Tobacco Heritage Trail – photo by Phil Riggan

If you are looking for a safe, long-distance trail to bike or run in Southside Virginia, give the Tobacco Heritage Trail a ride.

As a part of my work as a transportation planner with the Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization (part of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission), I was given a chance to study and ride the Tobacco Heritage Trail, a rail-to-trail east of South Hill.

I rode the separated, multiuse trails that connect La Crosse, Brodnax and Lawrenceville in Mecklenburg and Brunswick counties. There are more than 17 miles of 10-foot paved and crushed stone double track trail along the Tobacco Heritage Trail, and the surface is smooth and well-maintained. [continue reading…]

Virginia envisions a future where all roadway users arrive safely at their destinations. To save lives and reduce transportation related crashes, all transportation and safety stakeholders play a critical role.

Participate in a regional transportation safety roadshow meeting to:

• Hear the latest updates to the Virginia Strategic Highway Safety Plan
• Review regional crash data to understand the local top transportation safety problems
• Learn about and discuss statewide transportation safety performance measures and targets
• Prioritize strategies and actions to address regional transportation safety performance
• Discuss opportunities to implement and evaluate transportation safety programs, policies, and projects for your region

Please join us at one of the following roadshows: [continue reading…]

You may have seen the meme floating about on Twitter and Facebook that compared the amount of space occupied by different modes on streets. Generally speaking, they show how much space is occupied by cars as compared to buses, people on bikes, and people walking. As I was driving through Atlanta recently, I wondered how much space was taken up by the urban interchange below as compared to other modes.

This interchange occupies more land than many cities’ central business districts.

This is where I-75 and I-85 split north of downtown Atlanta. It nearly fills the image. Atlantic Station, a large office, residential, and shopping complex, is dwarfed by this tangle of ramps.

To see how much land a similar split of rail transit lines would use, I looked at one in Alexandria, Virginia.

The DC Metro’s Yellow and Blue lines split here. A railroad track is adjacent to the right.

Note that I rotated the image to make comparisons easier. As you can see, more tax-yielding businesses and residences are in this picture than in the Atlanta image. Plus, more greenery is present to help fight the urban heat island that afflicts so many US cities, including Atlanta.

But what happens at a split of trails for cyclists and pedestrians?

This junction of two heavily-used commuter bike/pedestrian routes is hard to discern without the green highlighting.

The infrastructure nearly disappears. This is the intersection of the Mount Vernon Trail and the Four Mile Run Trail in Arlington, Virginia. Both see heavy commuter usage during rush hour, since Washington, DC is located just across the Potomac River to the north while various Virginia suburbs are located to the west and south. The George Washington Memorial Parkway, Amtrak/CSX line, and Metro run parallel to the Mount Vernon Trail here.

The enormous parking lot to the upper right serves Reagan National Airport. Airports are undoubtedly the worst land use gluttons of all (and not just for the runways).

Land use is an important issue in a dense urban environment. Space used for transportation is space that can’t be used for much else. Politicians and planners should take heed.

Have you been wanting to get your League Cycling Instructor certification? Complete your training the weekend of November 11-13 in Harrisonburg, at a seminar offered by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, Harrisonburg Parks & Rec, and of course, the League of American Bicyclists.

A few scholarships may still be available for those who live or work within Rockingham, Shenandoah, Page, Augusta, or Rockbridge Counties.

For more information and to register, please visit the SVBC website.

The League Cycling Instructor (LCI) certification is America’s most popular, and most widely-recognized bike safety instructor certification. It qualifies you to teach bike safety courses developed by the League of American Bicyclists, frequently offered by transportation authorities, parks and recreation departments, schools and universities, bike shops, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, YMCAs, etc.