RECENT COMMENTS
Bike lanes proposed for Government Road and Williamsburg Road
The City of Richmond is moving forward with implementation of recommendations from the Bike Master Plan to design and construct approximately 25 lane miles of bike lanes.
On Tuesday November 22, 2016 the City held a public meeting at the City’s Downtown Public Library to present conceptual and detailed plans for ten streets throughout the City, including Williamsburg Road and Government Road. The meeting was conducted as an open-house format that presented concepts and, in some cases design options, in order to seek public input on design preferences.
Sports Backers has a write-up from the meeting:
When given a choice between two alternatives for one corridor, the public was often asked to choose between a curb-side buffered bike lane with a floating parking lane to provide occasional physical protection, or a buffered bike lane sandwiched between the parking and travel lane (see Brook Road example below). The option of a bike lane protected by plastic bollards, some amount of curb, or even attractive planter boxes was not included. And yet, that’s what people seem to want the most. Our opinion is that even a little physical protection on a curb-side bike lane can go a long way in making people feel safe and comfortable and ensuring that people don’t drive or park cars in the bike lanes.
The full set of maps and presentation are HERE.
Want to share your input? Download the comment sheet and sent it to the Department of Public works via email to Jakob.Helmboldt@Richmondgov.com. Comments will be accepted through mid-December.
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Williamsburg Road
The plan for Government Road is broken up into three sections. The first 2 sections do not offer options. Section 3 through Fulton has 2 options – either a marked shared lane, or a buffered curbside lane (which would remove the on street parking)
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Government Road
There is one proposed plan for Government Road, with buffered lanes map to the travel lane.
Does anyone know how this project will be funded?
There should be statistics/data fm Dept of Trans of which one of the options is the SAFEST ! That’s the one that should be chosen. Getting to the store 15 seconds faster at the risk to others should not be the major decsion factor.
Richmond Shares Plans for Bike Lanes in 2017
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/richmond-shares-plans-for-bike-lanes-in-2017/Content?oid=2381463
25 Miles of New Bike Lanes Could Look Like This…
http://www.richmondoutside.com/2016/11/25-miles-of-new-bike-lanes-could-look-like-this/
I love the idea of bike lanes as a bike rider myself. However, I have a question on the proposed option to remove the parking lanes on Williamsburg Road through Fulton. As someone who owns a house on Williamsburg Rd, where are you proposing I park my car? I don’t have the room to park in my backyard. And yes, it is a backyard and not a parking area.
Would you ever consider removing the parking lanes in the affluent fan section of the city (like Monument Avenue) to create bike lanes? I am thinking most likely not.
@T Batley – I’m with you on that. I’m an avid cyclist, but that seems like taking it too far.
There are streets parallel to Williamsburg Road that ought to be considered for bike routes. Removing parking is not going to fly.
@T Batley, @Juliellen
I’m in Fulton also, and recognize that taking the parking on Williamsburg is a bad plan that ultimately won’t work for people who park there, nor for cyclists.
Please suggest alternate routes on the comment submission form. Goddin St is the most straight forward alternate route and has the added bonus of being much less busy than Williamsburg Rd.
Removing the parking is one of the options. The other option is to keep the parking lane. Since I would rarely (if ever) take this route I abstained from voting. I’ve overheard some people saying that they would rather not create a conflict between bicyclists and people who live there by voting to remove parking.