Community meetings with City staff:

Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 6 – 7:30 pm at N West Street near Highland Avenue
Thursday, June 27, 2024, 6-7:30 pm at S West Street near Parker Avenue

Summary:

City staff have proposed options for changes to roads that comprise priority routes according to the City’s 2024 Bicycle Master Plan. These changes are intended to make bicycling safer and improve pedestrian safety. The plans shown in this post are from the staff presentation material, Priority Route Options, City of Falls Church Bike Master Plan Update, March 8, 2024.

City staff have organized meetings with the community to discuss these options. Given the limited space on the road, introducing bike lanes will require repurposing space currently used for on-street parking or a traffic lane on Broad Street.

Community meetings are being held on June 25 and 27. City Council is currently scheduled to give final consideration to the West Street designs by the end of September.

Priority routes on the Bicycle Master Plan

The Bicycle Master Plan identifies priority routes for City staff to develop plans to make bicycling safe for all ages. One goal is to connect neighborhoods to the secondary schools campus. This plan will allow staff to pursue funding for construction over the next few years. The City has been able to fund a large portion of its infrastructure improvements through state and federal grants.

The map below shows seven regions where road change options are being proposed. The priority routes are identified in purple and red. The routes in purple are covered in this post while the route in red is the East-West connection that links the W&OD trail to Mustang Alley in the secondary schools campus. No design for this route has been released to the public, although City staff expects to finalize its design by September.

Map showing where options for incorporating bike lanes are listed in this post. — Locations where options for road redesigns are provided in this post.

Incorporating bike lanes into the City streets

The options proposed by City staff make use of three strategies to make bicycling safer. They are:

A Shared Use Path – This creates a pathway, typically by repurposing parking lanes or a traffic lane, that is separated from vehicular traffic by a physical barrier. Such a path is shared between bicyclists and pedestrians, which may lead to conflicts, especially given that many bicycles are now battery powered.
Bike Lanes – This option provides lanes only for bicycle use by repurposing parking lanes or a traffic lane. If the street is wide enough, a pedestrian sidewalk may also be added, although the priority routes have sidewalks on one side of the street. Bike lanes may be additionally separated from vehicular traffic by physical barriers.
Traffic Calming – The curb at intersections is extended into the street to reduce traffic speed to make it safer for bicyclists to share the same lanes as vehicular traffic. This option imposes minimal changes to the existing lanes and parking, primarily at intersections. However, bicycling on such streets would not be advisable for younger cyclists on busier roads.

An issue with pathways that are physically separated from the main road is that it would not be possible to remove snow/debris with the existing City equipment.

The West Street corridor

West Street at Founders Row is now a complicated intersection where multiple roads merge. Adding bike lanes will remove turn lanes. A detailed study will be needed to determine how the traffic signals should be coordinated to maximize flow and whether the changes will cause traffic to back up significantly during rush hour.

West Street to the north and south present similar opportunities for improvement, depending on whether one or two parking lanes are converted to bike lanes.

Park Avenue

The focus of the Bicycle Master Plan is on the section of Park Avenue from N Virginia Avenue to N West Street. The Park Avenue Great Streets Plan, see Park Avenue Great Streets Project Primer, uses the Traffic Calming option for the remaining section of Park Avenue.

Three options are proposed, two of which involve repurposing on-street parking on both sides of the street.

Great Falls Street

Three options are proposed, two of which involve repurposing all on-street parking.

E Broad Street

Broad Street is also a bus route. Introducing bike lanes on E Broad Street would require repurposing the outside traffic lanes. A study of the impact of this change on the evening rush hour traffic would be needed.

Schedule of approvals

The road designs will be finalized and brought before the relevant Commissions and City Council for approval. Public comments should be sent to City planner Kerri Oddenino, koddenino@fallschurchva.gov.

The latest City government schedule shows the following dates for reviewing the final design. These meetings are open to the public, in person and online. The focus for this year, leading to Council’s decision in September, is on the proposed priority routes closest to the secondary schools campus, connecting the W&OD to Mustang Alley parallel to W Broad Street and N and S West Street.