see if there was capacity to be able to change parking or whether it was something that was going to be completely infeasible.

Um so we made a couple different observations.

Um, one was that um nearly all homes between Russell and Mount Vernon, where the parking changes are being proposed that front Braddock have off street parking.

And then we also looked at parking utilization both on Braddock Road itself and within this immediate surrounding neighborhood.

And so the numbers that you're seeing on the screen.

So the any number without parentheses is a space that was observed to be occupied.

And then the ones in parentheses are spaces that were available and unoccupied.

And so in our analysis, we looked at various times of day on different days of the week.

The highest utilization that we saw was Sunday morning, as there are multiple churches on this corridor.

And these were the composite results from the Sunday morning analysis.

So what we saw overall was that parking is being utilized, but there is still quite a bit of parking available that's not being used, both on Braddock Road and within the neighborhood surrounding Braddock Road.

Next slide.

And so here's sort of a snapshot of the parking occupancy by day.

So in the columns, we've got weeknights, we've got Saturday night, and then we've got Sunday morning, which is when we did the parking study.

And then the total spaces that were on Braddock, and then the available spaces on side streets at the same time.

And so again, looking at the farthest column to the right, Sunday morning was the highest composite observation that we saw for cars on Braddock Road itself.

So 47, which is a little bit less than half the total spaces on Braddock between Russell and Mount Vernon.

And then looking at the available spaces on the side streets, there were over 300 parking spaces available at the same time during that time period.

Next slide.

Okay.

So those are, of course, all the things that the project team considered.

We recognize that there are a lot of competing demands for space.

There's a lot of needs in the area.

And so ultimately, next slide, we uh developed some corridor alternative recommendations.

Um for segment one, um, of course, there was the one option that that was presented, which was reducing the number of lanes and shortening those crossing distances.

And then for segment two and three, um, in order to fulfill the goals that are established in council adopted plans and to adhere to the policies in those plans.

Um, the project team put forward the option to have the continuous bicycle lanes to connect that larger bike network that's envisioned in those adopted plans.

Next slide.

Um based on the operational analysis that we did and the fact that there was not a major difference in the level of delay that was experienced in the different intersection options.

The project team also made recommendations for the intersections, opting for the alternatives that did the most to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and access.

Um so what that means is we went with the options that continued the bike lanes through the intersections, created that separated dedicated space, um, consolidated turn lanes where possible and appropriate to shorten the crossing distances for pedestrians.

Next slide.

So adjusting to some community feedback.

Um, there are a couple of things that we did following this.

Um early in the process, there was a lot of concern about the idea of reversing the direction of West Alexandria Avenue.

So as a reminder, West Alexandria today goes westbound into the intersection with um Braddock, Russell, and Alexandria.

Um, there was a lot of concern from residents who were concerned about cut through traffic, who were concerned about the fact that the downhill grade could encourage people to enter West Alexandria going faster than would be desired.

Um we met on site with those residents and had some follow-up conversations with those residents to talk through the various options, um, also recognizing that they had concerns about people going the wrong way in the existing conditions.

Umltimately, based on that feedback, um staff um, you know, heard what they had to say, agreed with the concerns and opted not to reverse the direction of West Alexandria Avenue.

Um at the time, you know, we talked about how it could improve the reduce the complexity of the intersection and improve intersection operations.

Um, but that was um seen as unnecessary.

Um, and so we ended up keeping the direction of West Alexandria the same.

Also at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, we had heard concerns specifically about the disability parking space that currently exists on Braddock, immediately adjacent to the church, and what this project would mean for that if parking were to be removed on both sides.

And so the project team met with the church, did sort of our own background assessment and offered to relocate the disability parking to Hancock and LaRay and actually augmenting it.

So today there's one disability space on Braddock.

And in the proposed condition, there would actually be two disability spaces, one on LaRay Avenue and one on Hancock Avenue.

So the one concern that came up was that there is not an accessible sidewalk on those streets.

And so we proposed to extend the sidewalk to be able to provide an accessible connection for those disability spaces.

Lastly, I mentioned earlier that most of the homes that front Braddock have off-street parking.

So they have a parking pad or a driveway or a parking lot.

There is one home that does not.

And so staff went back and identified an opportunity to be able to meet both needs.

So continuing the bicycle lane, which is shown in green, but also there is a short section of Braddock that gets a little bit wider near that home where we could actually fit in the on-street parking.

So we opted to preserve about 100 feet or about five spaces of on-street parking near that home that does not have their own off-street parking option.

Next slide.

So I do want to talk through a couple of things because there are a couple of questions that were brought up, some considerations that were asked to be made, some questions about why we did this, why would we take this option and not this option?

So I just want to talk through those a little bit.

So one of the questions that's come up is why not use an alternate route for a bicycle connection rather than Braddock.

And so I just want to touch on some of the guidance that I mentioned before that we've considered and consulted as we've gone through this project.

And so those are shown here on the slide.

There's safety.

Roadway and bikeway design should reduce the frequency and severity of crashes and minimize conflicts between users.

There's comfort.

So conditions for bicycling should not deter use due to stress, anxiety, or concerns over safety.

And then particularly related to the why not use an alternate route question are connectivity and legibility.

So for connectivity, the guidance states that all destinations can be accessed using the bicycle network and there are no gaps or missing links.

And then as far as legibility, bikeways should be easy to recognize and intuitive to use.

They should have a logical structure that reduces the need for turns to stay on the network.

So there is not a single parallel route to Braddock that runs parallel to the entire street that could easily be used as an alternate route.

There are a series of local short connecting routes that would require people biking to zigzag through neighborhoods and make numerous turns to be able to get to their destination.

And so when we were looking at this, you know, certainly parallel routes are an option in some cases and can be recommended in some cases when the main route is not feasible.

What we found in our analysis is that it is feasible.

It just requires trade-offs.

And so that's where we are now is trying to, you know, meet the various needs of the corridor, create space for everybody to exist in the area, and then connect people to the transportation hub that is available to us.

Next slide.

Another question was why do we need bike lanes?

Why can't we keep the shared lane markings or the shareos that are there now?

And the answer to that is that it's not recommended for the volumes that we have.

So national guidance from various sources, including the ASHOW guide for the development of bicycle facilities, which is sort of the national standard, sets volume and speed thresholds for different types of bicycle facilities, and does not recommend shared lane markings at volumes above 3,000 vehicles per day.

As I mentioned before, our volumes on Braddock Road are no less than 6,000 vehicles per day.

That is not a comfortable or appropriate treatment type for a roadway of this amount of traffic.

And then from the city's own complete streets design guidelines, we state that in general, shareos are a design solution that can only be used in locations where a standard bike lane is not feasible due to space constraints.

And then shared lane markings are not a preferred facility type except in locations with low traffic speeds and volumes, which in that design guide we identified as less than 4,000 vehicles per day.

So a little bit more liberal on the volume threshold.

But still the point remains is that the volumes on Braddock are frankly too high for a shared lane marking to be an appropriate treatment type.

Next slide.

Okay.

We also got numerous questions about bicycle volumes.

Of course, near the Braddock Road Metro rail station, we do see very high ridership because of the high quality bicycle facilities that are there with the Potomac Yard Trail and the Metro Linear Trail, and then of course the Braddock Metro Rail Station is a huge attractor.

But then on the western end of the corridor, the bicycle volumes are quite low.

And so one of the questions that we got was well, if there's not a lot of people biking there, then why are we trying to add a bike lane?

And so here I'm showing this graphic of something that's been studied many times in the industry is the is the classification of different types of bicyclists amongst the general population.

So we have four categories.

There's the strong and fearless.

These are sort of our quote unquote spandex riders who are comfortable biking in any environment.

On high speed roadways, they don't avoid high stress routes.

They are comfortable using those routes.

And then we have about five to nine percent who are enthusiastic and confident.

These folks are slightly not quite as strong and fearless as the as the other category, but are still confident riders and feel comfortable riding on city streets.

We've got about a third or a little more than a third of the general population that is not interested or not able to ride a bike at all.

But then we have a pretty sizable portion of the general population that falls into this interested but concerned category.

And these are folks who, when asked, are interested in bicycling and like the idea of using it as a travel mode for certain trips, but are very concerned about their own personal safety.

And so if they're not provided a high quality, comfortable bicycle route, they're just gonna avoid biking altogether.

And so when we talk about bicycle volumes, this is what we're thinking about.

And our our national guidance sort of reinforces this.

So the ASHOW bike guide says that the perceived safety of bicycling can be a formidable barrier.

The US Department of Transportation says nearly one-third of uh crashes occur when motorists are overtaking bicyclists.

Because the speed and size differential between vehicles and bicycles can lead to severe injury.

Many people are not comfortable riding a bicycle because they fear that this type of crash may occur.

And then the USDOT also says that studies and experience in US cities show that bicycle lanes increase ridership and may help jurisdictions better manage roadway capacity.

Next slide.

Another question that we got was related to the crash data.

Um, so there haven't been any reported um bicycle crashes in this area.

But again, um we have to consider what the rest of the corridor is telling us.

Uh, crash data is one data point, um, but our national guidance also tells us to consider um other factors as well.

And so from the ASHO bike guide specifically, it says that it's important to understand that streets which have few crashes may in fact be streets which feel so unpleasant or unsafe that very few people will bicycle there.

Thus, a small number of crashes does not necessarily indicate that the street is unsafe, but rather that there may be fewer people bicycling or under reported crashes.

Um, of course, we did hear from our community feedback from a number of people that um they either bike on Braddock and they're scared, or they might bike on Braddock and they they avoid it because it's stressful and there's no dedicated place for them to ride.

Um, and so you know, crashes are of course are of course an important data point, but they don't always tell the entire story.

And so it's important for us to think about the whole picture as we're going through this.

Next slide.

Um, we also got some questions about intersection operations and how, you know, if we're if we're reducing the number of turn lanes, how are intersections going to continue to operate effectively?

Um, and so there are just a couple things I wanted to share with you all related to that.

Um, so number one is that all of the intersections um in the study area are operating well below capacity.

So an engineering analysis allows us to determine what are the volumes and then what is the actual capacity of the roadway compared to those volumes.

And so we're sitting at probably like 50 to 60% capacity on some of these roadways.

So there's certainly room to make adjustments.

Some of the signal timing is a little bit older and it's not super well synchronized.

And so we have the opportunity to relook at those that signal coordination holistically, improve the synchronization, and then adjust the signal timing as needed for the volumes that we're seeing.

Specifically at the intersections of Russell Road and Commonwealth Avenue, because these are two similar scenarios.

Again, we proposed eliminating the dedicated left turn lane and combining that with the through and the right movements.

So there were some concerns about well, how are people going to make left turns?

How is that going to be able to operate?

What we found through our intersection counts is that the volume of left turns at these intersections is very, very low.

For example, at the intersection of Braddock and Russell, the number of left turns during the peak hour was like five.

And so if you think about the course of an hour, that's like one every one left turn like every 10 minutes.

And so there are situations, certainly, where there is going to be a left turning vehicle where a through vehicle might have to wait behind them for a couple of seconds.

But by and large, the left turn volumes are so low that that's not a frequent enough occurrence for it to impact overall average traffic operations.

And then lastly, at the intersection with Mount Vernon Avenue, we recognize that this is the uh busiest intersection in the study area, um, and that there are very heavy um westbound right turn movements.

So going from Braddock onto Mount Vernon, and then very heavy southbound left movement.

So going from Mount Vernon onto Braddock.

And so in that situation, because those volumes were so high, uh especially relative to the other intersections, um, we did retain um more turn lanes there to be able to accommodate um those movements and keep uh keep traffic moving there.

Next slide.

Okay, thank you.

Um and then the last um the last question that we got was about um emergency response and how emergency responders would be able to adapt um to the changes.

Um, as this board knows, with any project um that that is going to significantly impact the design of the roadway.

Um staff consults with the Alexandria Fire Department to make sure that we understand what their needs are, that they have an opportunity to share any concerns with us, um, and then we can adapt uh the design as needed.

Um so what we heard from the fire department was that they don't have concerns um on Braddock between Russell and Mount Vernon Avenue.

Um, however, the area next to the Metro Rail station is sort of their pinch point where they are limited in how they get through that area and how they bypass um vehicles to get to an emergency because of the median and the presence of the bridge pillars and everything like that.

And so that was an area that they raised for us where we need to continue to coordinate on the design to make sure that they don't get stuck behind any cues of traffic so that they actually continue to have space to bypass traffic to get to an emergency.

Um and lastly, we did coordinate with them and we actually have uh emergency vehicle preemption planned to be installed at the signals um next year, which would allow emergency vehicles to send a signal to the intersection to get the green light when they're coming through so that they um can get through that faster than they would ordinarily.

Next slide.

Um so I recognize it was a very long presentation.

I appreciate your patience.

I just want to summarize really quickly fully recognize that there are a lot of competing demands for limited space.

There's a lot of needs in this area, there's a lot of different priorities for different people in this area, different land uses, um, different places that people are trying to go and different ways that they're trying to get there.

Um we did our best to follow the guidance that we have from um our city council adopted plans and policies uh along with the national guidance that's available to us in roadway design.

Um, and then ultimately we're trying our best to balance a lot of needs here and and determine what the highest and best use of public spaces for um the vast majority of people who use this corridor.

Uh next slide.

So with that, I will spare you reading the full recommendation.

You have it in your docket, but um the uh staff recommendation is that the board um endorse the staff recommended alternatives that have been presented this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

That was very comprehensive.

Um as I promised before we started this, so we were going to take a short break for no more than ten minutes and we'll be back.

I think it's probably like a fairly lucky.

The overflow room, thank you.

Um, and have on your conversation, but that way the rest of us here can uh concentrate on the the presentation and uh commentary that's to come.

Um I would also ask, as you guys can see, the time is clicking away into the dark hours.

Um, that if you've got the same thing to say that the person who has spoken before you has said, you can simply just say, I agree.

You don't have to go through your full um uh uh speech uh in order to help us kind of facilitate moving this uh forward.

That's not to say you can't speak, but if for some reason you have got the exact same words, you might save everybody some time.

Okay, with that, um I think it's our turn to ask questions of uh staff.

Again, thank you, Alex, for that presentation that was certainly lengthy and comprehensive.

Um questions down the side.

Uh if you were able to uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh first of all, I want to give my thanks to city staff for their uh excellent presentation.

In case we're anyone wanted to know what they wanted to do on a Monday evening in uh in February, uh now we know.

Uh but I say I really want to uh compliment you uh on that and on developing really uh an excellent project that I think will really improve the quality of transportation and community life in our city.

Um my compliments also on engaging in an intensive and I know sometimes difficult community involvement effort.

It's always a rocky road.

People do have strong feelings, that's understood.

Um balancing the needs and preferences of motorists, pedestrians, transit riders, bicyclists, and local residents and merchants is never easy.

There's no one size fits all template.

Uh and each project has to be developed one street, one block, or even one driveway at a time.

So well done.

I know it's been a very it's been a heavy lift, and we're not at the end yet.

Uh I do have a couple of questions for staff, and then I want to make a few more general comments.

Um couple of questions, and you answered a lot of my questions, so that's great.

Thank you.

Uh I appreciate the great uh detail.

Uh so these are pretty simple.

Um you mentioned restoring parking spaces.

Uh and I think there were a couple of spaces where there were parking spaces restored.

What's the total number that has been restored from the original?

Do you have that number?

Uh eight.

Eight.

Okay, thank you.

Um I know this is uh a simple question, but it has been raised.

Uh there will continue, I believe, correctly, to be continuous sidewalks throughout the project area.

You're not you're not eliminating any sidewalks.

Correct.

Right.

Okay.

Um because I know that's actually an important part.

What you are, I know if you had the ability, you'd make them bigger, but it's a it's a tight envelope.

Uh finally, another small question.

Um will there be opportunities for including landscaping at some point in the project to improve the overall look of the uh the infrastructure and the neighborhood.

Yeah, that's uh that's a great question.

So um in the near term, the project is largely focused on pavement markings as a as a sort of low-cost way to make improvements to the area.

Um, however, there are a number of opportunities where things are being done with paint um in the proposed condition that could be upgraded to a built condition later.

So, for example, some of the painted curb extensions that were being proposed at the intersection of Braddock and Russell, like near the canon, that could be expanded um to be a landscaped area in the future.

Should we um gain some additional funding for a future phase?

Great, thank you.

Um, I want to just make a couple of uh brief comments on my own, which I hope will facilitate.

I know we have a lot of a lot of interest and a lot of people to hear from, and I'm just trying to help inform the discussion a little bit.

Um just to make it clear, uh I do wholeheartedly support this project, and I do intend to vote to advance it.

Uh having said that, I believe the project can be improved, and I'm going to I will recommend one substantive change.

If we look at the corridor under study, which is about three quarters of a mile from uh West Street to Russell Road, uh we see that the the transportation problems and the opportunities tend to be concentrated toward the eastern end uh of the corridor around the Braddock Road, Metro Station, West Street, Mount Vernon Avenue, etc.

That's where we see the most traffic conflicts, most danger for vulnerable road users, and the most opportunity for supporting bicycle and pedestrian access and improving access to rail and transit.

As we move toward the western end of the corridor, those problems and the uh opportunities tend to diminish somewhat.

As it happens, as I think we'll hear this evening, public support for the project tends to follow a similar gradient, that is toward the eastern end.

I think that most people, and of course, there are a lot of individual views, but the bulk of the uh public viewpoint is to support improvements that toward the eastern end understanding that there really is a need to do some traffic calming uh to reduce traffic conflicts, increase safety for vulnerable roadway users, improve pedestrian and bicycle circulation, et cetera, uh, and improve everyone's access to the metro and the buses in our metro station.

I think we just want to reemphasize that is a uh an asset of great value that we have, not just for this neighborhood for the but for the city and improving access, especially for people of all different means of of uh transport is is really important.

On the other hand, most of the opposition of the project, I think we will see that centers around the removal of off-street parking, as you've mentioned.

Uh, and that tends to be focused toward the western portions of the corridor, uh, with the sort of the epicenter, I would say, probably around the Good Shepherd the Lutheran church areas, kind of the that.

Um, if we sort of do the balancing act that we talked about, how you balance all these things and complete streets as you move toward that end.

Uh my view is that the balance at that point in time uh really does not favor, and I know we'd like to see uh completion of that gap in the bicycle network, and and I think someday we will.

But at the moment, I think that removing on-street parking between Commonwealth and Russell uh is not is going to provide limited benefits, but it clearly causes great concern to the neighborhood.

Uh and I think we'd really like to feel uh I would like to feel greater level of of comfort in the neighborhood about what we're going to be doing.

Uh, therefore, uh my recommendation is going to be that the project be advanced as recommended by staff, with a single exception that on-street parking be retained between Commonwealth Avenue and Russell Road.

So uh, and I'm sure we'll have, as I said, I wanted to put that out there now because I hoping to inform the debate a little bit about some of the possibilities.

And so uh, Mr.

Chairman, when it's ordered in order to do that, it'll must be my intention uh to move that the board advance the project on that basis.

Thank you.

Uh thanks, Mark.

Anthony?

Chris.

I have a few, but I can take turns if that's helpful.

Um first I want to say thank you so much for the extraordinarily thorough um uh presentation in addition to all of the information that was provided in the docket packet.

And um, you know, I know we're mindful of time here, but I do want to take a few seconds.

As a former public servant myself, I want to uh thank city staff, Alex, and others uh who have very clearly worked very hard on this, um solving difficult and uh problems where there is likely never to be consensus uh on a on a preferred solution um across the community that is not an easy position to be in.

And I just want to thank you and uh also appreciate um both previously submitted comments and forthcoming comments that are civil, respectful and um and work towards solutions as opposed to two pointing fingers.

So um thank you to that.

Um I do have a couple questions here.

Um, just to confirm my understanding.

You mentioned um that um emergency planning, the fire department is involved in the concept planning design phase.

You also mentioned that, you know, um clarifying that these that this phase of this project planning is um a phase that is, you know, is is work that was directed, guided, mandated by the city through their various strategic plans over the years.

Um Alex or perhaps Hillary, I'm not sure who's best to answer this.

Emergency, um, the fire department and other emergency departments of the city, are they involved in and do they provide input at those earlier phases as well of those like strategic plans that go that city council, multiple city councils have voted on?

Yes, yes.

So they are involved in um virtually all of our planning efforts.

They were involved in the Alexandria Mobility Plan, the development of our complete streets design guidelines.

Um they were invited to participate in our safe routes to school walk audits, so they are involved earlier in the process as well.

Okay.

Um I had one question.

I I have I have transited this corridor over the years many times by in multiple modes, and I have done so recently, but I just want to make sure I'm not mixing memories here.

Um the segment that is uh the the farthest west segment, is there a sidewalk on the north side of Braddock Road?

So in the project area, yes.

However, you might be thinking of west of Russell Road beyond the project area, there is not a sidewalk.

Thank you for that.

Um you mentioned um uh with relation to the discussions with stakeholders around the church and the ADA um adding ADA um uh compliance um parking spaces, uh the the willingness of the city to uh work on sidewalk extensions.

Could you clarify if that would be done as part like the timing of that?

Would that be part of final design?

Would that be implemented in conjunction before or after any other implementation of of this of this plan?

Yeah, so it would be the implementation would be sequenced in such a way so that there is not a time where there is no disability parking space.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um and then I think I just have one more one more question.

Um I I appreciate the discussion in your presentation of of the various types of mobility that people use.

And I think you uh referenced by bicycle lanes.

Um that's and I think that's how we commonly refer to them.

Um, but the bicycle lanes could be used by scooters as well, correct?

Correct.

And are scooters legally allowed to operate on sidewalks in the city?

No, they are not.

Okay.

And um okay, thank you.

Okay, that tracks that track is my understanding and other bike lane facilities in the city where I've seen uh not just bicyclist riding, but also um uh many, many scooters.

Um, and uh and in bike lanes closer to my neck of the what's where I live, I often also see motorized wheelchairs, um, motorized tricycles and other forms of transportation um for for users.

And so that is that an appropriate or uh expected use of what we might call a bike lane.

Yes.

I I think the the more modern term is to call them micromobility lanes, but it's a very long name and kind of annoying.

Sure, yeah.

I like going short and sweet too.

Thank you.

Okay, um, I think those are my questions for now.

Um I'd just like to reiterate, I think you did a great job with the presentation.

It was very thorough and detailed.

A lot of my answer, my questions were answered regarding the background of this project.

And I just want to say I I very much appreciate it, especially because I know there was contentious outreach.

So I think I do have a couple of questions.

The first is um with respect to segment three.

Um if any parking were to be preserved, would there be any continuity of that bike lane, or would we abandon the the bike lane in that regard?

So uh between Russell Road and Commonwealth Avenue, there's sort of two options if we wanted to preserve some on-street parking.

So, say if you wanted to preserve on-street parking on one side of the street instead of both sides.

Um, there's the option that was already presented, um, which was the parking on one side and then the climbing bicycle lane on the other side.

Um, one option that staff considered but did not put forward, but feels appropriate to talk through is um having the on-street parking retained on one side, and then instead of a buffered climbing lane, it would be two narrow were bike lanes.

So there would be a bike lane in both directions.

Um and staff did consider that option earlier.

Um, and the the only reason we didn't put it forward was because it's sort of the minimum widths, which we try to avoid because of comfort and safety issues.

Um, and the second question that I have sort of related to that.

Um for the network um further west of here, uh, can you just review some of the the either bike trails or dedicated lanes that are intended to be connected via this segment?

Yes.

So as I mentioned early on in the presentation, Braddock Road is a is a major east-west route that connects Old Town to the West End.

Um and so as part of the adopted Alexandria Mobility Plan, there are recommendations to expand bicycling options on Braddock Road to help people get east to west across the city.

There are really solid north-south routes in the city.

We've got the Potomac Yard Trail and the Metro Linear Trail and the Mount Vernon Trail, um, but not so much in in the east-west direction.

So there are bicycle lanes that exist on and off between Russell Road and roughly like Scrogans Lane area.

So up sort of by King Quaker Braddock.

Um, and then there are also planned bike lanes west of King Quaker Braddock to connect to Alexandria City High School, Fort Ward Park, um, Northern Virginia Community College, and then there's also additional trail connections where the bike lanes would connect on the west end.

All right.

I think those are my main questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, you can ask it.

Um did you receive any um additional feedback and talking to either?

I don't know if there's like a good outreach with GW middle school like itself being affected directly, um, as well as the commercial areas.

So um a couple, you know, one is just from GW.

Um often when we are near schools or for that matter at Brooks isn't very far away either.

Um there's feedback from representatives either of the school or parent associations.

Um and then the reason I ask about the commercial, I'm thinking of like the 7-Eleven and the Lenas with the commercial loading zone and the existence um of uh loading like delivery trucks that are already often in um that specific zone in terms of I guess I would think that the idea is for them to use that loading zone, and I hope they'd be encouraged from doing that rather than blocking driveways or other parts where pedestrians would need to cross.

Yeah, so good question.

Um we did reach out to George Washington Middle School and the GWPTA and did not hear any direct feedback from them.

However, I will note in reviewing the narrative comments in the community feedback we heard from a lot of parents, individual parents.

Um we did also early on reach out to um Yates Corner and the businesses there and didn't hear um any feedback actually until today when they were just clarifying that their parking is not being changed, which it's not.

I've got a couple questions.

Want to follow up with one of Dean's uh questions.

You you'd mentioned that you had this option of less than perfect bike lanes on the section between um Mount Vernon and Russell.

Between Russell and Commonwealth.

Yeah, excuse me.

Exactly.

Um if you were choosing between that or Sherrows, which would you be recommending?

I mean, Sherrows are not a not a real bicycle facility.

Right.

And and in this area, you've already identified, you know, based on the guidance that this wouldn't be appropriate to put those in.

Correct.

Um then one other thing, and thank you for actually mentioning that way back in 1974, uh the city did its first uh bike plan.

And uh what was very interesting about it was that uh Braddock Road was actually the spine for connecting three loops.

Um one loop was uh a loop around the Van Dorn Metro.

Uh the second was around the King Braddock uh road metros, and then the third was connecting the old town uh waterfront uh area.

So uh Braddock Road was kind of the key element uh for all three of those.

And you sort of talked about that a little bit this evening of that connectivity.

And so I I think it sort of reinforces that a long time ago, people had a good idea.

Um I think for the moment that's my question and comment.

Um Thank you.

Sorry, I think this is more of a comment than a question, but I forgot to say it earlier.

I I think I really appreciate the mention of um the two schools that are adjacent or uh nearby the this uh project corridor in Brooks and um GW.

I do just want to know and clarify for the record and staff that the satellite campus of the high school is also uh right by Braddock Metro.

So it is very much still adjacent um to this corridor as well.

And so there are there are three schools actually, I think in the nearby area that I think is important to just keep in the back of our minds as we're thinking about this.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any further last minutes for now?

Okay.

I guess we get to go to um public.

The public speaking, and maybe there's anyone who wants to speak.

Actually, I'm sure there is.

I'm sure you all have been just sitting here listening waiting to listen to the presentation.

So I'm gonna start by calling out the first 10 speakers on the list, and then I'll go through um as a reminder.

The five.

So our first 10 speakers are gonna be William Bersher, Jennifer Hargis, followed by Stephen Gregory uh Cotrell, Michael Schopf, uh, Vanetta Anyad, Dana Austin Lawhorn, Tom Van Wagner, Rosemarie Spano, Kate Costa, Riley DePiano, and Amy Hadley.

So we're gonna start with William Bersher, followed by Jennifer Hargis.

Um, I'm astonished that I'm the first speaker.

Uh my name's William Busher.

I'm here to speak in support of staff's recommendation for Braddock Road.

I encourage the board to adopt the recommendation in full for the entirety of the project area.

In my experience using Braddock Road in the area in question, the street design is unsafe for people walking, riding bikes or scooters, and crossing the street.

I've observed that drivers frequently do not yield to people using the crosswalks, drive dangerously around bike and scooter riders, and pass aggressively.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

The improvements recommended by staff, I think would alleviate this issue by better protecting vulnerable road users from inattentive and speeding drivers.

Additionally, Braddock Road is a critical route to school for students of George Washington Middle, uh, which is a school my third grader will soon attend in a few short years.

Uh currently we get to school by bike, and I expect that we'll continue to get to school this way when we become when she becomes a middle schooler, uh, at least to the extent she uh seeds to sit being seen in public with me uh at that time.

Uh the design adopted by this board will be the one to keep her and other students safe.

I've been following closely the public discourse around this project since it directly impacts me and my family's safety.

I applaud the months of engagement by staff to tailor the plan to Praddox to Braddock specific conditions, and I strongly encourage the board to implement all of staff's recommendations, making Braddock Road safe, uh safe street for all uses.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jennifer Hargis, followed by uh Stefan Gregory Cotell, followed by Michael Schop.

Michelle.

Hi.

Traffic and parking board members, thank you for having me.

My name is Jennifer Hargis, and I'm a resident of 116 West Alexandria Avenue.

The proposal to remove all on-street parking along the 0.6 mile stretch of Braddock Road between Russell Road and Mount Vernon Avenue is not supported by adequate justification, relevant data, or meaningful public engagement.

For segments two and three, the evidentiary standard has not been met.

Transparency and rigor are not optional when altering core neighborhood infrastructure.

Let me be clear.

I support segment one from West Street to Mount Vernon.

The city's own data and the VDOT analysis identify documented safety concerns near the metro.

That is where intervention is warranted.

That is where resources should be focused.

However, extending those findings eastward to Russell Road is not supported by the record.

From 2017 to 2025, city posted data reflects six total accidents over nine years in segments two and three.

That averages roughly one accident every year and a half, making this the safest portion of the entire 3.75 mile Braddock corridor.

The VDOT study referenced concerns only the Metro to 7-Eleven area, being Northwest Street to Mount Vernon.

It did not study the additional 0.6 miles to Russell Road.

Recasting that study to justify a broader scope is not analytically sound.

Further, staff proposes eliminating eight turning lanes between Russell Road and Mount Vernon to accommodate segregated bike lanes.

Removing turning capacity on a constrained urban corridor will predictably increase congestion.

The claim that traffic impacts through the year 2042 will show no degradation, even after lane removals, is difficult to reconcile with basic traffic engineering principles.

Signal retiming cannot manufacture lost physical capacity.

Increased congestion will be abstract.

It will mean longer idling, increased emissions, and reduced accessibility for residents and customers who rely on vehicles, including seniors, families, and service providers.

That directly reflects Del Ray and Old Town businesses.

I support multimodal safety.

I'm a daily pedestrian and an eight-year bike commuter between Rosemont, Delray, and Old Town.

But safety policy must be data driven and proportionate.

Segment one addresses documented risk.

Segments two and three simply do not.

And as we know, per your docket eight, parking has value to your city residents.

Reject the removal of parking and turning lanes from Russell Road to Mount Vernon Avenue.

Focus on corridor segments where empirical risk has been demonstrated.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thanks.

Good timing.

Any questions?

Next speaker is uh Stefan Gregory Cotrell, followed by Michelle Schop, followed by Vineta Añaden and Hello, I'm Stephen Gregory Cattrell.

I live on West Braddock Road.

I want to say I support the traffic safety improvements along the corridor, especially on the streets directly adjacent to the Braddock Road Metro Station and the GW Middle School.

But I oppose the proposed elimination of curbside parking and the addition of bike lanes on Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road.

I approve oppose these for numerous reasons, but there are three I'd like to touch on.

First, as a cyclist, despite the personal uh perceived connectivity issue, I'm really disappointed that there wasn't an option to move bike traffic onto these adjacent streets on a bike bike corridor or a bike route that is signed.

I will use an example of this uh along the Columbia Pike Corridor in Arlington.

There are bike routes along the adjacent streets to keep the traffic off of Columbia Pike.

I feel that that's not been even addressed here.

Um secondly, I feel like the uh poor history of upkeep on the existing bike lanes is another reason not to do this along Commonwealth Avenue.

The bike lanes are bad shape as if they get worse the further you uh ride north.

The paint on the bike lanes is disappearing.

It hasn't been replaced.

Once you cross Mount Vernon Avenue, the pavement really deteriorates, the lines start to go away.

Once you cross read, it's a moonscape.

There are no markings.

I've had damage to my bike there, riding, and I just feel that a couple of years we have the bike lanes on Braddock Road, they're gonna be in the same state of disrepair that we see on Commonwealth Avenue.

I've heard for years that the part above Reed was going to be fixed, and it hasn't.

So, are my safety concerns that I think the installation of bike lanes would eliminate all places for delivery vehicles to park out of traffic when making deliveries.

Currently, the numerous UPS, FedEx, and Amazon trucks that visit a corridor daily can park at the curb and get out of traffic flow.

This holds true for a contractor and utility vehicles.

With parking eliminated, the vehicles will stop in the traffic lanes when making delivery, further hindering traffic.

This section of Braddock Road is heavily used by emergency vehicles.

Any traffic hindrix would delay response times.

These delays could be dramatic during rush hour when traffic is often at a standstill.

I will use an example from a couple of weeks ago while there was still snow in the parking lanes on Braddock Road.

I waited several minutes to park in my driveway while a UPS truck was stopped in the middle of the street.

I can't see how bike lanes will help cause that to happen more often.

Uh, third, and this will be touched on probably by a lot of people.

The congregation of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church parks around Braddock Road, but it's not just the congregation.

They have several community groups that meet there throughout the week, including a choral group on Tuesday night with dozens of members who park all along Braddock Road and into the neighborhood where they will park.

Who knows?

Obviously, we have bike lanes.

Um, many of the attendees, well, thank you.

I was gonna say our senior citizens that would be hindered by this.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Michelle Schope, followed by Veneta Annon, and followed by Dana Austin Lawhorn, followed by Tom Van Wagner.

Hi, thank you for your consideration.

Um, I'm a 26-year resident of the city, about half that time in uh Park Fairfax, and I guess almost the last 14 years in Rosemont on West Braddock, and I live in the segment three area.

Um, I'm a walker, I'm a bus rider, I'm the person who got a bus stop at Shelfot and Gunston years ago.

So you could stand on the side of the road.

So I really want to speak to safety.

Um, I won't repeat as you noted, but I think the key issue is for us, the safety issue is segment one, right?

I walk to the metro.

I get that, but where I'm at, really the safety is this could make it less safe.

I cannot imagine the again, just not only the all the utility trucks and the deliveries and the ambulances and emergency vehicles.

It is a dash bus route.

Two routes run through there.

It's a school bus route.

So where do all these vehicles go, right?

I think this could create more safety concerns.

Um instead, really fixing the timing.

I know I've I've gone to some of the presentations that have been really informative and about the fact that it's been 15 years since the timing's been fixed.

So that was probably right before I moved in.

And there are thousands of vehicles.

It's very busy.

It's and and so that only means my next point.

I can't imagine it with no turn lanes.

Day in, day out, it backs up.

It's very hard to get in and out of your home, your driveway.

Um, that's every day at rush hour.

It is totally stop and go.

You have to just kind of muscle your way through.

And I don't know how that works when there's biking lanes, there's ambulances, when time is critical, an emergency vehicle needs to get through.

I don't know how this would work.

So I really would suggest preserving parking in those areas.

And I think seminary is a good example, right?

We know since some of the changes have been made, there have been some issues like an ambulance in a car did have an accident, and I would really be worried about that.

So again, I really would just be concerned this is gonna create safety issues instead of fix them.

Um, I think a good example, especially in this area, and some of you had some great questions about this by the church, by where I live.

If someone would need to come to your home, they're going to park if they could get a spot.

The closest spot is down around.

I mean, essentially about a two-black walk.

And if this is at night, how is that safer for folks?

So I really worry about safety, and I don't think this makes us safer.

I value uh bike riding.

I have an urban bike rider uh as my partner, and so it's certainly important, but I really appreciate your careful consideration, particularly to segment two and three, and that this doesn't make us safer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Vanita Anand, uh, followed by Dana Austin Lahorn, followed by Tom Van Wagner, followed by Rosemary Sparnow.

Uh good evening.

Um my name is Vanita Anand, and I've lived on or adjoining Braddock Road for 33 years.

So I'm intimately familiar with the traffic patterns and rhythms of the road.

I bike, I walk, and I ride and I drive on Braddock Road.

And safety is a real concern around the metro.

So I support the city's efforts to improve safety on segment one between West Street and Mount Vernon, which VDOT has designated as an area of high concern.

However, there's no need for interventions west of Mount Vernon because the data simply does not support it.

I oppose the removal of parking between Mount Vernon and Russell, and also the six spots on Commonwealth Avenue.

My Rosemont and Delray neighbors and I are concerned about the deterioration of safety as a result of these proposals.

We believe it'll become much more dangerous.

Community feedback has shown a huge opposition to the staff proposal, which was not documented, I might add in Miss Carol's presentation today.

Uh and despite uh the saying that community was contacted, there were no posters of flyers anywhere on our streets.

Uh, we received more mailings from the city about leaf collection than about this.

Um an overwhelming majority of residents have voted twice at the Rosemont Association meetings against the removal of parking on Braddock Road.

Last November by uh five is to one vote.

Uh residents voted against removing parking on West Braddock.

In January, residents voted by nearly seven times to uh remove parking on East Braddock Road.

On Friday, we delivered petitions to the traffic and parking board with 275 signatures opposing these changes.

The staff proposal is a classic management by objectives um strategy where you predetermined an outcome and then you dairy wreak the data to support that outcome.

But facts do matter.

V dot designated the segment of Braddock to West as a top priority.

There was zero pedestrian or bicycle crashes in Braddock between Mount Vernon and Russell since at least 2017, according to the city's own data.

Um going to the count, the January 30th bike count was eight at Commonwealth and Braddock and four at Braddock and Russell.

If you build it, they will not come.

You've seen what happened on seminary.

You built it, you built those um protected bike lanes.

You you made a road diet, and what happened?

Nothing.

No increase in uh bike numbers that um think.

Our next speaker is Dana Austin Lahorn, followed by Tom Van Wagner, followed by Rosemary Spearno.

Good evening.

I'm Dana Lalhorn.

I live at 102 West Alexandria Avenue.

I've lived there in that area for about 66 years.

We all, all of us support the plan to improve safety from West to Russell Road.

There's no question about it.

It is undisputed.

Well, we do have an exception for well, we are an exception is the removal of the parking from Mount Vernon to Russell Road, which would adversely affect 52 homes and three churches.

So the city data just really didn't support that the claim that this segment, segments two and three, were dangerous.

There was only six accidents there in almost seven or eight years.

There's 71 accidents from Russell to King Street.

The way I feel about it is um, you know, move up Braddock Road more west and address uh those issues.

There's a bigger need there.

The city even hired a consultant that graded this area between uh Mount Vernon and Russell as a grade C on a scale of A to L.

And we were even told that this really wasn't a problem area.

So the same consultant said that the area works fine.

It's really not that complex.

I'm either walking or standing there or driving on that uh stretch of road.

And I just don't see that it's that complex or that that much of a problem.

I uh do want to offer to you that um some have said in an argument against us is that there's plenty of parking and everybody has a driveway.

Well, my rebuttal to that is that uh being able to park in front of or near your home is important.

Um and the city recognizes that.

And the biggest example of that is in Rosemont, is a three-hour zone there, and you restrict uh the parking to three hours.

So um, and the reason is to keep commuters from parking there all day and disrupting uh your life.

So um, if you know the street uh being able to park at your house is important.

Um we all know it is, and um, you know, so I just don't think it's that should be dismissed uh as not important.

Uh in Rosemont, just about every home also has a driveway.

So if ever if the logic is you have a driveway, what's the big deal?

Well, then remove the three-hour parking in Rosemont.

Stop charging them 45 bucks.

Um what I would say is that you really do kind of have a false dilemma.

There is a third choice, and that is to put in the shared bike lanes.

And that way everybody gets what they need, and there is a compromise.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tom Van Wagner, followed by Rosemary Spano, followed by Kate Costa, followed by Riley De Piano.

Good evening, members of the board.

Thank you very much for holding the hearing for inviting us to provide input as citizens.

My name is Tom Van Wagner, I live at 202 East Braddock Road.

I've been in the community for 34 years.

I'm a biker.

I have been a bike commuter, I'm an avid walker, and I've actually worked with TNS TNES in the past for safety improvements along this quarter, specifically back in 2007 and 2008.

We were one of the first projects to work with Rich Baer and his crew to develop the traffic coming proposals in our neighborhood when the PTO is first installed over there.

It was about a two-year process.

We went a lot of good give and take between citizens and staff, a lot of iterative changes to the plans, and the neighborhood is a lot safer owing to that that great edited work.

Um when it comes to the current proposals, uh, I believe uh that the hard work done by staff is laudable.

I also believe that bike safety, pedestrian safety is certainly high interest for me.

And I agree with my colleagues who've already spoken, saying that the quarter that needs to be addressed, it's a mess between West Street and uh Mount Vernon Avenue.

Beyond that, uh, as people have already mentioned, we're already at vision zero.

There have been no bicycle-involved accidents in that quarter uh in recorded history since 2017.

So it's already safe.

Uh so I don't know how you can get below zero at that point.

Um there are trade-offs in any community between the desires of things would be nice to have and the needs of the community and the desires of the entire community.

Now, in this case, uh, this project is not warranted, really just by virtue of the volume, according to the staff report of bikers who use this route.

Four in one place, eight in another.

Uh is hardly uh a dent in the uh uh the grand scheme of things.

However, Dana said there are 52 houses.

As Vanita said, there are 250 people in the impacted area of this study who signed on their support for phase one of this project and their opposition to the loss of parking on both sides of Braddock Road.

250 people on Braddock Road and the adjacent side streets.

And the reason the people in Jason Side Streets are interested is because they know, because we live this every day.

Uh the traffic, the parking is going to go from Braddock Road onto their side streets and clog those up.

We know this because we already see this happening.

And the so now I know the traffic study uh counted so many spaces available on Braddock and blah, blah, blah.

But I'm gonna tell you that traffic study was done during an anomalous time frame.

It was done during the biggest government shutdown in the history of the United States when government workers were not coming in from further in Delray to park there to go to the metro, and people weren't being paid.

So I suspect there were also fewer people parking to go to Linus to eat.

So it was not really a good time to take a parking survey.

It was only one, so it's a one snapshot deal.

There was a cited uh March report, but nothing from that uh that data appeared in the reports.

So there are 250 people who are very much against this.

And I ask you as you're looking at this to balance the needs of four to eight or maybe 15 bikers against uh the 52 households and the 250 people who've already expressed their opposition to this.

I thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Rosemary Spano, followed by Kate Costa, followed by Riley De Piano, followed by Amy Hadley.

Good evening.

My name is Rose Marie Spano.

I serve as the second vice president of the Rosemont Citizens Association.

The RCA promotes the interest and welfare of its members, which include approximately 1,800 households in the Rosemont neighborhood of Alexandria.

The vast majority of the project corridor would be implemented within the boundaries of Rosemont.

I'd like to thank Alex Carroll for making herself available to field members' questions at a second of two meetings the RCA held on the Braddock Road project.

We hope she has brought to your attention the many specific issues members raised at that time.

As mandated by an overwhelming vote at the first of the RCA meetings, the Rosemont Citizens Association opposes the removal of parking spaces on segment three of the Braddock Road Corridor, which is the portion between Russell Road and Commonwealth Avenue.

As mandated by a similar vote at the second meeting, we also oppose the removal of parking spaces on segment two of the Braddock Road Corridor, which is the portion between Commonwealth Avenue and Mount Vernon Avenue.

Please note that the RCA has not taken a position on improvements to segment one of the Braddock Road Corridor, which is the portion from Mount Vernon Avenue to West Street.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Kate Costa, followed by Riley DePiano, followed by Amy Hadley, followed by Glenn Siegel, followed by James F.

V.

Lobo.

Thank you so much.

I am sure that you have other places you would rather be, and I appreciate your service to our community.

My name is Kate Costa, and I serve as pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, which has been mentioned many times and is on Braddock between Russell and Commonwealth.

Um and I speak uh against section three of this proposal, specifically removing the one handicap space on that section.

Um, like all Alexandria businesses, we were greatly affected by the snowstorm in January.

Something they don't teach you in seminary is how to call a shovel brigade.

We had over a dozen volunteers who came out and followed up after the three paid crews that we had come to clear the spaces.

We dug, we cleared the handicap space, we cleared the ramp to the building, we cleared all of the spaces around, we cleaned many of our neighbors' cars off.

Um and why did we do all of this?

Because access to our building matters.

We had a funeral planned that weekend, and we knew that we were going to have 20 to 30 people, many of whom had disabilities who needed to be able to access our building that weekend.

Access to our building matters for worship.

It matters for community spaces, and it matters for those with disabilities.

The snow was obviously a temporary challenge.

It was a challenge for all of us.

But it was a foretaste of the challenges that our congregation and our neighborhood and our community will face if we don't have access to the 50 or so spaces that are right in our block.

Specifically, I'm concerned about the fact that we are looking at moving the space around the corner, which would take it from about 25 feet from the ADA space to our door to about 150 to 175 feet that have to be walked for folks to make it to our door.

The three sides of our building are our building is on a triangle, and the three sides of the triangle are not equal.

One side has sidewalks on Braddock Road.

The other two sides of the triangle don't have sidewalks.

They also don't have curb cutouts.

And so the access is not the same.

And so to move this handicap spaces to the far corners means that folks would have to walk from as far away as possible on our property to be able to access that building.

Bike and pedestrian safety is very important to us.

We have many members who bike from Del Rey who bike to church.

We have one member who regularly bikes 10 miles to come to church.

And so it's important to us, but it's also important to us to be able to access our building for those who do drive a good distance.

And we want to be able to be good neighbors.

Many of our neighbors are here tonight.

And we already park in front of their houses.

We try to do so with kindness and consideration, but it's not always possible.

And this will make it much more difficult.

So thank you, Mark.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions for me?

I know you've asked that of others.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Riley DiPiano, followed by Amy Hadley, followed by Glenn Siegel, followed by James Lobo.

Good evening.

My name is Riley DiPiano and I live at 115 West Braddock.

I want to start by saying we are not against the safety goals of this project.

We agree that the area between Mount Vernon and West does require improvements identified by VDOT.

However, there is not solid data supporting segments two and three.

This project raises real equity concerns.

A disproportionate burden will be placed on residents that do not have fully equipped off-street parking.

Specifically, my house does not have a driveway.

A portion of the yard was converted to um to a single spot in 2012.

We are a two-car family and need street parking in front of our house.

This allows for daily accessibility for our family, residents, visitors, congregants of the local churches, service vehicles, and community gatherings.

Removing parking creates real hardships for the community.

Please imagine having to walk several blocks while carrying groceries, managing your children or supporting elderly family members.

The impact isn't minor.

It directly affects our daily lives.

Some of these churches also have congregants that did not live directly in the area in commute.

Reduce parking capacity could affect participation in overall community engagement.

While the project has attempted to address some of these issues, it will force unintended consequences.

Removing parking on Braddock will force issues to neighboring streets.

Removing eight turnlanes will cause more traffic.

The simulation inputs are not accurately reflect the current conditions and should be updated accordingly.

Another issue not properly addressed is residents backing out of their driveways.

Well, some believe it will be easier for residents.

Backups at peak times make this more dangerous.

Personally, I use on-street parking to wait until traffic flow declines to back into the easement in my parking space.

Without the ability to do this, I will impede traffic, which is more dangerous than as many drivers rarely yield to someone trying to pull in.

Better alternatives exist.

We can improve safety, visibility, and predictability without sacrifice sacrificing essential access.

Specifically improving light timing, implementing radar speed signals, and increasing enforcement.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask the board to reject the current segments two and three recommendations and focus on the V dot identified area.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Amy Hadley, followed by Glenn Siegel, followed by James Lovo, followed by Don Niss.

Hi, good evening, and thank you for having me.

I'm here to express my opposition to the removal of on-street parking in segments three and two, our churches on segment three.

I'm concerned, of course, for my church's uh older and mobility impaired members.

But what I want to focus on right now is the impact this change could have or would have on Good Shepherd's ability to serve our community.

Um, Good Shepherds not only a house of worship, it's a community resource.

As several people have said, we host uh we're a regular meeting place for several community organizations.

Several of them have already told us that they are concerned that they may no longer be able to meet at our space if nearby parking is removed.

Um, I also serve as the chair of Good Shepherds Community Outreach Ministry.

I organize service initiatives uh throughout the year.

Of particular concern, we host ANOVA blood drives at least three times annually.

Because the City of Alexandria does not have a permanent blood donation center, these drives provide a critical service.

Last year alone, our blood drives collected 75 pints of blood enough to potentially save more than 200 lives.

Most of these donors are not members of our congregation.

They are Alexandria residents who come because the site is convenient.

Uh, we get many repeat donors, and they thank us for making it easy for them to donate.

Uh, ANOVA requires host sites to be fully accessible and staff transport heavy medical equipment into our building.

When we host the blood drive, the ANOVA truck parks on Braddock Road and wheels their equipment up our ramp.

Uh, if parking were relocated farther away, this could render our site unusable.

Similarly, similarly, we have a monthly meal program for friends of guest house.

Uh, and that also depends on vehicle access.

Volunteers prepare large quantities of food in our kitchen and transport it via carts down the ramp to the volunteers' vehicles, which are parked on Braddock Road.

Moving parker parking farther could um undermine our ability to serve our neighbors efficiently.

Um, Good Shepherd also hosts uh many community events.

We host the annual graduation ceremony for Brendans of Guesthouse, which is typically attended by more than 75 people, including families and community leaders.

Our anti-racism team sponsors public education events that regularly draw large audiences.

These events strengthen the fabric of our community, and we want to be able to continue to provide this programming, um, especially without putting undue uh burden on our neighbors in the side streets.

Um, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is deeply committed to serving Alexandria.

The removal of on-street parking on Braddock Road would significantly impair our ability to provide services that benefit residents across the city, not just our own congregation.

Uh, so I respectfully and strongly urge the city to preserve on-street parking um at minimum on segment three and two.

Um, and thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Glenn Siegel, followed by James Lovo, followed by Don Nis, followed by Margaret Janowski.

Good evening.

My name is Glenn Siegel.

I'm a 50-year resident on West LaRoy Avenue.

I live directly across the street from the church, and I do not have a driveway or a garage for all-street parking.

In a perfect world, you could design a modern city with plenty of designated space for both automobiles and bicycles.

Unfortunately, we do not live in that perfect world.

The central idea of the Braddock Corridor Project is one shared by everyone here.

You've designated segment one as a dangerous place and in need of improvement.

That should be your priority.

That you have not demonstrated any serious problems with segments two and three, and these should be put off and considered on their own at a later date.

The intersection of Braddock and Russell Roads is already a real problem.

Eliminating turn lanes will do nothing to improve the situation.

Only make it worse and add to the congestion and delays.

If you're concerned with the environment, please tell me how forcing all of these cars to basically sit at idle is going to improve anything.

How is making these things problem worse going to affect emergency response vehicles?

Your proposed solution does nothing to help, and in fact, only makes the problems worse.

As we proposal to eliminate on-street parking in this section of Braddock Road, our house has no driveway.

Many times knowing that the church is having a function, I back my car onto my grass.

But because it's not a driveway, frequently people will block the entrance to it.

And we have to sit and wait for something to come out.

As we get older, we depend on being able to park in front of our house.

If you force people to usually park on Braddock on Tele and other side streets, where would you suggest they park?

As we prepare to celebrate Anniversary America's 250th birthday, we should remember that a nation was founded on the idea of the social contract.

The social contract is an idea that the government, that the citizens have an obligation to the government, but the government has obligations to its citizens.

In this case, I suggest you pay a little more attention to your obligation to us, the citizens, the residents of the neighborhoods, the taxpayers, and less to the small but highly vocal special interests.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is James Lovell, followed by Don Niss, followed by Margaret Janowski, followed by Jacqueline Kittridge, followed by Timothy Shaw, followed by John McCormick.

Good evening.

My name is James Lovell.

I live at 19 West Glendale Avenue and have lived there with my wife and raised uh two kids who are graduates of Alexandria Public School, Morrie, uh Brooks, uh GW and TC Williams.

We've lived there for 45 years and paid taxes.

I am strongly opposed to the concept of prohibiting off-street or on-street parking from Russell Road to Commonwealth.

And the reason why, even though I don't live on Commonwealth, is because this would assuredly push that parking on to West Glendale.

West Glendale between Russell and Commonwealth is a cutoff street.

It was mentioned in the staff analysis that they were concerned about West Alexandria reversing the direction because traffic would be going downhill.

Absolutely right.

It's coming downhill when people are coming south on or north on uh Russell Road and they see traffic backed up at the signalized intersection, they cut off down West Glendale to race down to the intersection with Commonwealth and hopefully maybe shoot through that intersection before the light turns.

Same way coming back.

If that left turn lane is eliminated on Braddock to go west on or go uh uh south on uh Braddock Road, that will just push more traffic coming up West Glendale to make that left on to Braddock Road to avoid that backed up traffic.

Right now we have uh parking on both sides of West Glendale, and we have almost every family has multiple vehicles, and there's a lot of kids on our street.

When we had our kids in grade school, we had 22 kids that were 12 or younger that were walking down to GW.

That area, if you take parking off, will become extremely dangerous to the pedestrians, the kids playing with neighbors across the street and so forth.

Again, to me, the problem area is segment one.

Last year I noticed that for almost two months, the generalized lighting around the crosswalks on segment one be uh to go across the street there by Braddock Metro were out.

The bulbs were burned out, they were not replaced.

It's been mentioned several times that the marking is bad.

Do the maintenance and create the safety down on that segment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Don Nis, followed by Margaret Janowski, followed by Jaclyn Kittridge, followed by Timothy Shaw.

Thank you very much for having us here today and to comment on this proposal.

Um at 22 West Braddock Road with my wife and my two 12-year-old sons who go to GW uh middle school and walk there every day.

Um, I want to just briefly thank um Alex for making yourself available for difficult conversations with the community.

Um, it doesn't go without notice.

Um I think a couple of things.

We all support safety, we all support bike safety, and we want to make a community safer.

Um, the big point here, you know, I wholeheartedly support the work at segment one.

Um, but I I very much oppose the uh the removal of parking and the um uh bike lanes on segment two and three, and for a couple of reasons.

Um I think one thing to note is um one way that this our interaction in the city works really well is in 2015 when the pedestrian was killed at Commonwealth in uh Braddock, um, relatively soon after that accident, the city uh put in a delayed green signal and um and made it a no-right turn on red.

And I think that made that that intersection there incredibly safe in an incredibly short period of time without um with with the the appropriate level of intervention that was needed there to make it safer.

One of the things I just observed the other day is um between uh Mount Vernon and Commonwealth was an ambulance sitting in backed up traffic, and that ambulance waited about four or five five light cycles before it pulled out into the opposing lane of traffic and turned on its lights.

Um that was only when one lane was um was blocked up, but on my my block of uh Braddock, there are frequently times where both sides are backed up at least to the middle of the block, if not further.

Um, so there you really you can't turn your lights on to get out of that situation.

Um, I would have liked to have seen more data on emergency vehicle use in the proposal.

Um I appreciate the deputy fire marshal's uh letter of support, but I guess in the spirit of transparency and accountability, we really need to understand what the level of transit is, how many emergency vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars rely on this corridor for for its use.

I don't underestimate how difficult it is to get um anywhere from 2.3 to uh five million cars through that corridor every year.

And I think that's really significant.

However, if you take out the lanes, the turn lanes there, that greatly facilitates how that traffic clears and gets through.

Um, I think what there are a couple of things to consider here.

One is if that traffic backs up even worse than we have now, and people start putting uh their location on Apple maps and ways and ask for alternative routes, they're gonna start ending up into more residential areas of the community.

And I don't think we want that because a lot of those areas aren't necessarily prepared for higher levels of traffic.

The last thing I just want to end with is that parking is not a convenience.

Parking is repairs to homes, it's repairs to heating, repairs to plumbing, and sometimes it's emergencies.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Margaret Janowski, followed by Jacqueline Kittridge, followed by Timothy Shaw, followed by John McCormick, followed by Brian Egan, followed by Joseph Freeze.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Margaret Janowski, and I've lived at 106 West Braddock Road near the intersection with Russell Road for nearly 29 years.

In that time, we have raised two children and walked our 17-year-old dog around the neighborhood.

I would like to state up front that we support any and all safety improvements to the section of East Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Northwest Street, identified by VDOT as the area needing improvement.

We have provided several comments along the way in this process and are being vilified for wanting to protect safe access to our home, our neighbors to their homes, the church communities to their houses of worship, and to the community at large who use this busy road.

We have been accused of being against safety, which is absurd.

We live here.

We walked our children to Maury, now Brooks, and then they walked to GW Middle School along these roads.

We have pointed out many serious issues that will affect our safety and the lack of access we will have to our home, including the increased traffic due to the remote removal of turn lanes.

We attempted to decipher the city attachment traffic analysis on docket page 61.

But as we are not civil engineers and without a key, it is difficult.

However, two points stand out.

There is no identification as to when the existing data was collected, by whom and over what period.

And two, for the future, there is an assumption of no build.

It is really quite unbelievable that this analysis could possibly propose that our future traffic could be based on a no-build scenario.

Braddock Road is the major east-west road from North Old Town to West End to the West End and vice versa, as Alex pointed out in her presentation.

Over the last several years, the increase in traffic has been skyrocketing.

With the development of high rises in North Old Town and near the Braddock Road Metro on Route One, thousands of housing units have been added.

And more is scheduled in that area with the extremely large redevelopment of the old power plant property.

We also have the ongoing massive redevelopment of landmark.

Obviously, we will see even more traffic from these cross city commuters.

Our rush hour traffic is every day, both AM and PM, heading in both directions on Braddock Road.

With the proposed removal of turn removal of turn lanes, any one car turning left will bring this traffic to a complete halt.

Combined with the removal of street parking, as Mr.

DiPiano mentioned, the residents have historically pulled out of the traffic lanes if they want to turn into their driveways and temporarily or for lengthy periods of time, parked on those parked so to get out of the traffic and not cause left term problems.

Can I uh just want to jump in briefly?

Could we ask staff to uh identify what no build means?

Because I think that's a term that may be causing some confusion.

Yes, so now no build um is uh a term that we use with any project that is the scenario where we the project is not built.

Yeah, that doesn't matter.

It doesn't assume there's no development.

It doesn't say there's no there's not going to be any growth on this corridor.

What it means is the project does not proceed.

No, thank you.

No, please, thank you.

Please go ahead.

My name is Jacqueline Kittridge, and I've lived in Rosemont for 28 years.

I am in favor of the staff recommendation for Braddock Road because protected bike lanes make the streets safer for all road users.

I am co-leader of the Naomi Brooks bike bus.

It is a joyful ride to school that happens every Friday morning, and I invite you all to come.

These improvements happen on one of our bike bus routes and will make the routes safer for students and families.

Protected bike lanes are a welcome change for someone like me who has a healthy fear of riding my bike in the street alongside cars.

It only takes one distracted driver for a cyclist to be seriously injured or worse.

Protected bike lanes encourage more people to bike because they see that it can be safe.

This relieves congestion because every cyclist on the road is one less car.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Timothy Shaw, followed by John McCormick, followed by Brian Egan, followed by Joseph Frey, followed by Denise Elfs.

Good evening, all my name is Tim Shaw.

I'm a 23-year resident of Del Ray.

Uh, I firmly support the recommendations of city staff regarding Braddock Road Corridor, and I thank staff who put in obviously a lot of time and energy into what is no doubt a challenging project.

Uh, in the off-heated discussion that has been out there, um, accessibility has come up.

We've heard it.

Obviously, I'm very deeply sympathetic to these points.

All things considered, though, accessibility is a key reason to pursue the project as designed.

Nearly 11 years ago, my then 13-year-old daughter suffered a serious accident, which left her with limited mobility, mostly using a wheelchair.

Despite the challenges, we resolved to maintain our outdoorsy lifestyle.

Among the regular activities we do are runs, walks, and so forth throughout the city.

Perhaps you've seen us out and about.

We love encouragement.

I'm deeply grateful to live in a city with a solid walking and biking infrastructure.

It's a huge asset for those with limited mobility.

This part of Braddock Road, especially that between Commonwealth and West, however, is a disappointingly inaccessible gap in our system.

It is the best way for us to walk a run to Old Town, yet, as currently constructed, it is dangerous and barely usable.

Simply put, we must travel in traffic.

The sidewalks, as noted, are too narrow for us, especially around the utility poles that came up earlier.

And this is a much larger in the city uh issue in the city for those of you who do want to advocate for accessibility.

Each of the driveway curb cuts is an obstacle for us to navigate.

Traveling in the road avoids these obstacles, but there is no refuge from a line of traffic.

This is a major corridor in the city.

To make it truly accessible, we need dedicated lanes for wheelchairs, strollers, bikes, runners, scooters, what have you.

The status quo is not a viable solution.

Now, any one of us could find ourselves with an unexpected mobility limitation.

And the city obviously does have a process to address new accessibility needs related to parking.

I understand that this is even already happening, as it did to some extent with Good Shepherd.

Should other needs arise, we can then solve those cases in their particular need in their particular moment.

We should not halt broader accessibility and safety improvements to address narrow needs where other solutions may exist.

Board members, please consider the safety needs for accessible recreation and travel and approve the city plan.

Staff have created.

My daughter and I look forward to expanding our routes on this stretch being open to us.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is John McCormick, followed by Brian Egan, followed by Joseph Frey, followed by Denise Else, followed by Dwight Horkenheimer.

Good evening.

Thank you for letting me share.

My name is Brian McCormick.

John Brian McCormick.

I reside at 817 Little.

My house is two doors from Braddock Road.

I've lived in this address since 1976.

I'm speaking tonight because it has come to my attention that the parking and traffic review board wants my neighbors on East Braddock Road to give up their street parking.

Our neighborhood was built in the late 1920s.

Many of our neighbors do not even have driveways.

And those that do, their driveways can only accommodate one vehicle.

Needless to say, our neighborhood can barely hold space for our own vehicles by forcing our Braddock Road neighbors to move their cars up two blocks from their homes is an inconvenience.

They shouldn't be.

And we love our bikers, and we God knows, we we love to walk.

I love to walk.

So when we see them, we we pull aside, we slow down.

We make sure that they're safe.

We have shared bike lanes in this Braddock Road section now.

It's a wonderful idea.

It makes all the sense in the world.

We need to keep those shared bike lanes, but we also need to not inconvenience our neighbors by asking them to park the cars one or two blocks away.

And you know, like the one man said about bringing Rosbies home.

Come on, that's crazy.

So anyway, I'll go on from there.

Please please take into consideration the people who live in this neighborhood.

Come walk through the neighborhood.

You'll see the negative effect this plan will have on our parking situation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Brian Egan, followed by Joseph Frey, followed by Denise Elfs, followed by Dwight Horkenheimer, followed by Laurent Jadowski.

Hi.

Um, so I'm right above that intersection with Braddock and Russell.

I go through there probably two to three times a day, if not more.

I'm an avid biker, and actually, my main way of getting around, even with three young children under five is a cargo bike.

So I get around, I go down Braddock every single day.

I'm gonna like scoot over to that weird little, excuse me.

Um, it's dangerous.

I go down that with three kids on my bike going 20 miles an hour, and cars try to zoom past me.

They don't care.

They want to get where they're going real fast.

It is very dangerous.

Now, you know, Alex mentioned before that speed limits 25, but cars often go 30, 32, 33.

It doesn't sound like a big difference.

But the fatality rate on a bike being hit at 30 miles an hour versus 25 miles an hour, quintuples.

12% of people that are hit at 25 miles an hour are fatally injured.

55% if you're hit at 30 miles an hour.

Now, we've heard a lot about there's not a lot of bikes here.

Not a lot of people bike, no one uses it.

I don't see people on bikes.

Again, I go down it every day.

I see bikes all the time.

And once we add bike lanes, there'll be this concept called induced demand.

It makes it easy, it makes people feel safe, it makes people feel comfortable, and they will use it.

Now, we've also heard a lot about the neighborhood doesn't want this, the neighborhood doesn't like this, listen to the neighbors.

The RCA voted against this.

Well, the median age in Rosemont for an adult is 40 years old.

Does that seem representative of the people we've been hearing tonight?

I want you to ask who's not here.

People who are not here are the excuse me, I'm speaking.

Would you excuse me?

Can I speak?

I do not speak to you.

It's disrespectful to interrupt people.

The median age in Rosemont is 40 years old.

That's not re the people you were hearing from tonight are not representative of the neighborhood.

I take my kids to school every day and I talk about this, and people like this is a great idea.

I want this to happen.

But they're home with their kids.

They're taking care of kids.

My wife couldn't make it here tonight because she's watching our kids.

It's a common story around here.

And so you're not hearing a representative voice of the neighborhood.

You're hearing a certain subsection of the neighborhood, the people who are most inconvenienced and have the free time to come and talk about it.

So you know, the magic of Alexandria is in the bustling sidewalks, not the busy streets.

That's why I moved here.

That's why people love it here.

You know, the other thing you're going to hear, and you have heard a lot is that there's no data, despite having been an hour-long presentation full of data.

But really, what it seems like people are waiting for, they keep saying it's not that dangerous.

We haven't had major accidents.

We haven't had major accidents.

They're waiting for a fatality.

That's if you're between the lines, they're waiting for someone to die.

That's the state of they're waiting for.

Could be me or it could be my kids.

I really hope it's not.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Joseph Frey, followed by Denise Else, followed by Dwight Horkenheimer, followed by Laurent Janowski, followed by Elizabeth Trigg, followed by Michael Griffith, followed by Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Misselli.

My name is Joe Frey, and I live on segment three of Braddock Road.

I get around my neighborhood on foot, by bike, by car, and by bus.

I'm here tonight to ask you to support this project as recommended by the staff.

First, I want to thank the staff for their hard work to develop this thoughtful and reasonable plan and for their many attempts at engaging with me, my neighbors, and other stakeholders during this project.

While I realize that this change will not be without inconvenience to me, my family, and my neighbors, the benefits of the broader community are immense.

The safety and accessibility improvements within a mile of a metro station will improve the quality of life for many of our fellow citizens.

I'm also excited personally to be able to more safely and comfortably get to the metro and navigate my neighborhood.

Opponents of this project and bike lanes generally often depict the trade-offs inherent in this discussion as a choice between car users' way of life and bikers' little hobby.

But people should be able to choose how they get around this wonderful, accessible, dense city, and there's room enough for all of us.

I have a young daughter and she loves riding her bike, and she's getting to the age where she can be trusted to ride around the neighborhood on her own, but the street in front of our house is terrifying for her.

I regularly see middle schoolers using Braddock to get to George Washington, despite these risks.

These public thoroughfares are and should be for everyone.

And giving up on-street parking in front of my house is worth it for these improvements and the diffuse benefits they create.

City staff has satisfied me that the impact on traffic will be minimal and that emergency responders have no concerns with the plan.

I'm convinced that Braddock Road will continue to be a safe and useful route when I do need to use my car.

It will also be safer and more friendly to other users.

Please vote to approve this project.

It's proposed by staff.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Denise Elf, followed by Dwight Horkenheimer, followed by Laurent Chanowski, followed by Elizabeth Trigg, followed by Michael Griffith, followed by Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Misselli.

Okay.

Our next speaker then is Dwight Horkenheimer, followed by Laurent Janowski, followed by Elizabeth Trig.

Do we have a Dwight Horkenheimer?

Okay, then we're moving on to our next speaker, Lawrence Janowski, followed by Elizabeth Trigg, followed by Michael Griffith.

Followed by Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Baseli.

Good evening, and thank you for having me here.

My name is Lauren Janowski, and I live on Braddock Road for the last 28 years.

Let me start off by saying that a huge improvement for me is the revamping of the light on King and Russell.

The flow of traffic is much smoother.

I'm not tempted to cut through the side street to bypass the light anymore, like many others have as well.

I have a wife, two kids, four bikes, three cars, one is a work vehicle, and one cat.

My car isn't a driveway car.

It is an electric car that I have to recharge at home and I use it every day.

But parking it backward and the driveway is challenging.

To park on my driveway requires a bit of skill since back in, so it's safer for me to get in and out.

When coming back from work in the afternoon, I need to drive up West Alexandria Avenue to make a left on Russell and then a left on Braddock, because traffic from Braddock to Commonwealth is already a nightmare starting around 3 a.m.

Monday through Friday.

If you remove both turn lanes on Commonwealth and Braddock, traffic will be close to a standstill, and motorists will soon learn to bypass and use side streets.

Since all cars come with GPSs today, these streets will become new fast lanes.

When I bought my house, it came with street parking and I paid taxes.

And every year, I was never thought that I could lose or would lose my parking.

So I asked AI for information is there value on street parking?

And this is what came up.

The presence of street parking in front of a residential property can significantly enhance value and appeal.

Properties can amp uh with ample and well managed street parking, tend to command higher prices due to the added convenience and accessibility.

And it was funny.

Right after that, it said from Alexandria VA.com.

It's amazing that the city that acknowledges this information is trying to reduce the value of the largest investment of my life.

I guess we'll all have to have all 52 homes will have to have a meeting about our taxes.

A little bit of data we see doesn't show the need to remove parking in section two or three of the proposal.

Safety is a property for the residents living on Braddock Road.

And the city data does not show that there are problems in section two or three with safety issues.

Don't fix what's not broken.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Elizabeth Trigg, followed by Michael Griffith, followed by Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Misselli, followed by Stacey Yance, followed by Nicole Radshaw.

Good evening.

For 18 years, my family has lived on the 200 block of East Braddock Road.

We use Braddock Road daily.

My husband walks to the Braddock Road Metro.

I walked to my job as a teacher at the Alexandria City High School satellite campus, which was mentioned several times this evening.

And my sons walk to Jefferson Houston Elementary and George Washington Middle Schools.

We are bicyclists, we are pedestrians, we are the very multimodal residents the city claims to design for.

And I'm a proponent of safe streets.

While I support the improvements proposed in segment one, those between West and Mount Vernon Avenue, I am here to voice my firm opposition to the current proposals for segments two and three.

This stretch of Braddock Road is not just a residential neighborhood, but functions as a major east-west artery and is already plagued by extreme traffic backups during weekday morning and afternoon rush hours.

There is no data to support removing all street parking and eight dedicated turn lanes between Mount Vernon and Russell Road.

This wouldn't just be an inconvenience.

It would be a fundamental restructuring.

And in fact, doing so would be just engineering additional congestion into a residential zone.

Removing these lanes will turn lanes will simply bottleneck traffic, inevitable inevitably leading to aggressive cut through traffic on side streets as drivers seek a path of least resistance, increased idling and emissions, and a loss of accessibility for service vehicles deliveries and the residents who rely upon access and the guests who sustain our community.

I cannot understand how this could be a solution to anything.

What exactly is the problem it's intended to solve?

The city's own data shows this is the safest stretch of the entire 3.75 mile Braddock Road corridor.

And since 2017, there have been zero pedestrian or bicycle incidents.

We are essentially being asked to undergo major surgery on a healthy stretch of road, heavy traffic notwithstanding.

This stretch of road already meets the goal for safe streets.

If there is no safety crisis to solve, I have to ask who is being served by this.

It is certainly not the residents who live here and is not the commuters, commuters who rely on it daily.

As you can see from the map that was provided to you by the signers of the petition, over 200 property addresses of the area that will be most directly impacted by these changes have signed a petition.

As our representatives, your primary duty is to the citizens who lives in these neighborhoods, not to hypothetical engineering model that ignores the reality on the ground.

Don't let the potential of improvements of segment one be used as a Trojan horse for the flawed plans of segments two and three.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Michael Griffith, followed by Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Misselli, followed by Stacey Ons.

Hello, everyone.

My name's Mike Griffith.

I live at 11 West Spring Street.

I'm usually in bed about 9.15.

So it says something that I'm still here.

I'm committed to giving you my comments.

My professional background is in highway safety.

I've been doing this for 37 years.

I worked at the Federal Highway Administration for 33 years.

And the last 14 years, I led the Office of Safety Technology.

So I have safety in my soul.

So you might be surprised that I support this project.

The question that I ask myself before I put my comments together is what makes a city livable, healthy, and safe.

And I believe design cities that encourage walking, cycling, scooting, and public interaction enhance the quality of urban life.

If Alexander wants to encourage more trips by walking and cycling and scooting, then let's make it inviting, comfortable, and safe.

So more people will do so.

Braddock Road is a great place to make this happen to fill a gap in the bike network and pedestrian network with a strong design to accommodate all road users.

I applaud the city of Alexandria for adopting the safe system approach.

This approach has been adopted by many more North American cities and cities around the world.

And I have traveled around the world and I have seen some incredible bike and pedestrian networks.

And I think we have a lot to live up to in terms of what our cities have done.

Part of this approach involves separating motorized users from vulnerable road users.

And I think of all the children that are in the city of Alexandria that need extra protection when they're traveling through this city.

From personal perspective, when I ride my bike, I always wear a helmet, even though there's no law requiring me to do so.

I didn't wait to get in a crash before I started wearing a helmet.

Likewise, we shouldn't wait for a tragic pedestrian or bike crash to happen on Braddock Road and then react after the fact by making improvements.

They're all grounded in science.

That's very important.

We want to make sure that what's being proposed is backed by rigorous research studies.

I am familiar with this research.

What is being proposed is backed by science.

And I'm looking at road diet here, bike lanes, exclusive pedestrian signal phase.

These are all elements that are being promoted at the national and international level to make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists and scooter users.

I believe the final decisions made regarding this project should be strongly grounded in safety.

And I know this community can rally behind safety as a primary factor.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Mike Rodriguez, followed by James Misselli, followed by Stacey Youngz, followed by Nicole Radshaw, followed by Melissa McMahon, followed by Ben McGuinness.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Mike Rodriguez.

I live in Seminary Valley, part of the West End of Alexandria.

I am here in support of the Braddock Road Trail Access and Corridor Improvements under consideration this evening.

And on most occasions and when weather permits, I bike to work.

And that's thanks to the thoughtful planning and implementation by city officials and staff who have made that decision easy and safe.

When I'm on a bike, I'm one less car on the road, particularly Duke Street.

Like the vast majority of my fellow Alexandrians, I have routinely voted for city officials who support policy which enables and encourages safe multimodal transportation.

I also occasionally drive a car in the city.

Is this sometimes necessary?

I'm not perfect, but I fancy myself a decent driver.

And I was in one collision due to a slick road back in 2004 in Florida.

It's Florida where things happen.

Since then, I've had a pretty clean record.

I have had an accident until last June when I was struck by a car on Braddock Road.

Uh as a hit and run.

It was approaching the intersection of uh with Mount Vernon.

Uh the current state of Braddock Road approaches and departures to and from that intersection, have always felt harrowing, as does the intersections with Commonwealth.

Um and the other one, which name escapes me right now.

On a related note, this is not my first time speaking before this board regarding a safety improvement project along a travel corridor.

Last year, the civic association in my neighborhood, Brookville Summary Valley Civic Association, successfully advocated for traffic calming along Taney Avenue, which among other measures entailed daylighting and pedestrian crossings, which required the loss of about two dozen on-street parking spaces along the corridor.

And the vast majority of stakeholders, both within and without the neighborhood, regard the project as a success.

In closing, I'm in support of the proposed measures here tonight, which stand to approve safety for all travelers, no matter how they choose to travel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is James Misselli, followed by Stacey Yont, followed by Nicole Radshaw, followed by Melissa McMahon.

Uh, good evening.

Um, speaking tonight in support of the entirety of the proposal put forth.

Um, I want to thank first Alex and the city staff uh here from TNES for designing and engaging with the public on this project uh within a lot of constraints that are put forth.

Um it's such a great example of public service and state capacity, and it is genuinely deeply appreciated.

Um I live on Cliff Street in Delray.

Uh, I take the metro to work in DC every single day.

This project will benefit me.

I bike to work.

Um, and I learned how to bike when I was three years old.

I probably biked more days than I haven't uh in the 35 years since.

Um, I used to be a semi-professional road cyclist.

I feel very comfortable on a bike.

I feel very comfortable in shared space on a street, but a street like Braddock Road is some of the most dangerous kind of street you can be on because with share rows, you can be rear-ended and not have a single second of warning.

All it takes is somebody texting, somebody speeding, which we saw from the data is happening all the time on that road, and your life can be over.

Your life can be over.

You can be permanently injured.

Um, and the bike lane proposal that the city has put forth makes the street so much safer for cyclists.

Uh, it'll reduce speeds, making the streets safer for drivers.

There's improvements to crosswalks, making the streets safer for pedestrian.

I really think this is a great, balanced, well-researched, supported by data proposal.

And I strongly encourage you to uh support the proposal going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Stacy Younce, followed by Nicole Radshaw, followed by Melissa McMahon, followed by Ben McGuinness, followed by Lisa Edow.

Hi, I'm Stacy Yance.

Um, I live at 32 West Glendale, which is a block south of the Braddock um Russell intersection, and I'm here to oppose most of the recommendation for the Braddock Russell intersection proposal.

Um, I've lived there for six years.

Uh, I've had a dog most of the time, which means I'm a pedestrian multiple times a day in my neighborhood.

Um, I've walked that those walks include the Russell Braddock intersection, the Commonwealth Braddock intersection.

Um, and my dog's favorite walk is to walk to the Braddock Metro and turn right at the bike trail and go to the King Metro.

So uh, and I used to commute to DC from Braddock Metro.

So in six years, I've probably walked between Russell and Braddock Metro close to a thousand times.

Um, it is safe.

There's nothing you can do to make it safer.

It's safe in the day, it's safe at night, it's safe with the dog.

As long as you walk when the crosswalk says to walk, it is safe.

Um, and there's nothing you can do that would make it safer.

Um, with respect to biking, I'm not a bicyclist, but I would like to see you explore further the recommendation for a bike corridor.

I saw on the map in the attack in the presentation that there are existing bike paths at Glendale west of the metro on the northern border of the George Washington Public School.

And it can it breaks, but then it continues on at the river.

I'm wondering why no one is exploring doing a bridge under the metro station in that location.

There is one near the King station where Commonwealth goes.

I'm not suggesting one for cars, but and I know it's probably a significant effort, but you need a long-term fix to this.

And I think a pedestrian and bike bridge under the metro at Glendale on the northern border of the school, the city owns property there, and it would connect existing bike paths, and it would be much safer than putting bikes on Braddock where you're going to frustrate drivers.

I live on Russell and I've seen drivers frustrated and they do terrible things and they never get caught because the police never ticket them.

I've seen a driver, a southbound driver, swerve into the northbound lane and drive in the wrong direction for two blocks through an intersection and a crosswalk because they wanted to get to the left turn lane faster at King.

And I just think that you're going to make things more dangerous at Braddock if you frustrate drivers.

With respect to the intersection at Russell, do away with the right turn lane eastbound.

That's fine.

But please keep the dedicated left turn lanes.

The way that I come home, I don't drive every day, but when I come home, I go west on Braddock to turn left onto Russell to go south to get to my house.

It takes forever.

It takes the whole light.

That's the only turn that doesn't have a dedicated arrow.

And I came here tonight intending to ask you for a dedicated arrow there.

Um it's a five-point intersection in every direction, gets its own green light.

So it's a really long light cycle.

Um, but if you do away with those dedicated left turn lanes, if even if it's only five times an hour, like she said in the presentation, five times an hour that westbound Braddock light will not get used.

And that's going to cause backups.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Nicole Radshaw, followed by Melissa McMahon, followed by Ben McGuinness, followed by Lisa Edward.

Hey, good evening.

My name is Nicole Radshaw.

I am a mother cyclist driver, BPAC membership chair, member of Alexandria Families for Safe Streets.

I am also the pedestrian and bike education support specialist for ACPS.

Um, I'm here speaking on my expertise in that role, not representative of ACPS.

Um, first, I would like to thank staff for their time, their knowledge, their expertise.

I want to thank the members of the board for your time and knowledge and expertise.

We appreciate you.

I'm here in support of staff's recommendation.

Um, for ACPS, we present uh an active transportation safety assembly in collaboration with Alexandria Families for Safe Streets to all sixth graders.

Uh, we talk about infrastructure, uh, who's a pedestrian, what's pedestrian infrastructure, how to cross the street safely.

And one of the things we say is don't dart out between parked cars.

So if there's no parked cars, then maybe other cars in the road will see you.

Anyway, biking and scooter safely.

Um, we talk about the benefits of walking.

I brought kind of the slideshow.

These are the icons, right?

Because we try to get the kids to guess.

Um, their physical, mental, social, environmental, financial, and discovery.

I expect you know what those all are.

I just like to highlight the mental, right?

Studies show that students perform better after exercise, including walking and biking.

We need this for our students in Alexandria.

And uh, what was really funny is when we show the dollar sign, which is supposed to show that walking and biking is cheaper.

Um, we intend that's what we intended to be.

But one kid said you can get money when you're walking.

Um, you can find it on the side of the road, right?

Like, so I mean, come hang out with me and sixth graders.

Um, however, at the bottom of our slide, we um talk about safety first because none of these benefits could happen without safety, which brings us back to infrastructure, buffered sidewalks, bike lanes, daylighted intersections, right?

All the things that you guys are proposing.

Another way that we teach students to walk and bike.

Sorry, I'm talking too much.

Um, is pal, predictable alert and awful.

And if you focus on the predictable, walkers want their sidewalk to be predictable.

Drivers want their road to be predictable, cyclists want their route to be predictable.

Sherrows are not safe, they're unpredictable.

Bikes and cars mix and have conflicts, like those crazy drivers.

I don't want to be a bike in that road, whether they're frustrated at me, right?

I want a bike lane.

When bikes and pedestrians share the sidewalk, man, pedestrians get annoyed.

So additionally, when a bike group goes from a Cherow to a Path to a Cherrow, that biker following this infrastructure becomes unpredictable and unsafe.

So thanks, guys.

Please follow the recommendation of staff for predictable connected bike group within the Braddock Road Corridor.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Melissa McMahon, followed by Ben McGuinness, followed by Lisa Edward.

Good evening.

My name is Melissa McMahon, and I live at 1237 Madison Street with my husband, son, and large fluffy dog.

I'm also a transportation and planning professional and a member of Alexandria Families for Safe Streets and all the other things we all do in our lives.

I'm here tonight to commend staff's analysis and support their final recommendation in full.

We're on the bike bus.

My son took his first bike ride to school on his own bike on the bike bus, and the bike bus made it possible because we did it by taking space that would otherwise be taken by cars.

I also use it multiple times a week to commute to work by bike.

We access the trails to go north and south, and we drive on this corridor to summer camps and out-of-school time camps.

So we use this corridor with all of our modes.

Um, the removal of travel lanes under the railroad is critical to increase buffered space for walking and biking and to dramatically improve the safety of the crossings for hundreds of people walking every day.

And I was really happy to hear so much support for the improvements in this area tonight.

But separated.

Sorry.

This separated bike network, the full bike network that's proposed in staff's recommendation.

This connection is not just for safety.

And it's not just for the trips nearby that serve this immediate neighborhood.

It makes longer trips possible.

It makes mode shift possible.

We use King Street bike lanes today, which didn't exist when I first moved here, but we use them today to get to Chinkapin.

We couldn't get to Chinkipin by bike if we didn't have those bike lanes there.

We hope to someday in the future use Braddock Road bike lanes to keep our car off the road even more as the days go by.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up is Ben McGuinness, followed by Lisa Edward, followed by Ransom Smith.

Hello, members of board.

Thank you.

And thank you, staff, for the very detailed presentation.

I spent most of the last two weeks reading it, which is the results of the handout that I gave you.

I've come today to ask the board to make three asks of staff based on my uh understanding of the presentation from staff.

I really would ask that they first focus on really slowing Braddock and committing to slowing Braddock.

Staff's own presentation shows that the 85, 85th percentile speeds on Braddock are between 29 and 32 in most of the corridor, which is way faster than is safe for crossing, causes a lot of frustrations.

A lot of people have talked about the safety on um today.

And on my second slide, you'll see some pull quotes from this the survey that the staff has done.

64% of the survey respondents rated speeding as the number one concern and family comfort and safety um for was rated as 70% of the responses.

So Braddock is many things, but it is first and foremost a neighborhood street where neighbors meet, children play, and life happens.

And we can't really do that effectively when scars or cars are speeding by at 35 miles an hour.

Um secondly, I would or third secondly, I would ask that um we uh commit to measuring the outcome of any change that we make in the corridor and adjusting appropriately based on those measurements.

In the seminary road um bike lane project, the staff's own analysis shows that the 85th percentile speed after the project stayed exactly the same at 34 miles an hour with no change.

And the percent of uh cars traveling at 35 miles an hour and above went from 11% to 7%.

And with the number of vehicles in the corridor, that still means a thousand instances of excessive speed every single day.

And again, seminary road has the same posted um speed limit as Braddock Road of 25 miles an hour.

So in order to actually slow Braddock, we need geometric adjustments built into the design.

Drivers respond to what the street feels like and what it's designed for.

If it's wide and straight, people will go fast.

It's actually very difficult psychologically to slow down when you're presented with a road that is wide and straight.

And I'm sure staff is well aware of this design problem.

And I live on the top end of Braddock above the study area where the bike lanes end.

And that part of Braddock, the speeding is even worse because there is parking there, but there are mansions on that part, and no one uses that parking.

So the street is extremely wide, and people are going well over 35.

They also just dive into the bike lanes when anyone whenever anyone is trying to turn left.

So I'm very concerned that the unprotected bike lanes that they're just paint buffers in segments two and three are actually going to cause a potentially more dangerous situation than we have today with the road feeling wider because the cars that exist there actually narrow it visually today.

Um my last ask is that um, sorry, before that.

So part of the geometry that Braddock needs is like changes for chokers, pinch points, she canes or lane shifts at different points strategically in the corridor, as well as priority crossing locations mid-block at some of the non-signalized intersections like Hancock, Little Spring, Loray, and the Little Wayne um uh intersection.

That would make real traffic prompt um calming happen and allow staff to target um 85th first percentile speeds below 25, which would make it feel much safer for the families living in the corridor.

Um and then my last ask um is to study or ask staff to study uh the Linhaven model of the slow zones in the neighborhood on the side streets as part of this project, that those could be used with a diverter on Timber Branch to divert through traffic uh to create a protected low stress environment for crossing the corridor.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Lisa Lisa Edward, followed by Ransom Smith, followed by Marisa Sortle, followed by Sandra Gogol, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by Ken Notis, followed by Maloy Lawhorn, followed by Zach Desjardin.

Hello, good evening.

Members of the traffic and parking board, staff, and fellow community members.

First and foremost, thank you for the opportunity to share my concerns regarding the proposal to alter parking lanes in the Braddock Corridor, specifically segment three.

My name is Lisa Edward, E D O U A R D.

And I have been and currently a resident of the City of Alexandria for over 25 years.

During that time, I've been a member of two commissions within the city and currently serve as a member of the Industrial Development Authority.

I come to you as an active member of Community Prey Center Church, also known as Alexandria Seventh Day Adventist Church, also known as CPC.

We are located at 1400 Russell Road.

Members of CPC.

CPC is located at the intersection of Braddock and Russell.

Members of CPC live in Virginia, Del Maryland, and the district.

At CPC, I served as an active participant in numerous ministries.

I share this with you to give you additional insight into this very active corner of CPC.

Community Prey Center Church has existed in Alexandria since 1896, and at that location for over 100 years.

CPC is a 1400 member congregation that worships on Saturdays.

CPC has also over 50 ministries that focuses on our young people, community service, and very many other things to serve our community.

These ministries, along special along with special events, take place almost every day of the week.

Primarily, our worship is on Saturday mornings into the afternoons.

The parking lot at CPC is located at the back of the church off of Braddock Road off the hill, and fits about 30 to 45 cars.

The rest of the parking takes place along Russell, Braddock, Stonewall, High, Wells Nelson, West Monroe, West Mason, and West Alexandria.

I cannot emphasize enough that most of the parking is on Russell and Braddock.

When we have special events, which increases the number of our guests, we work with our neighbors to let them know and to address any potential concerns.

It is a synchronization of sorts, and everyone tries to be a good neighbor.

I noticed in the city study regarding the occupancy, regarding the parking occupancy, that the days that were observed were Saturday night and Sunday mornings.

CPC is primarily there Saturday mornings to Saturday afternoons.

Removing parking along Russell along Braddock for bicycle lanes will be exp exponentially devastating, not only to our church, but to our neighbors, which consist of homes and other churches in that corridor.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ransom Smith, followed by Marisa Sortle, followed by Sandra Gogol, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by Ken Notis.

All right.

Good evening.

My name is Ransom Smith.

I live the 300 block of uh Northwest Street, so just south of the Braddock Metro.

Uh I'm walking or biking there twice a day, just about every day.

Uh, I want to thank the staff for the uh proposal that they put together for coming to talk to all the different organizations, community organizations.

Uh it's a tremendous amount of work.

It was an excellent presentation, and I really appreciate what they continue to do for our community.

Uh I appreciate that we were presented a solution that supports drivers, people biking, people walking.

I appreciated that it was consistent with the city's master plan, uh, that it connects uh currently fragmented bike network and moves us in the direction that we want to be in accordance with our plans.

I appreciate uh that it supports VDOT's uh goals for Braddock as a corridor, uh, that it supports our goals uh with the uh safe routes to school, uh and that it generally is going to make our community a better place.

Uh I want to point out that I also found it uh compelling uh that there was a thorough safety analysis across all three segments in the proposal, that there was a parking analysis that was compelling and and uh made a lot of good sense to me that there was a traffic flow analysis and that there's the value of buffered bike lanes was was brought out and mentioned.

So in a few years' time, I do not think we're going to remember or have uh a lot of strong thoughts about about a dozen bike, uh a dozen parking spaces or so.

Uh, but we will feel and take advantage of a robust connected network that allows multimodal transportation every day.

It's going to make our community uh a place we want to be.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Marissa Sortle, followed by Sandra Gogol, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by Ken Nota, followed by Molloy Lawhorn, followed by Zach Sederdon.

Good evening.

Thank you for your time.

Um, my name is Marisha Sordell, and I live at 1303 Hancock Avenue.

That's one block from Commonwealth, West Braddock, and Russell Road.

Um, I am in opposition of segment two and segment three, but since I live in the segment three area, I will specifically be talking about that.

Um, I'm Caddy Corner from the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and one block from the community praise center on Russell Road.

I am one of 17 townhomes uh on that unit block of West Lurray, the 1300 block of Hancock Avenue and the 1300 block of Commonwealth Avenue of townhomes that only two of them have driveways.

There it also one home on the unit block of West Loray and two on the uh 100 block do not have driveways.

Two of those are inhabited by elderly folks.

Um I'm sorry, I've written so many notes, so I might have to go back and forth a little bit.

Please note that um those driveways that do exist on West Braddock may only allow for the fit of one vehicle if you've got multi-vehicles for a home.

I'm not sure how that would work.

I wasn't initially actually going to talk about West Braddock.

Um, but I am curious about the home on 100 West Braddock that Alex said she spoke to about the they have no driveway.

I'd be wondering what the what was the proposal there for that home?

And if there was some what they were talking about having a few parking spots, well, would that be reserved for that particular home?

Or could anybody park in those spots?

And then when you think about it, for those elderly folks on West Loray that don't have parking.

Should they then have a driveway, should they then have some parking specific to those homes?

I want to express that this is not simply an issue of convenience to park in front of our homes.

It is quality of life issue to include our own safety and that of our visitors.

And as taxpayers, we have an expectation of this.

Both churches have extracurricular activities throughout the week, and I can speak to the Good Shepherd having multiple daily and weekly uses, such as various choir organizations.

This can last from an hour to two hours to several hours.

Many of the residents within a close distance have asked them to direct their users to fulfill the parking spots directly around the three sides of the church.

They don't always do this.

And so when this happens, parking becomes a consistent hardship.

If we are to lose 40 to 60 spots on this one block of West Braddock, Commonwealth to Russell, this will further affect us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Sandra Gogol, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by Ken Notice, followed by Meloy Lawhorn, followed by Zach Shay Jordan.

Good evening.

My name is Sandra Gogol, and I'm a resident of a 26 East Braddock Road.

I have one of at least three residences that don't have a driveway, either on Braddock or the intersection of Braddock and Spring Street.

I do not have an option for off-street parking.

Adding a driveway would be impossible due to limited frontage and the high density of city utilities in the front of my house.

So if you're looking for a telephone poll to relocate, I have one for you.

For residents without driveways, on-street parking is not a convenience.

It is essential infrastructure.

Removing parking creates a disproportionate burden on a few homeowners.

There will be economic impacts as well to us as homeowners would without driveways and viable on-street parking would see a devaluation of their homes.

And this one's personal to me.

The removal of on-street parking will impact the ability of residents to remain in their homes when experiencing medical issues.

I am one of those individuals.

Every service required the provider to pull in front of my house or to park.

The addition of east and west protected bike lanes will remove any pull-off area.

If any service vehicles were to stop, they have to stop solidly in a transit lane.

Or they would have to go a couple of blocks over because it's assured that any available parking close to me would be already full.

Or there's a possibility that some of these service providers may not provide service to Braddock Road, to East Braddock Road.

I have concerns also that proposed changes will introduce other risks and create other impacts that have not been analyzed, including uncontrolled crossings by delivery personnel and rideshare users.

Also, the situation may require residents to cross in uncontrolled places to unload a vehicle due to limited parking next to their home.

There's also a proposal to remove the pedestrian crossing at East Spring Street near the metro bus stop, increasing likelihood of mid-block crossing and undermining visual vision zero objectives.

The plan also has potential to create emergency response constraints.

Braddock Road is a designated emergency corridor.

Eliminating space for a vehicle to pull aside may delay ambulances, fire apparatus, and police response.

Examples of these negative and unintended consequences exist in record along the Seminary Road Corridor, post-bike pedestrian safeway roadway reconfigurations.

And of course, the potential in Paris no removal operations.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Mike Doyle, followed by Ken Notice, followed by Meloy Lahorn, followed by Zach Desjardin, followed by Randy Cole, followed by Alex Gray.

Good evening.

I'm the founder and executive director of Alexandria Families for Safe Streets.

First of all, I want to thank everybody here on the on the commission for your volunteer time.

A lot of hours.

And I want to congratulate staff for doing an excellent job on their study.

One of the things we have is a app a survey near Miss Dangerous Location Survey.

A lot of people don't know about it, but we we do have that.

And we have 25 reports along this corridor question.

And many of those reports are showing failure to yield, uh dangerous uh reaction by the drivers, uh, particularly at the cross at the crossings.

Um we also do uh education, as was mentioned before at the middle schools and high schools on pedestrian safety.

Uh we work with the safe rouse of school people, do a great job.

And one of the questions we always ask them is how many students are walking or biking to school?

And GW has a very high percentage.

I think it's 40% of the students who are walking.

The bike lanes that are proposed, the protective bike lanes that are proposed, uh, we strongly recommend, I strongly recommend uh to do that because A, it will protect the cyclist.

Um B, it will protect the pedestrians.

It provides a buffer for the productions.

And C, it narrows the roads a little bit, which encourages drivers to uh to slow down.

I can empathize with a lot of the folks here tonight about losing their parking, but I would respectfully suggest that safety is the priority.

I can speak from personal experience.

I was crashed into by a driver of an SUV seven years ago.

He put me in the hospital after returning from the emergency uh service of the hospital.

It took me uh quite a few months to be able to just function.

And that's when we started to uh to start our group, our pedestrian safety group.

But it took me three years of neurological rehab.

And occasionally I still have issues with my balance.

Not only did it affect me, it affected my wife and the family.

Please support this proposal.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speakers can notice, followed by Meloy Lawhorn, followed by Zach Desjardin, followed by Randy Cole, followed by Alex Gray, followed by Darlene Duffitt.

Thank you.

My name is Ken Notice.

First, I would like to thank staff for their tireless work in bringing their professional knowledge to bear on difficult questions.

I would hope all citizens could join me in this gratitude.

This project will improve safety for people driving and walking.

A protected bike lane will calm traffic as parking spaces which are often empty do not.

It will improve safety for drivers, for pedestrians.

A pedestrian was killed here in 2015.

There have been numerous as uh Mike said, there have been numerous near misses in this corridor.

Speeding is common along the entire area, all the way to Russell Road.

We know this is a dangerous road.

Staff has made good recommendations based on solid analysis.

I do need to mention seminary because a few people have mentioned seminary road.

More people biked on that, have been biking on that road after the project.

More people walk on that road.

Speed average speeds have been reduced.

And despite considerable uh concerns and claims that staff had made mistakes, traffic flows have been fine.

I'd also like to point out shared bike lanes are not a thing.

Sharrows do not improve safety, uh, nor do they calm traffic.

Please approve the staff proposal.

Thank you.

Thank you for our next speaker is Meloy Lawhorn, followed by Zach DeJerdon, followed by Randy Cole, followed by Alex Gray, followed by Darlene Duffett.

In your defense, my handwriting is very bad.

Um good evening.

It is night now.

It was evening when I wrote this.

Uh, my name is Mallory Lawhorn, um, and I've lived in two different parts of Rosemont my entire life, growing up two blocks off of Braddock Road, and now living in the heart of the neighborhood.

I chose to stay here as an adult because I love this community, and a big part of that is the transportation options.

Sorry.

Uh I walk a lot.

I also drive when I need to, and I appreciate having that flexibility.

Uh, but uh what I value most is that I don't have to rely on my car for everything.

I also understand something really important.

I don't own the street.

None of us do.

Our streets are shared spaces, and they should work for everyone, whether you're walking, driving, biking, or taking transit.

That's why I'm here tonight to support Alexandria's continued investment in multimodal transportation through the Braddock Road Improvement Project, especially protected bike lanes and safer infrastructure for all users, as proposed by staff.

Thank you, Alex, for your hard work on this.

Uh I don't bike myself, but I absolutely appreciate when people who do have a safe dedicated space to ride, it's better for them, and it's better for me as a driver and a pedestrian.

I'd much rather see someone biking in a protected lane than weaving through traffic or riding on the sidewalk.

It's safer for everyone.

I also want to be clear the recent vote by the Rosemont Citizens Association, where 61 out of 73 people voted to oppose this project does not represent me.

That's why I'm choosing to present my argument through the lens of actual election data, which better represents the population.

In the last three municipal elections, 2018, 2021, and 2024, the two precincts that serve Rosemont, Brooks and George Washington Middle School have consistently had some of the highest voter turnout in the city.

In 18 turnout in those precincts was over 78%, and 24 GW reached over 70%.

These are deeply engaged voters.

And they're not just showing up, they're voting for candidates who support a multimodal future.

And 21 and 24 candidates like Aaliyah Gaskin, Sarah Bagley, and Kirk McPike, who we've now elevated to the House of Delegates, all ran on platforms that included safer streets, expanded transit, and support for biking and walking.

They were top vote getters in both Rosemont precincts and 24.

Sarah Bagley led the Council Field City Ride and in Rosemont.

This tells us something important.

The people of Rosemont and Alexander more broadly are not just open to a multimodal vision.

They're voting for it.

They're endorsing it and they're asking us to keep moving forward.

So I urge this board to listen to what the voters are saying.

The support is there, the turnout is there, the mandate is clear.

Let's continue building a city that works for everyone, whether they walk, drive, take transit, or bike.

Thank you.

And once again, thank you, Alex, for your devotion to this.

You have worked very hard.

I am appreciative of it.

My neighborhood is appreciative of it.

I am sorry for the less than stellar comments you've been getting.

We are very appreciative of your work.