Boundary Channel Drive Comments

https://www.virginiadot.org/projects/northern-virginia/boundary-channel-at-i-395.asp

To: MeetingComments@vdot.Virginia.gov

From:  Gillian Burgess (gillian.burgess@gmail.com)

RE:  Boundary Channel Drive at I-395 Interchange

Date:  November 16, 2020

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Boundary Channel Drive at I-395 Interchange Improvements Project.  This area is vitally important to the transportation network, and its importance will only grow with the opening of the Aquatics Center and the eventual completion of the Long Bridge pedestrian and bicycle bridge connecting Long Bridge Park to the Mt. Vernon Trail and the District of Columbia. Additionally, with the opening of Amazon's HQ2 and the related businesses, we should expect to see increased travel through the area.

In order to achieve Arlington's environmental, economic, and quality of life goals, our transportation network must prioritize sustainable modes of travel - transit, walking, and biking - over driving.  These goals are reflected in Arlington's Master Transportation Plan, specifically in the Bicycle Element adopted in 2019, as well as Arlington's Community Energy Plan and Public Spaces Master Plan.  This project and specifically the new paths for people walking and biking must be designed to accommodate the high volume of people walking and biking once the Aquatics Center, the new Long Bridge, and HQ2 are finished.  Planning for anything less would not be appropriate stewardship of public funds.

Personally, I travel through this area by bicycle and by car. The proposed reconfiguration of the travel routes for motor vehicles will be a great improvement over the status quo. However, the project should more clearly warn drivers when they are exiting the highway and entering an area where many more people walking and biking should be expected. The flow of traffic is not more important than safety, particularly the safety of the most vulnerable road users.

The multiuse paths will provide pivotal connections for people walking and biking. I am concerned that the project has not designed these paths to handle the significant volume of people walking and biking that will use these connections once the various projects underway are complete.  VDOT should allocate as much space as possible to these paths, particularly the paths on the north and east sides of the project that will connect to the Mt Vernon Trail and the new bridge.

These paths should be designed, where possible, to separate people walking from people biking, to increase safety for both groups. The "design vehicle" for these paths should be a cargo bike or a bike with a child's trailer, to ensure that the paths will be useable for all of the various types of bikes that people will use on them.

At the various points where people walking and biking can cross the street lanes, the design should ensure that the people crossing will be able to do so safely.  This is particularly important where there are paths  crossing entry or exit ramps for highways. Drivers expecting to enter a highway, or who have just left a highway, are naturally going to drive fast, creating an especially dangerous situation for people walking or biking across their path.  Those crossings should be raised, or, if raised crossing are not possible, there should be rumble strips and significant signage warning drivers to slow down and be aware.  All crossings and their approaches need to be well-lit and have bike-ped reflective warning signs. The entrances to all trails need to be clearly marked to prevent drivers from driving on the trails, accidentally or deliberately.  A modest barricade or discrete trail median may be needed.

Additionally, the situation where people walking or biking in the same direction of traffic suddenly turn to cross a street is dangerous for two reasons: (1) drivers do not expect the people walking or biking to cross the drivers' path; and (2) the people walking and biking must turn their heads significantly to be able to see drivers coming - something that is particularly difficult for people on bikes.  The current plan would place people walking and biking in this situation at many of the crossings.  The design should be revisited to pull paths away from running parallel to the street before crossings, so that people on the paths will approach the crossings perpendicular to the street traffic.

Finally, the crossings in the south east corner of the project seem to need more intentional design.  The crossing of the highway entrance ramp circled in pink below seems particularly dangerous.  It is also not clear that there is appropriate space on the eastern side of that crossing for people on wheels to use it.

A large volume of people on bikes will use the new Long Bridge to DC, and will use the blue path below along the eastern side of this project.  It is not clear how those people will get to the bike lanes on Long Bridge Drive. It would be more dangerous for them to crossing at the eastern roundabout, and then use the crossing in pink below to get to the bike lanes.  Thus, people will follow the blue route, coming down to the entrance to the Aquatic Center.  VDOT and Arlington County should work together to design a useable transition so that people on bikes can safely navigate this intersection to get to the southbound bike lanes. As part of that redesign, the team should consider eliminating the left turn from Boundary Channel to the I-395 on ramp. Left turns are shown in Arlington's crash data to be one of the leading causes of serious injury or death on our streets.  That particular left turn could end up backing up traffic on Boundary Channel Drive and create dangerous situations as drivers who use that left turn attempt to merge with the traffic coming south from the traffic circle.  Instead, drivers can simply proceed to the traffic circle, then head south to enter I-395.

  Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this important project.