The Alexandria City Council approved a series of changes to King Street near the Bradlee Shopping Center last night (Tuesday), but the discussion also touched on wider issues about how the City tackles its transportation infrastructure.
The changes will take the access two-way road parallel to the Bradlee Shopping Center and turn it into a one-way westbound street with a dedicated bus lane and a two-way bicycle trail.
“I go to Bradlee Shopping Center all the time, I live over on the west side of the city, and I personally drive, walk, bike and take the bus there,” said City Council member Kirk McPike, “so I feel like you’re covering all the bases of things I do.”
McPike noted that the intersection is near the busy, complicated Braddock/Quaker/King intersection and could help ease the King Street side of that confusion at least.
“There are a lot of competing priorities here but I think there are a lot of wins for drivers, bikers, pedestrians as well as the obvious performance improvements from having dedicated bus lanes,” McPike said.
Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, however, said she was concerned about the impact of the changes on some of the already strained traffic near the Bradlee Shopping Center.
I am concerned, since Councilman McPike lives over there, he’s not seeing the same things I’m seeing.
The McDonalds is very popular. It may not be very popular when you all are there taking measurements of cars. But at 9:05 at night kids are being picked up from certain sports or clubs and you’re in commute and you haven’t had any time to feed them, you go into a line at McDonalds and its 20 cars long.
Those 20 cars are out on the service road, so when we take the service road away, those 20 cars will be on King Street. I’m not kidding you. Go there at 9 p.m.
Jackson voted against the proposal, but it passed on a 6-1 vote.
During public discussion about the changes, the addition of the bike path was criticized with community members saying the area is not frequented by cyclists, but City Council member Sarah Bagley said that if the city builds the infrastructure, the cyclists will arrive.
If your experience is ‘I’m at Bradlee Center and I don’t see anyone coming on a bike;’ Those restaurants and stores are not getting those customers. I shop on my bicycle almost exclusively. I have coffee meetings. I go to Cortada Cafe, further from my house, because I can get there much more safely than I can the Starbucks and Duck Donuts at the Bradlee Center.
We need to flip the way we think about missing cyclists. They are missing customers. Cars will continue have access but now so will others.
There is demand, but we won’t see it until we create safe spaces for it.
Mayor Justin Wilson also noted that the area is traversed heavily by new drivers, given its proximity to both Alexandria City High School Campuses, who will benefit from simplifying the traffic patterns around the site.
“Making it easier to understand and get around is a good thing,” Wilson said. “I think this is a big and a good step forward.”
