A bike boulevard in Palo Alto. Credit: Bikeable Richmond

Maybe you’ve heard by now that late yesterday the Richmond Planning Commission approved the long contemplated/sought/worked on/argued over Floyd Avenue Bike Boulevard proposal.

At this point, work should begin in the spring, unless City Council chooses to overrule the decision (which seems unlikely). Both the Times-Dispatch and Bikeable Richmond offer blow-by-blow details on the plan itself, so I won’t go into those here. But I do highly recommend you check out Bike Walk RVA Director Max Hepp-Buchanan’s piece on the Sports Backers’s blog. He does a great job of going behind the ins and outs of urban/traffic planning to lay out the significance of the vote and what it could mean for other projects going forward.

Bottom line, it was a good day — maybe not a perfect day, but a good day — for RVA’s bicycle infrastructure proponents.

Back in October, Richmond City Council passed a resolution adopting a “Complete Streets Policy.” As RVA News reported recently, the resolution puts city officials on the hook to create and implement guidelines that’ll ensure future transportation improvement projects will be planned, designed, and constructed with pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit passengers in mind, in addition to motorists…City officials now have one year to create those implementation guidelines, which will be included in the City’s construction standards manual.

Bike lane approaching the MLK Bridge near VCU. Credit: Phil Riggan

This talk of a Complete Streets Policy reminded me that the city is also working on a Bike Master Plan, something that I feel like has been referred to in news reports as “almost complete” for a long time. So I gave Jakob Helmboldt a call for an update. Helmboldt is the Bicycle, Pedestrian and Trails Coordinator for the city, and he’s the one, I figured, who’d be knee deep in the bike master plan. Helmboldt explained that the Bike Master Plan is actually “being done as kind of an appendix to the strategic multi-modal transportation plan” that was completed over a year ago by the city. The multi-modal plan had some vague bike stuff in it, but the Bike Master Plan was created as a change order to that plan and is really intended to get into specifics for bike infrastructure and planning in the city.

Helmboldt had just received a draft of the plan from transportation planning consultant, Alta, and was making edits, additions and subtractions. So in one sense, the plan really is almost done. But it’s also part of the multi-modal plan, which Helmboldt said won’t go through official adoption process until sometime next year.

The good news is that while the Bike Master Plan won’t become official until next year, it’s already guiding public works decisions.

“To a degree there’s been sort of a parallel process,” Helmboldt said. “We’ve already been identifying some key corridors that we needed to start aiming for, started getting some of the design work done. So, the Manchester Bridge, the Lee Bridge are pretty much 90 percent planned for — getting those re-striped and marked for buffered bike lanes. There’s been this process where we filtered out some things that we knew we’d be moving forward on because we obviously didn’t want to wait for this process to be wrapped up.”

A complete street approach in Stockholm, Sweden.

You can see that in the new bike lanes on Forest Hill Avenue, Brookland Parkway and the Martin Luther King Bridge. Helmboldt also stressed that the Bike Master Plan won’t be just a snapshot of what Richmonders want right now.

“This is a living document. Because it’s aimed at infrastructure stuff, it’s gonna be a roadmap toward implementation. Every five years we’ll go in and update it.”

For example, he said, the arrival of Stone Brewing, “that’s providing a bit of an impetus for the Gillies Creek Greenway, which was conceived from the bike/ped trails commission back in 2010. With Stone going in right there, that’s right at the southern terminus of the greenway and that connects right into the Virginia Capital Trail. So (Stone) could potentially spur development of that.”

“As these opportunities come up we start putting those things into action.”

Bottom line: The Bike Master Plan isn’t done, but it’s very much alive and guiding Richmond’s next steps toward greater bike/ped friendliness.

Progress on the Va. Capital Trail on New Market Road in Varina. Credit: Va. Capital Trail Foundation

The other day, returning from Osborne Landing with the Terrain360.com mapping vessel, my eyes beheld something they’ve been longing to see for years: actual progress on the Virginia Capital Trail in the Richmond region.

Sure, there’s a half-mile section completed from the floodwall across from Bottoms Up Pizza to Great Shiplock Park. But, outside of that, almost all of the work on the 55-mile, Jamestown-to-Richmond paved path has been toward the eastern end.

What I saw the other day got me all giddy, and I realized I hadn’t posted a Cap Trail update in months. So, just yesterday I gave Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Executive Director Beth Weisbrod a call to check in on things. She was just as excited by the trail progress as I was.

“We’re chugging along,” she said. “We’re still on track to have everything done by next summer, by (the UCI World Cycling Championships in) 2015.”

Weisbrod said that Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe will be the keynote speaker on October 15 for the ribbon cutting of the 13-mile Sherwood Forest phase of the trail.

“(Sherwood Forest) essentially connects the completed section in James City County with the Charles City Courthouse section,” Weisbrod said. “So we’ll have roughly 29 miles of one long continuous strip of asphalt.”

Weisbrod and the VDOT project manager will ride the Sherwood Forest section tomorrow to inspect it, she said. And while some landscaping and other light work remains, it is open and rideable right now.

Pushing rock on the soon-to-be Virginia Capital Trail. Credit: Va. Capital Trail Foundation

With Sherwood Forest complete, that makes the intersection of Kimages Road and Route 5 the current western terminus of the trail. But work has begun on all the remaining sections. Next up, coming east, is the 10-mile New Market Heights phase, which Weisbrod expects to be completed last, then the 11-mile Varina phase, which reaches the Richmond border at Rocketts Landing.

Weisbrod said that CSX still has to pull up and remove the old traintracks that run from Rocketts Landing almost all the way to Great Shiplock Park. That could happen any day, and when it does, work will begin in earnest in Richmond.

“The downtown portion should be done by spring,” Weisbrod said. “I’m pretty optimistic that that is going to happen.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Annie Bailey, a rising senior at St. Gertrude, interned with us at RichmondOutside.com this summer. She had a blast exploring the area and working behind the scenes for the site. This is her final piece before school starts up again this week!

Although most associate the word “justice” with the law or a referee’s call during a sporting event, Giles Harnsberger, executive director of Groundwork RVA, believes justice has “everything to do with access and health.”

Volunteers with Groundwork RVA help clear a path through vine-choked woods. Credit: Groundwork RVA

Harnsberger, a Richmond native, grew up as a “city and river kid,” often found running the trails around Forest Hill Park and the James River. After graduating from the Governors’ School, when it was at Thomas Jefferson, she left RVA and headed north to Massachusetts, attending Williams College and focusing on American studies. However, once she discovered urban planning, Harnsberger decided to change directions. The passion and longing to reconnect with the “city and river kid” she once was resurfaced with her new studies, and Harnsberger headed back south to Virginia.

Continuing her new passion for urban planning, Harnsberger enrolled in the Masters of Urban & Regional Studies program at VCU from 2008 to 2010. Upon receiving her degree, Harnsberger took a job as manager at Storefront for Community Design, a non-profit design center in RVA. There she enjoyed learning about the implementation of community ideas while working in various neighborhoods throughout Richmond. Her experience and the insight she gained working at Storefront led Harnsberger to a new challenge.

When Groundwork’s executive director position became available last fall Harnsberger jumped at the chance. “The opportunity came as a perfect job for my values and things I am passionate about,” she said.

Groundwork RVA, a non-profit franchise of the national Groundwork USA organization, launched in 2013 after Richmond bike enthusiasts and community development workers realized that a nonprofit could help leverage resources in the area. Groundwork RVA is eligible for Environmental Protection Agency and National Park Service grants that will be put to use improving the city. Groundwork chose to make it their mission to “foster Richmond neighborhoods and awaken their potential,” explained Harnsberger.

Together Harnsberger and Bray Wilkins, the organization’s Green Team leader, make up a staff of two, a number that they hope will reach five in the next couple of years. Groundwork also has a board of directors, a group of 21 people ranging from lawyers to city government members who are constantly brainstorming new project ideas.

A Groundwork RVA volunteer surveys the trail. Credit: Groundwork RVA

With a small staff, volunteers are fundamental to Groundwork RVA’s projects and success. The non-profit works regularly with Richmond Community and Armstrong High School students who “are very aware of things that need to be better” and always give hope to Harnsberger, who finds it “rewarding” to work with volunteers.

When asked what project she was most excited about, Harnsberger laughed. “That is such a hard question,” she said, adding that Groundwork focuses on five different kinds of work — cleanups, education, planning/facilitation, crime prevention through environmental design, and trail building.

Harnsberger explained that right now Groundwork RVA is working on three different trails in underserved neighborhoods: Eastview Trail and Gateway, Cannon Creek ravine trail, and Reedy Creek Greenway. These trails will connect communities to each other as well as to parks and waterways, transforming abandoned spaces into something productive.

Because of her avid enthusiasm and passion for everything Groundwork does, Harnsberger couldn’t just mention one project. She also noted Groundwork’s proposed plan to complete 15 murals and 15 gardens across the city.

She added that any upcoming frustrations she may face are really just “challenges” and eagerly anticipates what is next for Groundwork RVA, an organization that “is not tied to any corporation and therefore (has) the power to make anything happen.”

Bike Walk RVA (a branch of the Sports Backers) is launching the Bike Walk RVA Academy this fall, which is designed to recruit, train, and grow the number of people in Richmond who are effective spokespeople for safe and comfortable walking and biking infrastructure.

The Sports Backers ‘Bike Walk RVA Academy’ will train community members to advocate for new bikeways and safer streets.

The Bike Walk RVA Academy will leverage the momentum built from the upcoming UCI Road Cycling World Championships, Bike Walk RVA’s ongoing Connect RVA campaign, the development of the City’s first Bicycle Master Plan, and additional funding allocated for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the City of Richmond’s 2014/2015 capital budget.

“There are already a lot of strong voices out there for safe streets and new bikeways,” said Max Hepp-Buchanan, Director of Bike Walk RVA for the Sports Backers. “We simply want to offer them the tools we think are needed to help make our shared vision of a safe, comfortable, and connected region a reality.”

This spring, Richmond City Council and the Mayor’s office passed a City budget that includes $4.5 million to build new bike lanes on Richmond’s streets as well as bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure along the riverfront. The City is also finalizing its first Bicycle Master Plan, which plots out a full network of lanes and paved trails to be built in the coming years.

“Now that we have some real funding and a city-wide plan to start building a network of bikeways and paved trails, we need effective community advocates on the ground making sure these new projects are designed with people age 8 to 80 in mind,” explained Hepp-Buchanan. “You shouldn’t have to be strong and fearless to ride a bike or walk to places you need to go on a regular basis.”

What Franklin St. would look like with a road diet and bike lanes. Credit: Marc Kaplan/Sports Backers

Beginning on October 1, 2014, The Bike Walk RVA Academy will meet once a week through October and November, finishing with a graduation ceremony in December. Though the program is free, entry into the program is competitive and Bike Walk RVA is now accepting applications through September 4.

People of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities are encouraged to apply. Click here to find the full workshop schedule and online application.

Pedestrians enjoy the Roanoke River Greenway, which is over 5 miles long. Credit: Max Hepp-Buchanan

It’s amazing what a 10-foot-wide ribbon of asphalt can do to transform a region. Paved multi-use trails have completely altered the transportation and recreation landscape in cities like Boulder, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. For me, those are the first places that come to mind when thinking about great cities for bicycling on paved trails, but what about Virginia Beach? Or Roanoke?

Or Chesterfield County?

Maybe Chesterfield County is not quite there yet, but they are thinking ahead. A team of county staff are now in the process of developing the county’s new Bikeways & Trails Plan, which will map the future of paved trails and on-street bikeways in the Chesterfield. And they are looking to local leaders like Virginia Beach and the Roanoke region for guidance by touring those locations and meeting with their planners.

I have been fortunate enough to join the Chesterfield County team on their study trips this spring and summer, and I’ve learned a lot about how a well-placed trail, built at the right kind of roadway or property development can make all the difference in how people get around by walking or biking.

Our most recent trip was to the Roanoke area just last week. Roanoke Valley Greenways started planning for multi-use trails back in the mid-1990s, so they are already 20 years ahead of Chesterfield County. Regionally, they boast about 25 miles of greenways and over 80 miles of bike lanes and signed routes. And like many jurisdictions, they started with the low-hanging fruit: the first seven years of trail construction in the Roanoke Valley was focused within parks, along sewer lines, and other existing public rights of way. Then they had to start acquiring new land, which makes things more difficult and expensive.

The Roanoke region has been building greenways for over 20 years. Credit: Max Hepp-Buchanan

But they’ve come a long way in a relatively short amount of time and take a lot of pride in their centerpieces, such as the Lick Run Greenway, which runs from Valley View Mall past an elementary school, through a park, and right into downtown Roanoke. It’s only 3.5 miles long right now, but it does a great job connecting major destinations in an urban environment.

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission has produced a very useful Bike, Hike, & Bus Map that incorporates bus timetables, the dirt trail network and trailheads, and paved and on- and off-street bikeways. This all-in-one alternative transportation map does wonders to maximize the walking and biking enthusiast’s outdoor experience in the Roanoke Valley region (order yours for free here).

While Greater Richmond doesn’t yet have a map-worthy regional network – with all the work that the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County are doing to become more walking- and biking-friendly – one but can’t help think the future of new greenways in our region is bright.

Bike Walk RVA announced this morning the launch of Connect RVA, a multi-year, regional campaign to make Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, and Hanover better places to walk and bike for everyday activities. Connect RVA is gaining traction in the city of Richmond and has recently become an official legacy project of the Richmond 2015 UCI Road World Championships.

The goal of Connect RVA is to help produce more of this in Richmond.

“The Connect RVA project is a perfect example of the kind of legacy that we had hoped would emerge as a result of hosting the World Championships and a benefit for the entire community for years to come,” said Tim Miller, COO of Richmond 2015, in a press release.

In the City of Richmond, Connect RVA is a targeted effort to build 20+ miles of new family-friendly bikeways – protected and buffered bike lanes through the heart of downtown, safe river crossings, paved trails, and comfortable connections to and through surrounding neighborhoods – by September of 2015, in time for the UCI Road World Championships. This effort will require dedicated funding at the local and federal level, as well as close coordination with the City of Richmond.

“We are pleased to be working closely with our local leaders to ensure that we show off a bike-friendly region to the rest of the world in 2015, and to create a network of bikeways that allow Richmond area residents to get where they need to go without requiring the use of a car – whether that’s to school, work, church, or the grocery store,” said Jon Lugbill, Executive Director of the Sports Backers, which runs Bike Walk RVA.

To further celebrate May as Bike Month, Bike Walk RVA is coordinating a month of grassroots, community bike events. Bike Walk RVA Director Max Hepp-Buchanan wrote a piece for RichmondOutside about those events. Click here to find it and a schedule.

“We wanted to do something unique for our region this year, and at the same time make sure our Bike Month was community-driven and inclusive,” said Hepp-Buchanan. “So, we pulled together our most active community volunteers and starting putting small-scale but fun events on the calendar, and came up with a packed month of activities for everyone to enjoy.”

On May 10, the ninth Cap2Cap will go off, with bicyclists in Richmond and Williamsburg riding 100, 50 and 25 miles (and a family ride of 15 miles) to support the Virginia Capital Trail. And if history is any guide, the 9th Cap2Cap will be bigger than the 8th.

“The ride has grown every year,” said Beth Weisbrod, Executive Director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, the Cap2Cap organizer. “We’ve averaged around 10 percent growth…Last year we had a record 2,500 riders…and I think we’re going to end up growing yet again.”

It’s not just riders, she added, “Our sponsorships have grown, too, which I think is a big indicator of the reputation of the ride because a lot of people want to be involved with it.”

The Cap2Cap is the foundation’s biggest fundraiser, netting $140,000 last year, and it also serves to showcase the parts of Virginia that the still-under-construction Capital Trail will traverse. Riders who start the century ride in Richmond at Rocketts Landing will head east and ride to Williamsburg’s Chickahominy Riverfront Park before turning around. Williamsburg 100-milers will do the opposite ride. The shorter rides will stay closer to their respective start lines.

Weisbrod said she’s heartened that the returning rider/new rider split is currently about 50/50. People want to come back because they’ve enjoyed the experience — the ride, the rest stops, the afterparty — and new people hear about that and want to give it a try.

“People that do running races are sometimes hesitant to commit to a bike ride,” she said. “Maybe the numbers seem bigger, so where someone can visualize what it’s like to run a 10K, the idea of riding 25-miles on their bike is scary.

The Cap2Cap has become a popular spring bike ride — even with kids. Credit: Virginia Capital Trail

“It’s just a different kind of challenge to people who might not have done it before. But when you break it down and you say, well, you need to go at least 8 or 9 mph to stay upright, 25 miles is not that hard. That’s a two-and-a-half-hour effort with a rest stop in the middle of it. That doesn’t sound so scary.”

Yesterday, the Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition — an new organization made up of 50+ businesses and organizations that support building a Richmond region that is bikeable for everyone — sent the below letter to Richmond City Council. In it they ask the body to allocate $3 million in the FY 2015 budget for new on-street bikeways, plus $3.5 million to ensure the completion of the Brown’s Island Dam Walk. City Council action on the mayor’s proposed budget is due by the end of May.

Click here to follow the debate over funding the Brown’s Island Dam Walk and here for info on the mayor’s lack of budget support for bike infrastructure.

The Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition also has a page where individuals can write City Council and join with them in asking for these funding allocations: http://bit.ly/1gHJcmg

Dear Richmond City Council,

Recognizing that we are in a critical budget window, the Greater Richmond
Bicycle Coalition urges you to dedicate significant city funding to a
network of bike infrastructure that can connect residents across the city to
wherever they want to go: work, school, shops, parks, and more. This
includes safe and convenient crossings of the James River. Experts close to
these projects estimate needing $3 million dollars to complete a network of
20-miles of bikeways and $3.5 million to build the Brown’s Island Dam Walk.
Please dedicate city funding to pay for these projects without relying on
federal grants, which cannot be guaranteed. Additionally, the window before
2015’s UCI Road Cycling World Championships is closing, and these projects
must start being designed and implemented immediately if we are going to
have anything new on the ground before several hundred thousand visitors
come to Richmond. There are only two paving schedules between now and then.

The Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition is a new organization formed to unify
the long-standing, but often disconnected voices in the cycling community.
Supplementing current riders, research suggests that as many as 60% of
non-cyclists would ride more with more and better bike infrastructure, too.
Our coalition is composed of over 50 bike advocacy organizations and
businesses representing all nine council districts, as well as each of the
counties in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area. Our collective reach
is over 100,000 people. And our focus is to build the right infrastructure
for cyclists and those not yet riding to make transportation, recreation,
and healthy activity by bike safe, inviting, and convenient for those of all
ages and abilities.

Studies abound showing bike infrastructure to be a sound investment,
increasing retail sales, property values and tax revenues by up to 70%. A
network that connects the city is a high-return, low-cost investment that
will increase quality of life for all Richmonders, create a more welcoming
and energetic business environment, and draw new people to the city to live
and spend money. Let’s build a city where talented professionals will
relocate to live, work, and play that also serves the needs and demands of
current residents.

We hope you agree that now is the moment to commit to something great for
everyone in our city. A representative of the coalition will be reaching out
to you to meet to discuss the need for bike infrastructure and why now is
the critical moment for the City to allocate the funds to build it.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and please let us know if we can
work together to make these projects a reality.

Sincerely,

Greg Rollins, President
Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition, www.rvabike.org
100 Avenue of Champions, Suite 300
Richmond, Virginia 23230
info@rvabike.org
804.740.7914