I agree that we should try and accommodate everyone, but I think it would be good if they can allow people trying to bypass the area to do so without having to stop at a light. Some sort of pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure seems like a no brainer, though.

by Vik on Nov 15, 2010 1:12 pm • link • report

I got a 404 for what you linked under "the plans"

You can't see it from the picture but currently there is a road that goes underneath the parkway which is a great way to avoid the traffic lights that are currently there. I think that underpass (I forget the name of the road though they're all a variant of "fair lakes something" would be a fantastic oppurtunity for a multiuse trail to run alongside. Currently no one walks around there anyway because the housing is too separated from the retail. If they can find a way to fix that it would do a lot of good for the overall health of the area.

by Canaan on Nov 15, 2010 1:14 pm • link • report

Ah, I was correct its called fair lakes circle. Anyway, it doesn't seem so hard looking at google maps to build a trail originating from whole foods through the corporate offices, underneath the parkway and onto shoppes lane (the main drag where walmart and target are. With some infill on top of the Dick's parking lot and a trail extension over on through to the battlefield you could have a popular trail that has several dept. and grocery stores and even a movie theater that people could walk/bike with relative ease.

by Canaan on Nov 15, 2010 1:18 pm • link • report

In principal I agree, but in practice I think the ship has already sailed on Fairfax County Parkway. Pretty much nothing fronts on it anywhere along its length, and it already has a number of interchanges. Even if they started designing it to perfect multi-modal specs from here on out, it would still be an overwhelmingly car-oriented highway.

I think we should just admit that 7100 is a highway and focus our efforts on turning route 50 and 29 into urban streets. Those roads offer more achievable, and frankly more desirable, goals.

by BeyondDC on Nov 15, 2010 1:37 pm • link • report

Fairfax should consider a more innovative design. Consider what Carmel, IN did with its Keystone Ave (a major communter route between Indianapolis and its northside suburbs.

http://www.carmellink.org/index.php?act=intersections

I've driven it... and its way better than the traditional format Fairfax is about to invest in.

by Joe H. on Nov 15, 2010 1:42 pm • link • report

Fixed the link.

by David Alpert on Nov 15, 2010 1:42 pm • link • report

The existing at-grade conditions at 7100/Fair Lakes Pkwy and 7100/Monument Drive are nowhere near inviting for bicycles or pedestrians. While these interchange ramps could sure improve the ped/bike experience; there is nothing in place now that is even remotely safe or attractive.

One intersection where improvements could be made is the Franconia-Springfield Pkwy (VA-7900) and Beulah Street intersection. The right turn free flow lanes create the infamous Fairfax County "pork chop" islands which to me are scarier to navigate. The same (but on a larger scale) "pork chop" islands exist at 7100/Fair Lakes Pkwy.

The Fair Lakes Circle corridor, as suggested above, would seem a better place to invest in ped/bike infrastructure due to the face that there are business and a large hotel where people currently walk. There are also Fairfax Connector bus stops along this stretch of street indicating some type of activity-- I see people waiting for the bus at the stops near the Dick's and Whole Foods "East Market" complex.

by Transport. on Nov 15, 2010 2:11 pm • link • report

Does anyone know how many cars travel the Fairfax County Parkway as opposed to the GW Parkway?

Could an even more limited access route (like the GW parkway) improve bikability/walkability in the area by having a smaller footprint (fewer lanes, smaller interchanges)?

by Paul on Nov 15, 2010 2:20 pm • link • report

As a frequent jogger in this neighborhood, I can tell you that this is much better than what we have now. To access Rocky Run, you have to wait a long time for a signal to cross the highway, and there is no easy connection to Fair Lakes Parkway - you have to go backward to its intersection with Fair Lakes Circle. So now we won't have to worry about crossing the highway at all - just lower-volume ramp traffic. And after crossing we can now access Fair Lakes Parkway.

What I'm more concerned about is access during construction. Right now they're cutting down all the trees, but the trails are still open. Not sure how access will be once they start getting the land graded and laying asphalt and building bridges.

The schematics for the interchange are at VDOT's website: http://virginiadot.org/projects/northernvirginia/fairfax_county_parkway-fair_lakes.asp

by Brandon on Nov 15, 2010 2:46 pm • link • report

Of course, after they finish building this the morning traffic jam will move North to the US50 traffic light and the evening jam will still be at Pope's Head Road light. I drive this everyday and don't see how this will help. The FFX pwy is still a mishmash road with ramps and lights mixed together, no wonder why my average speed is only 25 mph!

by BigG on Nov 15, 2010 2:56 pm • link • report

I regularly drive through that intersection to get to the shops at Fair Lakes and have done so for the past decade. (when Dick's was Galyan's and had a baseball field next to it). I can see 7100 following 28's path into a limited access highway to increase N/S transit in Western Fairfax County. Everyday 7100 backs up from Fair Lakes Pkwy to 50 because of the lights at Fair Lakes and Monument Dr.
I say this not as a car loving suburbian, but as an avid bicyclist as well. I have ridden my bike on the 7100 trail as a change of pace to the WO&D trail. However, this trail is marginal at best, and nearly unridable in the Fair Lakes corridor before turning towards the West Ox Rd trail. This makes sense as there aren't any walkable destinations between 50 and West Ox, especially with the 66 interchange in the middle. TransportÂ’s idea about making Fair Lakes Circle walkable makes much more sense, as there is already a bike path on both sides of the road.

by James on Nov 15, 2010 3:48 pm • link • report

This area is the middle of the suburbs. I've lived in that area before and I never saw anyone ever riding along the Parkway path or talk about doing so. People make the conscious choice to move out there BECAUSE they can get around easier by car. This plan reflects the transportation values of those who live there.

by Mike on Nov 15, 2010 3:58 pm • link • report

One point that I think is worth opposing this project over: Its $70 million price tag.

I can think of many other things I'd rather spend $70 million on.

by BeyondDC on Nov 15, 2010 4:07 pm • link • report

Let's face it, Fairfax and VDOT are slowly upgrading VA-28 and VA-7100 into interstates. There is not stopping it. And quite frankly, if you need to move around Fairfax, the roads are needed.

So, the question is: How can we get VDOT and Fairfax to create safe pedestrian and bike facilities with these upgrades?

Personally, what saddens me the most in the artist's rendering is that they're planning to keep a bunch of traffic lights in stead of creating a traffic-light-less roundabout-like situation. The current plan only improves the situation for traffic on 7100. Not for cross traffic. In fact, it worsens it, because there will be more traffic lights and hence more stopping.

by Jasper on Nov 15, 2010 4:36 pm • link • report

I hope the proposed interchange here is better than the mess that is 7100 and 29 just a few miles to the south. Its fine if you are going through on either road, but horrible if you need to get off...its like stop light heck.

by James on Nov 15, 2010 4:47 pm • link • report

FWIW, I used to be a frequent pedestrian between the Pentagon and Crystal City. I thought walking under the 8+ lanes of 395 was kinda cool.

by OX4 on Nov 15, 2010 5:41 pm • link • report

Here we go again. The "upgrade" of VA28 to a limited access highway was a total boondoggle. The road was just fine in 2001 with the exception of the area around I66 and US29. As soon as they started building interchanges between US50 and VA7, things got worse. In the early part of the decade, the traffic lights regulated the traffic so things never backed up too badly. As the lights were taken away, the remaining lights backed up more and more until finally the last one was removed. How many millions of dollars did that take?

Now VDOT is apparently doing the same thing with 7100. Adding these interchanges will not do a thing to improve traffic flow. They will just make things worse at the nearby intersections. Unlike with 28, turning the whole parkway into a limited access highway is not realistic.

However, to address the original article, 7100 (like most radial routes) was never designed for pedestrian or bicycle traffic. Where are you going to go? You wouldn't want to take the Parkway anyway - its curved route automatically takes you too far out of the way regardless of your destination. You would take roads that run in straight lines.

by movement on Nov 15, 2010 6:09 pm • link • report

@Paul

Traffic on this stretch of Fairfax County Pkwy is roughly comparable to that on the GW Pkwy between 395 and 66.

by Froggie on Nov 15, 2010 6:24 pm • link • report

Is " shared use path" a new euphanism for "road without bike lanes where sidewalk riding is legal"?

Mike. Seriously? Nobody says "I want this home because it will require me to use a car to go everywhere." People look at price first, schools second (even if they don't have kids), and neighboring houses third.

Price is where road infrastructure comes in. Im sure theyd like a 2,000 square foot home for $150,000 in downtown DC. But that's impossible, so they're forced to deal with terrible roads.

by JJJJ on Nov 15, 2010 9:42 pm • link • report

No a shared use path is something not on the road (though some segments can run along side a road) that bikes and peds can use. Something like the W&OD. By creating a ped/bike shortcut through the area where one wouldn't have to deal with crossing ramps and dealing with traffic lights could maybe convince some people to not use their car for small/very local trips.

by Canaan on Nov 16, 2010 1:01 am • link • report

A shared use path is paved like a street, not concrete segments like a sidewalk.

by movement on Nov 16, 2010 8:06 am • link • report

There already is a sidewalk/bike trail parallel to the Parkway along almost its entire length. Between the US50 and Lee Highway interchanges it bypasses the parkway and travels down West Ox and Fair Lakes. I ride my bike there every day (sometimes all the way between Fair Lakes and Reston) and I can tell you that the pedestrian/cyclist access on the parkway is far safer than on US50 proper. You have to deal with lights and crossings, but you do not interact with traffic driving at 60mph sometimes. Short of building bicycle flyovers (at great expense), I am not sure what more one wants on the road catering to pedestrians.

by Schmidy on Nov 16, 2010 8:09 am • link • report

"Shared Use Path" = off-road bike/ped path (or trail, depending on your wordage preference).

by Froggie on Nov 16, 2010 8:26 am • link • report

Currently there are very limited sidewalks, none on Fair Lakes Parkway at Rt 7100. This is b/c Peterson didn't want to pay for them. Now that the place has built out and they keep adding more residential, Peterson claims thay have tons of trails and residential amentities. As a long time Fair Lakes resident, I throw the b/s flag on this. Maybe after this project is completed, Peterson will pave the current trails in the community that are crumbling.

by Hmmmmm on Nov 16, 2010 9:54 am • link • report

I think this is still a big improvement for bikes over what's there now. Nothing about the Parkway has ever been perfect.

I used to commute on the Rocky Run trails and cross 7100 at Monument. It was not pleasant. The plan sketch looks like using Monument to cross will be much better by going underneath 7100 using a separated path and only dealing with ramp traffic.

by chburger on Nov 17, 2010 1:10 pm • link • report

And nothing about an alternative idea of depressing that segment and selling air development rights- Virginia is soooo unimaginative.

by Douglas A. Willinger on Nov 17, 2010 11:51 pm • link • report

@Douglas Willinger:
Yeah, ever since the Masons took over the statehouse, Virginia has really been scuttling freeway air rights projects.

by Matt Johnson on Nov 18, 2010 9:16 am • link • report

What does "depressing that segment" mean?

by chburger on Nov 18, 2010 10:58 am • link • report

"Depressing the segment" means to lower its grade (dig it down), akin to recent plans for Wisconsin Avenue, reconstructing it about 25 feet below ground level, usually as an open trench, but more intelligently designed to accomdate the successive or future addition of a lid, for parkspace, roadways, and even new development.

Instead, alas, what they are doing is elevating that FCP segment upon a new earthen berm, creating a new wall, akin to that done to a segment of MD 5.

by Douglas A. Willinger on Nov 22, 2010 11:41 pm • link • report

"Yeah, ever since the Masons took over the statehouse, Virginia has really been scuttling freeway air rights projects."- Matt Johnson

Matt- Looking at such things as:
Virginia's botched efforts towards getting DC I-95 built,

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/01/virginia-house-resolution-44.html

and the political dynamics I encountered in promoting my Alexandria Orb proposal (fear and an organized endrun around the WWB Project Stakeholder process -- the Rt 1 interchange-Washington Street Urban Deck SPP voted against shortening the proposed deck, August 26, 2000, yet the Alexandria City Council LIED THROUGH ITS TEETH) -- do you REALLY think the Masons are a force for good regarding such political dynamics?

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-happened-at-alexandria-city-hall.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/02/alexandria-chop-job-on-urban-deck.html

At the Alexandria City Council meeting in December 2000 I wittnessed the representatives of a variety of Amexandria organizations behaving as drones in rubber stamping the 'trade in' of the urban deck funds, effectively shortening it from roughly 1,000 feet to only 200 feet- leaving much of the area alongside the site of Freedmans' Cemetery, said to be Alexandria, Virginia's oldest African-American, next to not parkland, but instead some 14 lanes of freeway and ramps. Among such drones, of which the entire Alexandira City Council would vote on this without debate and UNANIMOUSLY was the current Mayor.

You really think that Masonry was a force here for good?

by Douglas A. Willinger on Nov 23, 2010 12:01 am • link • report

"Personally, what saddens me the most in the artist's rendering is that they're planning to keep a bunch of traffic lights in stead of creating a traffic-light-less roundabout-like situation. The current plan only improves the situation for traffic on 7100. Not for cross traffic. In fact, it worsens it, because there will be more traffic lights and hence more stopping."- Jasper

So right on point!

I say depress that FCP segment and do a traffic circle atop in the DuPont/Barney Circle-Alexandria Orb tradition. the basic traffic circle atop an underpass concept is win-win.

If freemasonry was the respectible organization it likes to be thought of as, it would have been a force for such superior civic design.

by Douglas A. Willinger on Nov 23, 2010 12:07 am • link • report

Fairfax especially Tysons Corner was never pedestrian
or bike friendly. There are no walkovers like in other
downtowns with main throughfares. This is from the affluent
and educated county everyone boasts about. Heck there is
no such zip or address on the postal mail as Tysons its all
fake! Why not say what it is Vienna and McLean? This is so
gaffe Fake names fake people, fake county

by Johnny Tysons on Dec 4, 2010 6:46 am • link • report