Seminary Road Decision Nears, Residents Divided In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Division among residents remains on the future of Seminary Road as Alexandria City Council is set to consider recommendations for the project on Sept. 14. The Traffic and Parking Board recommended keeping the existing four lanes on Seminary Road with two HAWK (High-Intensity Activated crossWalK) signals for pedestrians.

Numerous civic associations submitted a joint letter in favor of keeping four lanes, while an opposed group of residents submitted an appeal to the Traffic and Parking Board decision.

Before Seminary Road is scheduled to be repaved no later than October, the city launched the Seminary Road Complete Streets Project to evaluate safety and potential improvements. The area considered for changes is Seminary Road between North Howard Street and North Quaker Lane. Originally the scope was Kenmore Avenue to North Quaker Lane, but it was changed after staff were informed of the potential impact from Interstate 395 Express Lanes construction.

During the study, staff had a few design alternatives to consider. Alternative 1 involved maintaining four travel lanes and narrowing the center lanes to discourage speeding. Alternative 2 would remove one eastbound travel lane, install bike lanes and pedestrian crossing improvements and fill the sidewalk gap. Alternative 3 would remove a travel lane in both directions, install a center turn lane, bike lanes and pedestrian crossing improvements.

An initial round of community feedback found overall preference for Alternative 1, although there was support for multimodal improvements. After that public feedback, staff recommended a hybrid of Alternatives 1 and 2 to the Traffic and Parking Board. This hybrid model keeps four lanes, except for one eastbound lane and two westbound lanes between St. Stephens Road and Zabriskie Drive. The remaining area would be for increasing the buffer space for pedestrians on the sidewalk on both sides of the roadway.

On June 24, the Traffic and Parking Board voted 3-2 to reject the staff's hybrid model recommendation and maintain four travel lanes close to Alternative 1. The two recommended HAWK signals would be at Chapel Hill Drive and between St. Stephens Road and Fort Williams Parkway.

The signal between St. Stephens Road and Fort Williams Parkway would be at the bus stops for Beth El Hebrew Congregation. The city says this will allow pedestrians to safely cross to the south side of the road, avoiding the need to cross when the sidewalk ends on the northern side. The signals would halt traffic for an estimated 13 seconds.

City staff asked Council to consider a lane reconfiguration for the eastbound approach to the Seminary Road and North Quaker Lane intersection. The road currently has a left-turn-only lane and lane for through traffic and right turns. The recommendation is to change it to a left-turn and through lane and a right turn-only lane. This resulted from community feedback about traffic queue lengths at the intersection. A staff evaluation showed the reconfiguration can decrease delays at the intersection by approximately 14 seconds.

Residents for and against maintaining four lanes on Seminary Road shared their thoughts with City Council ahead of the Sept. 14 meeting.

A group of 13 civic associations representing over 9,000 households wrote a letter in support of keeping four lanes. The group cites city data showing the area of Seminary Road considered for changes has seen less crashes than the area west of North Howard Street. The data from January 2013 to July 2018 shows 89 crashes on Seminary Road west of North Howard Street and 39 between North Quaker Lane and North Howard Street.

Kay Stimson, president of the North Ridge Citizens' Association, told Patch the group isn't anti-cyclist but believes Seminary Road isn't the place for bicyclist improvements. She says Seminary Road is a major east-west arterial road with concerns of cut-through traffic and little progress on expanding public transportation.

"We have no public transportation options to make up for the reduction of lanes," she said. "Nothing has really changed in this fairly suburban area of the city."

The groups in support of keeping four lanes are the Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association, Cameron Station Civic Association, Clover College Park Civic Association, North Ridge Citizens’ Association, Old Town Civic Association, Parkside at Alexandria, Seminary Civic Association, Seminary Hill Association, Seminary Ridge Civic Association, Seminary West Civic Association, Strawberry Hill Civic Association, Taylor Run Citizens’ Association and Wakefield Tarleton Civic Association.

In addition to the Traffic and Parking Board's recommendation, council will look at an appeal submitted by a group of residents against the four-lane recommendation. The residents ask council to compare a three-lane approach like Alternative 3 side-by-side with the four-lane recommendation.

The group cited the city's Transportation Master Plan, which recommends adding more bicycle lanes. The city's Environmental Action Plan 2040 mentions expanding low-carbon transportation options like bicycling.

City staff recommend that the council denies the appeal.