The Bicyclist Safety Act has been signed by the governor, and will take effect July 1.

VIRGINIA BICYCLING FEDERATION PROPOSALS FOR EFFECTIVE VDOT BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PROGRAMS AT THE STATEWIDE AND DISTRICT LEVELS (10/30/06)

October 30, 2006

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Policy for Integrating Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodations [http://www.virginiadot.org/programs/resources/bike_ped_policy.pdf], adopted 3/18/04, is a major step toward the better accommodation of bicycling and walking in Virginia as “fundamental travel modes and integral components of an efficient transportation network.” In late 2005, VDOT initiated two processes to ensure that the many aspects of that wide-ranging, six-page policy statement are actually realized: 1) an internal audit of VDOT’s bicycle and pedestrian programs and how the new policy statement has been interpreted and implemented to date and 2) the creation of a department-wide policy implementation team tasked with writing a detailed policy implementation plan by mid-2006. In addition, VDOT will create and publish Virginia’s first statewide bicycle map by fall 2006. The Virginia Bicycling Federation commends these VDOT initiatives and offers the following eleven recommendations for VDOT’s upcoming policy implementation plan.

  1. Strengthen and Focus VDOT Program Staff by assigning highly qualified and enthusiastic program managers and assistants and by requiring written annual work plans with specific quantifiable objectives and budgets. Encourage bicycle program staff to complete the League of American Bicyclists’ basic Road-1 course and promote even greater proficiency in transportation cycling.
  2. Increase Citizen and Locality Involvement by Establishing Active and Effective VDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committees. Such statewide and VDOT district (or MPO/PDC-wide) advisory committees should meet at least three or four times each year and have non-VDOT leadership and substantial citizen direction. Citizen advisory committees are valuable tools for improving government programs, for communicating with the public, and for acquiring outside expertise at minimal cost. Unlike some other states, Virginia has no bicycle and/or pedestrian advisory process established by statute. VDOT’s statewide bicycle advisory committee, which was voluntarily established in 1989, held its last regular meeting in October 2002. VDOT has not yet created any regional pedestrian or bicycle advisory committees outside its Hampton Roads District.
  3. Proactively Build and Retrofit Complete Streets by Conforming Relevant VDOT Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines to the VDOT Policy for Integrating Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodations. Publicize, review, and revise existing VDOT policies, procedures, guidance, and best practices for highway planning, funding, design, construction, operations, and maintenance to ensure conformity with the new bicycle and pedestrian policy. The resulting policies, procedures, and other guidance should call for:
    • operating and marking roadway traffic signal actuators to detect at least most waiting bicycles;
    • sweeping debris from paved shoulders, bike lanes, wide curb lanes, sidepaths, and sidewalks;
    • winter maintenance of bicycle and pedestrian facilities;
    • communicating scheduled VDOT roadway maintenance activities that impact cycling, such as asphalt milling and chip sealing, to the general and bicycling public;
    • building all urban arterial roadways and other types of roadways and bridges with suitable on-road cycling accommodations;
    • restriping existing multilane urban arterial roadways during scheduled resurfacing to better accommodate bicycling;
    • upgrading paved shoulders on open-section highways to better accommodate bicycling and walking;
    • reducing and mitigating new and existing bicycling and walking prohibitions on access-controlled highways (see also item 10) .
  4. Better Track and Report VDOT Investment in Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities. To effectively and meaningfully track and evaluate the creation of bicycle and pedestrian facilities and to ensure adequate and cost-effective maintenance, VDOT must establish a complete inventory of existing bicycle and pedestrian facilities and track and report its annual expenditures to maintain these facilities and to construct additional and replacement facilities, both as standalone projects and as components of highway construction projects. Wide (e.g., 3-ft or wider) paved shoulders, bicycle lanes, wide curb lanes, and signed shared roadways should be tracked and reported separately from pedestrian facilities, including sidepaths and shared-use paths on non-highway alignments. Reliably measuring and reporting bicycle and pedestrian facilities and expenditures is the best way to assess VDOT’s existing and new investments for bicycling and walking.
  5. Evaluate Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS) for All Arterial Roads in Virginia to measure how suitably Virginia’s highway network accommodates bicycle travel, to target new investment in bicycling improvements, and to facilitate the development of regional and local bicycling maps.
  6. Upgrade VDOT’s Two Cross-State Bicycle Routes with short-term and longer-term improvements. VDOT has designated only two cross-state bicycle routes–one north-south (U.S. Bike Route 1) and one east-west (U.S.Bike Route 76)–which were first signed and mapped by VDOT 30 years ago, primarily on what were low-traffic, rural secondary roads. Significant segments of these routes have long-needed realignment onto more accommodating and less indirect roads, especially in Fairfax and Prince William Counties and in the Richmond area, and route segments outside of VDOT jurisdiction (e.g., on national parkland and through Henrico County) have long not been signed. In 1999, a VDOT-contracted inventory study of both routes was completed, but few route realignments or other improvements to fix identified deficiencies have since resulted until 2006. On-road, interim routing for key segments of the East Coast Greenway spine route (DC-to-Petersburg) and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail (DC-to-Fredericksburg) could be co-located with substantial portions of U.S. Bike Route 1, so this initiative could also improve, sign, and map these additional bicycle touring designations. VDOT should depict the two U.S.Bike Routes on its statewide highways and scenic roads maps and should monitor its Six-Year Improvement Program and proposed revisions to local and regional transportation plans for opportunities to cost-effectively improve these designated long-distance bicycle routes. In 2006, VDOT improved signage and realigned several route segments near Richmond and elsewhere, but other route segments remain severely deficient.
  7. Expand and Connect On-Road and Off-Road Long-Distance Bicycle Routes. Once both existing U.S. Bicycle Routes are upgraded, VDOT should designate additional on-road bicycle routes for intercity travel and advance and better connect long-distance off-road trails. We commend recent progress on the Virginia Capital Trail and the Southside Rail-Trails. State agencies should focus on completing the East Coast Greenway through Virginia’s urban crescent.
  8. Establish an Exemplary Virginia Safe Routes to School Program. Effective Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs encompass diverse engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement, and evaluation/planning measures to strategically increase walking and bicycling to schools and to make this important activity safer. Walking or bicycling to school instills the habit of lifelong healthy daily activity in our youth, reduces expenses for unnecessary school busing, and strengthens communities, families, and our youth themselves. SAFETEA-LU, the current federal transportation reauthorization, provides federal funds for Safe Routes to School programs and requires each state to designate a statewide SRTS coordinator to administer the state’s program. For several years, California and Texas state DOTs and some Virginia localities (Arlington, Alexandria, Charlottesville, and Richmond) have funded and operated SRTS programs. To effectively use the new federal funds and to broaden this important program, Virginia should emulate the best practices of existing SRTS programs and allocate supplemental state funding. VBF is pleased with the launch of VDOT’s program and will monitor it closely.
  9. Improve VDOT Bicycling and Pedestrian Information. VDOT and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles should follow the lead of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida by publishing and effectively disseminating a state bicycle drivers manual based on Bicycling Street Smarts. All bicycle-related VDOT policies, procedures, and guidance and directories for district and central office VDOT contacts should be posted on the VDOT web site.
  10. Establish Objective Criteria and Solicit Public Input on Prohibiting Bicycling on Controlled-Access Highways. Freeway and bypass-highway shoulders often offer bicyclists safer and better routes than are available on parallel older highways. Section 46.2-808 of the Code of Virginia, however, allows the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to prohibit bicycling on controlled-access highways “when necessary to promote safety”. This practice of banning bicycling on controlled-access highways varies widely among the VDOT construction districts, with no apparent objective criteria being applied. The CTB should adopt objective criteria for the VDOT construction districts to use to determine whether bicycling should be banned on a particular controlled-access highway. Each VDOT district should then reevaluate all existing bicycling bans in light of such criteria. In addition, notice of any proposed bicycling bans should be part of the highway design public hearing process, with a draft written determination and findings on any proposed bicycling prohibition prepared for such public hearings.
  11. Dedicate State Revenue to Walking and Bicycling Retrofits. Many states allocate state funds for bicycling and walking facilities through state bond referenda or dedicated accounts. The State of Maryland, for example, has funds dedicated to sidewalk retrofits and to paving rural highway shoulders. An appropriate dedication of state highway funds (e.g., up to $10 per capita per year) is needed to address priority walking and bicycling retrofit needs across Virginia.

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