New bike lanes and other pedestrian safety improvements are coming to a busy stretch of Braddock Road in Alexandria, after the city’s Traffic and Parking Board voted to approve them at a meeting last week.
The city first started collecting public feedback on current conditions about a year ago. Now that the board approved the recommended design concept, design and implementation can proceed.
The changes are expected to be implemented in 2028.
Between 2019 and 2023, the stretch had 17 crashes, the city said, citing other community feedback about anecdotal near misses.
The busiest portion of the stretch is near the Braddock Road Metro station, reporting up to 15,200 traveling vehicles per day.
Local news outlet ALX Now first reported the approval of the changes.
“With this project in mind, we’re really thinking about our middle school kids that are just biking to school trying to get there safely,” said Tim Laderach, president of the Del Ray Citizens Association. “We think of parents taking kids around town, people trying to get to the Metro station, so lots of people that use these roads.”
The changes are coming to the stretch of Braddock Road between Russell Road and West Street. They include removing on-street parking on Commonwealth Avenue between Braddock Road and Spring Street, and on Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road, with a few exceptions.
The plan also calls for consolidating turn and through lanes along the corridor, which could create more space for bike lanes and reduce the number of travel lanes that pedestrians have to cross.
The shift will make the road safer for cyclists through the use of protected bike lanes, according to Mike Doyle, executive director and founder of Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets.
“When you put in the bike lanes, it will also narrow the traffic lane; and when you narrow the road, drivers instinctively slow down, so that is also safer,” Doyle said. “You’ll have less crashes, or less severe crashes, or fatalities along that road. The trade off is that it’s going to be, arguably, a little bit longer for some people to go through that area.”
But, Doyle said, city studies indicated it won’t be significantly longer for drivers.
Still, some have pushed back on the idea. Signs encouraging people to speak against the proposal before the board vote are still hanging as of Tuesday afternoon.
Darlene Duffett, an Alexandria resident, told the board, before it voted, the removal of street parking is concerning. She also questioned whether there’s a need for the changes.
“Terms such as Safe Streets, improvement projects, Safe Routes to School, they’re kind of emotionally persuasive,” Duffett said.
“It implies that what exists today is inherently unsafe or a deficit, when we don’t really see that living in the neighborhood. My family’s felt safe, I’ve felt safe for years.”
Doyle said city documents show there’s still a lot of parking spaces available, so “I wish it didn’t happen, but safety is a priority.”
Groups such as the Rosemont Citizens Association and Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations sent letters opposing the plan.
About 70% of Del Ray Citizens Association members supported the proposal, Laderach said.
“You can see where there could be a lot of challenges for anyone that’s trying to just get through there safely,” he said.
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