Countywide Dialogue on Transportation: Transportation Project Survey

[mstone]

@americancyclo 68026 wrote:

Forgive me if this was addressed in another post, but for anyone that lives in Fairfax County, please take a few moments to fill out the
[h=1]Countywide Dialogue on Transportation: Transportation Project Survey
[/h]
The following survey contains a list of 214 unfunded transportation projects that are needed in Fairfax County. New state and regional funding is available for transportation projects, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors would like to know which of these projects are most important to you. Help prioritize these projects by selecting up to three (3) projects in each of the five categories (Interchange, Roadway Extension, Roadway Spot Improvement, Roadway Widening, Transit) in Part I, and by selecting up to five (5) projects in Part II (Bicycle and Pedestrian projects).

These are obviously an afterthought. How do I make a reasonable choice among:

86. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Pedestrian Bridge
87. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Walkway
88. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Walkway
89. Backlick Road Walkway
90. Backlick Road Walkway
91. Backlick Road Walkway

It would also help if pedestrians/cyclists could vote against the road widening projects.

[Rootchopper]

Thanks for posting this. It was depressing to see how very few of these projects are within 5 miles of my home in Mount Vernon. Frankly I’d settle for just getting paved shoulders usable as bike lanes in most of the county. Or consistent shoulders – ones that don’t come and go with no rhyme or reason.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 68044 wrote:

These are obviously an afterthought. How do I make a reasonable choice among:

86. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Pedestrian Bridge
87. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Walkway
88. Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) Walkway
89. Backlick Road Walkway
90. Backlick Road Walkway
91. Backlick Road Walkway

It would also help if pedestrians/cyclists could vote against the road widening projects.

I filled it out a few weeks ago – it seemed IIRC that they were trying to get you to compare road projects to road projects, bike/ped to bike/ped, etc – they didn’t want the survey to be used for mode wars. For that you are stuck with badgering your supervisor, I guess.

And yeah, its a bother that you have to keep consulting the map to see what the projects are.

[lordofthemark]

@Rootchopper 68046 wrote:

Thanks for posting this. It was depressing to see how very few of these projects are within 5 miles of my home in Mount Vernon. Frankly I’d settle for just getting paved shoulders usable as bike lanes in most of the county. Or consistent shoulders – ones that don’t come and go with no rhyme or reason.

Its flabbergasting how many arterials in the County (including some in relatively dense areas) have large stretches with no sidewalk.

Its good to see how many of them have been identified for projects.

Its frustrating to realize how few of those will be funded anytime soon.

[Subby]

BUMP

So I am the president of my local little league and we are pushing hard for #186 (sidewalks in front of our fields along Westmoreland) so that kids can safely bike and/or walk to games.

If you could do a HUGE favor for me and take the survey and vote for #186, I would greatly appreciate it. Even if you took the survey and skipped the section on road widening and DIDNT vote for the sidewalk and JUST voted for bike lane projects, I would still appreciate it. Survey closes on Friday.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DGPZVQV

Here is a pdf that describes all of the suggested improvements: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/pdf/cdot/cdot_all.pdf

Thanks.

[eminva]

I’m not saying anything here that I haven’t already said to the FABB officials, but I feel completely unqualified to perform this civic duty. I am not a cartographer, civil engineer, planner or oracle. While I consider all these worthy professions, I have neither interest nor time to be an amateur version thereof.

I haven’t answered the survey and if anyone can make sense of this and would like me to vote for your pet project, please do as Subby has done and identify it so that I can vote for it. I will vote for #186 and anything else the peanut gallery finds worthy.

Please tell me where I can find the survey to get Fairfax County to hire some professionals to set priorities in a thoughtful and cohesive manner.

Sorry for the rant; I just think it is stupid to crowdsource these important decisions.

Liz

[mstone]

especially since the questions are essentially undecipherable. “you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.”

(I know there’s a map you’re supposed to match to the survey; didn’t load on the computer I tried it on.)

[lordofthemark]

@eminva 69715 wrote:

I’m not saying anything here that I haven’t already said to the FABB officials, but I feel completely unqualified to perform this civic duty. I am not a cartographer, civil engineer, planner or oracle. While I consider all these worthy professions, I have neither interest nor time to be an amateur version thereof.

I haven’t answered the survey and if anyone can make sense of this and would like me to vote for your pet project, please do as Subby has done and identify it so that I can vote for it. I will vote for #186 and anything else the peanut gallery finds worthy.

Please tell me where I can find the survey to get Fairfax County to hire some professionals to set priorities in a thoughtful and cohesive manner.

Sorry for the rant; I just think it is stupid to crowdsource these important decisions.

Liz

Wait FABB members are officials? I’ve been to my second FABB monthly meeting, does that make me an official?

Actually Fairfax has some pretty good bike staff (at least I like Charlie Strunk so far) but this is all caught up in other issues within FCDOT – there are only a few pure bike projects, but lots of sidewalks and intersection improvements that are “bike/ped” projects and lots of bike aspects of road projects. And as someone said last night, ultimately the prioritization is up to be Board of Supervisors, not to either FCDOT staff or to crowd sourcing. I think the role of crowd sourcing here is (or should be) simply to indicate what projects the public is most interested in. And the biggest barriers are the sheer number of projects, the opaque naming and descriptions, the problems with maps, etc. But then I don’t think FCDOT put that much effort into it, and perhaps they shouldn’t.

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