By Cody Mello-Klein | cmelloklein@alextimes.com

City Council approved an amendment to the Alexandria Transportation Master Plan during Saturday’s public hearing that aimed to expand the city’s focus on alternative modes of transit while addressing concerns such as congestion, accessibility and equity.

Despite mild pushback from Councilor Del Pepper, the amended plan was approved by a unanimous 7-0 vote.

Now called the Alexandria Mobility Plan, it is the first comprehensive update of the city-wide approach to transportation since 2008. According to Jennifer Slesinger, a city planner in the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, the aim of the plan is to make Alexandria’s transportation network more accessible, connected, convenient, equitable, safe and sustainable.

In order to do that, Slesinger said residents need to have choices other than cars when it comes to how they navigate the city, from public transit such as buses to biking and walking.

“Choices are an integral part of this plan. We really want to provide more and better choices for Alexandrians, so they can decide what’s best for them and not having a default option based off only having one thing that’s a reasonable option,” Slesinger said.

The plan involves implementing the DASH bus 2030 network, creating mobility hubs in strategic locations “to help with those first, last-mile challenges” and even expanding ferry and water transportation options for residents, particularly commuters.

Slesinger pointed out that expanding transportation options will not help the city unless those options are made accessible and available to all residents. According to Slesinger, staff has evaluated fare policies and structures and the potential for adding even more frequent bus service, particularly in the West End. DASH rolled out its revised and expanded network in September, removing fares and providing more frequent service on specific high-use routes.

“We also want to create parking policies to support housing affordability and to ensure a greater access for persons with limited mobility,” Slesinger said. “We have a curbside management framework that seeks to make sure that the curb is available for those who need it the most.”

When tackling the issue of congestion on Alexandria’s streets, Slesinger said staff adapted the plan to both create more efficiencies on the road while attempting to reduce the number of cars on the road by offering more transit options.

“One of the main drivers of improving traffic flow on roadways is to use smart and adaptive signal technology and expand that more throughout the city, but to manage congestion we also need to reduce the number of cars on the road,” Slesinger said.

Pepper raised concerns about how much the city valued the input of drivers when conducting community outreach for the revised plan. She also questioned the city’s proposed approach to congestion, arguing that technology like smart signals is not a panacea for the city’s clogged roadways.

“Not that we shouldn’t do it, I’m just saying that I haven’t seen such a great improvement anywhere that could be attributed to just technology,” Pepper said. “Certainly, having our DASH bus free is really going to make a big difference, particularly as it catches on, but I just don’t see that there’s something out there that’s going to help the cars and their congestion.”

In response, Slesinger acknowledged that on-road technology will not solve all of the city’s congestion-related woes on its own but that it could “make our networks more efficient.”

“There’s big gaps right now without having the ability to be responsive to traffic flow, so I think there’s improvements that can definitely be made there,” Slesinger said.

Slesinger also responded to an argument raised by some residents that the city should just widen its roads.

“That tends to induce more traffic, so what you think are some of the … easier solutions to congestion can end up causing additional traffic and being a greater problem,” Slesinger said.

Councilor John Chapman raised the concept of shared parking between businesses, which would, for example, allow a business that operates until 5 p.m. to share parking with a neighboring restaurant that starts to hit busy hours after 5 p.m. Although the plan was aimed at stating priorities and not specific solutions, Chapman encouraged staff to work on determining what a potential shared parking policy could look like.

“We all do want to see that happen. I think we do have to crystallize what that piece is that makes that actually happen,” Chapman said. “… I’m not prescribing anything specific, but I’m saying we have the opportunity, we know the problem is there.”

Mayor Justin Wilson agreed with Chapman’s comments and emphasized that any such program would involve a holistic approach to policy.

“In a lot of cases, it’s going to take us pulling back on a lot of regulation that we’ve had in place for a long time in order to make that happen, and that’s the tricky part because it requires us to kind of say, ‘Ok, we can take hands off on this and let it happen’ as opposed to trying to over-prescribe what we’re trying to do,” Wilson said.