City Council voted Saturday morning to put Seminary Road on a “diet,” reducing the current configuration, which is two lanes in each direction, to one lane in each direction, a center turn lane and new bike lanes.
The changes will occur during repaving this fall between North Howard Street (the Inova Alexandria intersection) and Quaker Lane. Other safety improvements (but no reduction in lanes) will occur west of North Howard Street.
The road diet was voted for by 3 council members plus Mayor Justin Wilson. Three council members opposed it after an 8-hour public hearing Saturday at City Hall.
In addition to Mayor Wilson, Council Members Canek Aguirre, Redella S. Pepper and Elizabeth Bennett-Parker voted in favor of the change to Seminary Road. Coucil members John T. Chapman, Amy Jackson and Mo Seifeldein opposed it.
Early reaction to the decision was mixed, with several residents saying they would be voting in the 2021 council election accordingly. Residents noted concerns about the police and fire department's ability to get down the road in a timely manner.
"This is the worst thing they could have done," wrote Andrew William in a Facebook comment on TrafficZen. "Good luck getting PD and fire anywhere. Not going to be able to move through gridlock."
"Unfortunately predictable. Nitghtmares to follow..." wrote Mike Visgauss.
However, Sharon Solorzano wrote on Nextdoor, "I carpool with my husband on Seminary twice each day from East Taylor and we appreciate this vote. Nearly half of the license plates we see are from Maryland. I look forward to a slower, calmer drive."
Several residents called for the resignation of Council Member Redella 'Del' Pepper.
Much of the discussion Saturday (and in the months prior) focused on safety on Seminary Road, which is one of the area’s major east-west thoroughfares.
“Since the reduction of the speed limit on Seminary (from Quaker to Library Lanes) in 2016, data has shown that safety has improved. However, to sustain this benefit, the roadway design must reflect the posted speed limit as well as encourage and better accommodate people walking, biking, driving, and riding transit,” city officials wrote on the Seminary Road webpage earlier this year as part of an explanation about the road safety studies.
City of Alexandria officials go through a study and discussion of road safety and planning every time a road comes up for repaving. Last year and earlier this year, City officials included a variety of “road diet” options among the choices presented for Seminary Road. Months and months of extensive debate, polls, studies and community meetings ensued. At times, bikers, pedestrians and drivers argued against each other — while all groups wanted a safe road, competing priorities made finding a mutually-agreeable solution impossible.
By Friday, it seemed likely that Seminary Road would remain four lanes, which is what the Traffic Safety Board recommended to City Council members. But an appeal to the council put the plans for Seminary Road up for debate again.
More than 100 residents spoke at Saturday’s final public hearing on the matter, including residents who noted repeatedly that the 25 mph speed limit on Seminary Road is routinely ignored by drivers.
A letter from 13 civic associations that appeared in the Alexandria Times last week started out: “We, the 13 undersigned Civic Associations that represent more than 9,000 households in Alexandria, urge city council to affirm the decision of the Alexandria Traffic and Parking Board to keep four traffic lanes on Seminary Road, with two new crosswalks for pedestrian safety, when council votes at the Sept. 14 public hearing.”
The 13 civic associations were: Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association, Cameron Station Civic Association, Clover College Park Civic Association, North Ridge Citizens’ Association, Old Town Civic Association, Parkside at Alexandria, Seminary Civic Association, Seminary Hill Association, Seminary Ridge Civic Association, Seminary West Civic Association, Strawberry Hill Civic Association, Taylor Run Citizens’ Association and the Wakefield Tarleton Civic Association.
Part of the issue the is an increasing amount of cut-through traffic from other areas — including Maryland.
“According to the Central Alexandria Traffic Study, 42 percent of the traffic on our roads is cut-through traffic from outside of the city. Road diets will not change this fact and reducing lanes will exacerbate the problem,” the civic associations wrote.
Paving of the road will happen later this fall.
The City Council docket from Saturday’s meeting and related documents are available here.
