To the Editor:
Is the “Complete Streets” policy adopted by Alexandria also to be termed “complete idiocy?” After listening to two hours of testimony before Council recently about the proposal to eliminate parking and put bike lanes on a stretch of King Street, the question occurs to me as a cogent one.
The idea of Complete Streets seems like a reasonable idea. More people are using bicycles rather than automobiles to get around and bicycle rights-of-way in the past have been enormously unclear. Complete streets is touted as a way to accommodate cars, pedestrians and bicycles. Unfortunately, some very questionable planning decisions are being made in the name of the concept.
For example, the Duke Street transportation plan calls for a bike path to be built on the south side of that major artery, separated from the street traffic and from pedestrian sidewalks. While that might seen like good idea, it would require condemning a strip of land, all now private property, to construct the bike lane. Thus homeowners on Duke, roughly from Jordan east to Wheeler, would lose a healthy chunk of their already small front yards.
In another instance, the Complete Streets concept was cited as the reason for tearing down block after block of trees along Beauregard Street as part of the new Beauregard transportation and redevelopment plan. Anyone who uses that major avenue knows how much the trees are part of the attractive ambiance of the neighborhood. Yet all citizen efforts to preserve the trees have been denied by cries of “Complete Streets.”
Finally we have the plan of the city's head of transportation, Mr. Baier, to apply the Complete Streets concept to the stretch of King Street from Russell Road east to Janney's Lane. As a result parking would be banned. The street recently has been repaved and already the lanes have been made narrower on one of the most heavily traveled roads in Alexandria. In the past the city has allowed parking at certain sections on the north side of the street and drawn lines to indicate the places. Those lines no longer appear, apparently awaiting the outlining of a bike line. Neighbors understandably are upset.
The problem on King Street and elsewhere in the city is similar to a man who wears a size 30 suit and gains weight but decides that he can still get his 250 pound body into it. Historically many streets in Alexandria were, in essence, cow paths. They are narrow and curving, sometimes scarcely wide enough for safe passage of automobiles. Trying to “shoe horn” an extra lane for bicycles on them hardly makes sense.
Is the “Complete Streets” policy to be considered “complete idiocy.” The answer is “No.” But in the hands of officials who seem prone to making bad decisions, unfortunately it can seem so.
Jack Sullivan
Alexandria