Bike lanes to be painted on King St.
Photo by Alexandria Dept. of Transportation and Environmental Services
After a long day’s debate with 70 speakers on the docket, Alexandria City Council voted 7-0 to approve the King St. Bicycle Lanes and Pedestrian Improvements project.
A few King St. residents who were — understandably — upset about losing street parking in front of their homes, left no stone unturned in bringing up arguments against the project; even using the Wall Street Journal as a soapbox. But local bike advocates carefully addressed each challenge over the course of several months. And today the City Council saw fit to uphold its own Complete Streets policy, and fix an important broken link in the local bike-ped network.
Alternate routes were considered, and may still be more appealing to some cyclists. But most will still use King St. to travel westward from Old Town and the King St. Metro station, and they must be accommodated.
With no bike lanes on King St., cyclists are using the narrow sidewalks.
Special thanks to the members of Alexandria’s Bike-Ped Adviscory Committee, WABA’s Greg Billing, WABA’s 300-plus members in Alexandria, and everyone else who wrote to let the Council know how important a route King St. is for bicycling, both locally and regionally.
Press
- Alexandria to add bike lanes on King Street (WTOP)
- T&ES Director: Alexandria Will Move Forward with King Street Bike Lanes (Drew Hanson – Old Town Alexandria Patch)
- Culture clash over Alexandria bike lanes ends with promises to improve safety (Washington Post)
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My thanks to everyone involved for their work and persistence. My trips into Old Town will be significantly more pleasant when the bike lanes are installed.