Seminary Road reduced to two lanes

I am writing about the City’s desire to reduce Seminary Road to two lanes. I retired from National Geographic as Safety and Facilities Manager and fully understand the need for safety. I worked with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal and local agencies or several issues. During my 35 years of employment, I learned that there are ways to achieve safety goals without excessive cost or negatively affecting operations.

Given that we all have pressures on our time, such as picking up children from school, taking them to activities or simply shopping for dinner, it is all made harder due to the traffic delays caused by the city’s traffic plan. That is why I am asking others to join me in working with the City Council, City Staff and residents to ensure that safety concerns are addressed while not creating additional hardship on time and frustrations for residents of the west end and all people who use Seminary Road.

During the June 30 meeting at Temple Beth El, City staff presented multiple options, and all but one reduced Seminary Road to two lanes and/or dramatically reduced lane width causing increased delays. During the meeting I was told by staff that the goal of T&ES is to reduce the current speeds through the city to 10 plus miles per hour below the posted speed limits. Living in the west end, I use and understand the need for Seminary Road, as do so many others who use Seminary Road, and the absolute need for Seminary Road to remain four lanes.

Seeking options other than reducing Seminary Road to two lanes can and should be applied to the proposed changes to Seminary Road.

Here are a few suggestions for changes that will assist in securing safety for pedestrians and bicyclist on Seminary Road while not restricting the transportation needs of the residents of the West End.

Seminary Road at Howard Street – Risks to pedestrian are mostly caused by jay-walking. Most jay-walkers at this location are employees of, or visitors to, Inova Alexandria Hospital. Passengers disembark from the west bound busses on the north side of Seminary Road and cross Seminary Road west of Howard Street to get to the hospital. They also cross Seminary Road from the hospital to get to the west bound busses on Seminary Road. Either way, they do not go to the current crosswalk located at Howard and Seminary.

If there were a bus stop located in the area on Howard Street adjacent to the hospital that allowed enough area for the busses to drop passengers and turn around safely to go back to Seminary Road It could serve both east and west bound buses. This would allow passengers going to and from the hospital shorter distances to walk and all hospital staff access to the hospital without crossing Seminary Road. It would also permit busses turning left on Howard Street from Seminary Road to do so without doing a kamikaze dash across two lanes of Seminary Road to turn left onto Howard Street.

Another location of concern expressed by the T&ES staff during the June 30 meeting was the crossing from Emanuel Church on the north side of Seminary Road to the fellowship hall on the south side of Seminary Road. The crossing at this location is caused by the lack of sidewalk on the north side of Seminary Road (east of the Church) and the extended walk time it takes to walk to the crosswalk at Quaker Lane.

Two things that would not restrict the flow of traffic and increase safety for pedestrians would be to add pedestrian-tripped crosswalk signals, like the rapid flashing crosswalk light on Braddock Road at the Braddock Metro, with high visibility crosswalk markings. This would allow pedestrians to activate the flashing lights to stop traffic allowing safe crossing of Seminary Road from the Church to the fellowship hall. Adding a dedicated right turn lane for Quaker Lane just past the fellowship hall on the south side of Seminary Road would decrease the backup of traffic into the area around the fellowship hall and allow traffic turning onto Quaker Lane from east bound Seminary and heading onto Janney’s Lane. This will reduce back-ups on Seminary Road.

Where bicycle lanes have been installed, there are few cyclists using them. The best option is the one used on Braddock Road between Quaker Lane and Van Dorn, which has two lanes in each direction and works very well for pedestrians, bicyclists and traffic. Marking the curb lanes as co-lanes for bicyclists and cars notifies drivers to be on the lookout for cyclists and will slow traffic when needed. In Alexandra, it is legal to ride bicycles on the sidewalk. Although not ideal, it is one more option along Seminary Road. During the meeting, the representative from the seminary stated that they were willing to work with the city to install sidewalks along Seminary Road. The sidewalks could be made wide enough to accommodate both pedestrians and cyclists.

Adding speed notification monitors such as on Janney’s Lane, and other locations throughout the city, will reduce traffic speeds to the posted speed and save the city money by decreasing the cost to the city for street maintenance and vehicles maintenance and allow emergency vehicles to respond without slowing down due to speed bumps.

On Seminary Road at Kenmore Avenue, prior to the new HOV upgrades, there was a fence installed between east and west bound lanes on Seminary Road from Library Lane to the eastside of the traffic circle at 395 to prevent pedestrians from crossing Seminary Road. Reinstalling a fence that would prevent pedestrians from crossing Seminary at that location would solve the problem at this location.

When I was on the Parking and Traffic Board, vision clearance was a requirement and I assume still is. However, I have noticed that there are several intersections where vision clearance is limited and has very low vision clearance. Increasing the vision clearance could greatly reduce the risk of accidents along Seminary Road.

Thank You Michael Curry