GMB Public Comments

 I enthusiastically support these changes which will improve the safety for people people biking and make our entire transportation system safer. I often ride to get around Northern Virginia and my children, who are too young to drive, also use bikes to get around. - Safety Stop - People that riding heavier, kid-carrying bikes and children riding bikes often take extra time to start from a full stop. Allowing the safety stop allows these people to get through an intersection - and out of danger - more quickly. It also keeps the flow on the street moving. Finally, it just makes sense that people on bikes - who have a better sense of their surroundings because they are not inside a car and who are far less likely to kill someone in a crash - have less of a need to come to a complete stop at every stop sign. - Riding Two Abreast (aka side-by-side) - When riding with kids, I want the kids beside me to my right so that anyone approaching from behind can see us, so that the kid does not swer

 I am writing today to enthusiastically support the expansion of authority to use automated speed enforcement in Virginia. We know that driving over the speed limit is not only illegal, it leads to more serious injuries and deaths on our streets. Automated speed enforcement is a proven tool to stop driving over the speed limit. These bills provide more than adequate safeguards to ensure that automated speed enforcement is implemented fairly. The dangers of speeding are particularly acute for children - who both cannot drive themselves to get around and are more vulnerable to serious injury while walking and biking. We need more automated speed enforcement in Virginia to enable our children to  get around independently and safely - not only near schools but throughout our communities.

 Date: June 29, 2023 To:  school.board@apsva.us Subject:  Please OPPOSE the efforts of staff to move the Immersion MS program to Kenmore with zero engagement Good afternoon, As you know, I've been an involved immersion parent, with students are Key and Gunston, for the past seven years. The immersion program is a jewel. I find the email below, which presents the decision to move the Immersion middle school program to Kenmore as a done deal (there will be information sessions on the relocation, APS will start a boundary process assuming the relocation), deeply troubling.  There has been no engagement with immersion families, with Kenmore families or with the public about this change. Moreover, it seems, from earlier discussions about moving the immersion middle school program, that this change would be ill-advised. Kenmore is NOT centrally located and is, in fact, our least accessible middle school for all transportation modes. There is no space available at Kenmore and putting imme

Good evening, I am writing to enthusiastically support the adoption of consent agenda item #18 that will codify the 20mph school slow zones . The proposed change in the County Code will make our streets safer for our children and for everyone who travels to a school building and make the work of staff more efficient.  As you may be aware, the Virginia legislature is currently considering a bill to increase school crossing zones from 600 feet to 750 feet from school boundaries.  Going forward, Arlington should follow suit and increase the size of the school slow zones . See HB2104: https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?231+sum+HB2104.   Arlington should also increase the time that the variable school crossing zone speed limits are in effect, consistent with Virginia Code §46.2-873, which allows such signs to be in effect " during such other times as the presence of children on such school property or going to and from school reasonably requires a special warning to motorists

Submit to: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=124907&fbclid=IwAR19N-G9tEf9Q6trBX2I6A6Zhp4iQpwKeTRtUVkWBK1HoKMCAm-tvtiTdVs Fix the Memorial Bridge Choke Point Now The section of the Mount Vernon Trail under the Memorial Bridge is unacceptably narrow - it is not wide enough for people to pass each other going opposite directions, which should be seen as an embarrassment. NPS should install a temporary fix in the near term, by extending the one-lane section of the north-bound GW Parkway, which currently runs from just north of the exit for the Memorial Bridge to just after the crosswalk connecting the MVT to the Memorial Bridge. NPS could extend this one lane section for an additional 1/4 mile, to end just north of the Memorial Bridge. What is now the right lane could be separated from the remaining lane with jersey barriers and the trail could be routed to use that space. This could be a near term solution that would immediately improve safety on the MVT, while h

 First email to school.board@apsva.us (Just opposing the CIP with ACC) Good morning, Last summer, I appreciated when the School Board wisely decided to not include significant funding for building on the Career Center site in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). I was concerned to see that a planning process for this site started up a few months ago, but was hopeful that more planning work had been done that I was unaware of. Unfortunately, it seems that APS still does not have a long term plan. We do have capital needs. Some of our schools are widely known to be in serious disrepair - Hoffman-Boston, Swanson, Barcroft, for example. Other schools have facilities issues that impact the daily life of students and staff - unworking HVAC, bathrooms that don't work, water quality issues.  So I was extremely concerned that APS has proposed a CIP that spends the majority of its available capital funding for the next decade on the Career Center while leaving these basic facilities needs una