Proposed Bicycle Facilities: VDOT Summer 2015 Repaving-Franconia Road

County of Fairfax, Virginia

Department of Transportation

Proposed Bicycle Facilities

VDOT Summer 2015 RepavingFranconia Road

June 15, 2015


Department of Transportation 2

Overview• Why are we here?

• What are we asking today?

• What projects are being proposed?

• Where are we in the process?

• What are the next steps?


Why are we here?• VDOT Summer repaving includes several roads in Lee District.

Opportunity to review pavement markings and street design. Project limited to restriping existing pavement.

• Opportunity to provide transportation options, improve safety for all road users

• Low to no cost for the County



What are we asking today?

• Your input and feedback– Support, questions, concerns, ideas


Photo Credit: sundaystreetssf.com


Project List• Franconia Road

– From South Van Dorn Street to Craft Road



Bicycle Master Plan


Adopted October 28, 2014


Lane Diets

• A Lane Diet is generally described as narrowing travel lanes from a roadway and utilizing the space for other uses and travel modes. Does not involve reducing the number of travel lanes.

• Benefits– Providing transportation alternatives and options

– Increasing safety for non-motorized users

– Reduce speeding



Narrowing Lanes• AASHTO Green Book (Transportation Engineering Guidebook)

– Lane widths may vary from 10’ to 12’. 12’ lanes should be used on higher speed, free flowing, principal arterials

– Narrow lanes are adequate and have some advantages for roads under 45mph, with signals- similar to Franconia Road

• Several studies suggest narrower lanes have many benefits– NCHRP 330 “Effective use of Street Width on Urban Arterials”

• “all projects evaluated during the study that consisted exclusively of lane widths of 10’ of more resulted in accident rates that were reduced or unchanged.”

– Midwest Research Center “Relationship of Lane Width to Safety for Urban and Suburban Arterials”

• “A safety evaluation of lane widths for arterial roadway segments found no indication, except in limited cases, that the use of narrower lanes increases crash frequencies. The lane width effects in the analyses conducted were generally either not statistically significant or indicated that narrower lanes were associated with lower rather than higher crash frequencies.”

– Florida DOT completed a study that found there is no measurable decrease in urban street capacity when through lane widths are narrowed from 12 feet to 10 feet.

• This contradicts the Highway Capacity Manual that shows the capacity of a lane is reduced by 3.33% for each foot of lane width under 12 feet



Franconia Road- ExistingSouth Van Dorn Street to Craft Road



Franconia Road Option ASouth Van Dorn Street to Craft Road



Franconia Road Option BSouth Van Dorn Street to Craft Road



Bikes Lanes• AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities

(2012)

– Minimum width: 3’ of pavement + 2’ gutter (5’ total)

• VDOT Road Design Manual: calls for 4’ of pavement + 2’ gutter (6’ total)

– Proposal A: designs is 5’ of pavement + 2’ of gutter (7’ total), one-way only

– Proposal B: designs is 3.5’ of pavement + 2’ of gutter (5.5’ total)



Where are we in the Process?

• Conceptual design underway– Bike lane in one direction, sharrow the other– Bike lanes in both directions, slightly narrower

• Not proposing to remove any lanes



What are the next steps?• Gather community input tonight and over next

two weeks– Comment Period: Open until June 30th

• Redesign plans as necessary• Design completion: July 2015

• Projects go to construction Late Summer/Early Fall 2015



Thank You

Questions/Comments?

[email protected]


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Proposed Bicycle Facilities: VDOT Summer 2015 Repaving-Franconia Road