Seminary Road Diet Spurs Heated Discussion At City Council

ALEXANDRIA, VA — As the road diet on Seminary Road continues to spur divisiveness among Alexandria residents, one council member revived the discussion during a City Council meeting on Dec. 10. During oral reports near the end of the council meeting, Councilmember Amy Jackson introduced a motion to reverse the road diet so council can pause and review the decision and public concerns. That motion drew heated responses from council members.

Crews have been implementing changes to a 0.9-mile section of Seminary Road between North Quaker Lane and North Howard Street after council's Sept. 14 vote. The reconfiguration reduced Seminary Road to one through lane in each direction, added one bike lane in each direction and added a center turn lane serving both directions. Median islands for pedestrian crossings were implemented at Chapel Hill Drive, Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Fort Williams Parkway and near the Seminary Road entrance of Virginia Theological Seminary.

Mayor Justin Wilson, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker and Councilmembers Del Pepper and Canek Aguirre voted for the road diet on Sept. 14 while Jackson, Chapman and Mo Seifeldein voted against.

In her oral report, Jackson addressed concerns about emergency vehicles navigating the road with the new median island. "It was my understanding that there would be no delay. Now that the medians have been installed, the mere presence of these physical barriers has made me rethink just that," she said.

According to information on the city's Seminary Road Complete Streets project page, not all median islands are mountable should emergency vehicles need to navigate around traffic. "The mountable median islands are only placed where the Fire Department thought they may need to use them if traffic is blocking the travel lanes," the page states. The non-mountable medians are believed to be in areas where drivers can pull over into the bike lane.

Jackson's first motion died for lack of second, but she introduced the motion again with a second from Seifeldein. Seifeldein said he seconded the motion for the purpose of discussion but believes staff and council members need more time to evaluate.

The motion to rescind the decision drew criticism from colleagues. Wilson recommended to Jackson that council request a staff update on a specific issue with Seminary Road. "Just simply raising an issue late in the evening without any heads up to anyone including our staff is a good use of time here," he told Jackson.

Aguirre argued that the assumption of a majority of residents around Seminary Road oppose the road diet is inaccurate. "Clearly when we were having discussion up here and we had the public hearing, it was evenly split," he said.

Councilmember John Chapman contended that a member who voted to implement the road diet would need to change their vote before a motion to rescind should be brought up.

Jackson agreed to withdraw the motion and table discussion for a future meeting.

Alexandria Transportation and Environmental Services Director Yon Lambert was present to provide information on Seminary Road traffic crashes. According to Alexandria Police data, there were five reported crashes between Oct. 30 and Dec. 5, as well as one reportable crash and three minor, non-reportable crashes. By comparison, there were two reportable crashes in the same period last year. That doesn't include the Virginia State Police high-speed chase on Interstate 395 and ending on Seminary Road on Nov. 27.