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This story was originally published at 9:04 p.m. on Saturday, May 16. It was updated on Sunday and Monday. Details on updates can be found at the end of the story.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -Alexandria's City Council voted 4-3 just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday to uphold the Traffic and Parking Board's February approval of protected bike lanes and parking removal along Braddock Road, ending more than 10 hours of staff presentation, public comment, and deliberation on one of the most contested transportation decisions of the council's year.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley, and Council Members Canek Aguirre and Sandy Marks voted in favor. Council Members Jacinta Greene, John Taylor Chapman, and Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi voted against.
The council attached several modifications to the project in Segment 3, which runs between Russell Road and Mount Vernon Avenue. The approved motion retains parking on the north side of Braddock Road for the block between Hancock and Luray, in front of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, preserving approximately 10 standard parking spaces and one accessible space identified by city staff. It directs staff to work with the church to provide a total of two ADA-accessible spaces in the final design. It requires the completion of sidewalks along Luray and Hancock, and, to the extent feasible, adds or upgrades crosswalks at the intersections of Braddock with Hancock, West Luray, Little, and Ramsey. On the block where parking is preserved in front of Good Shepherd, the bike lanes will be unprotected rather than the protected lanes the Traffic and Parking Board's Feb. 24 plan had called for. Complete Streets Program Manager Alexandria Carroll told the council during deliberation that the design accommodates the retained parking but cannot maintain the protected configuration on that block. Bike lanes elsewhere along the corridor remain as configured in the board-approved plan.
Two substitute motions offered during deliberation were rejected before the final vote. The first, offered by Council Member John Taylor Chapman and seconded by Council Member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi, would have preserved parking on the north side of Braddock Road through Segment 3 and added sidewalks and crosswalks on Luray and Hancock; it failed after Elnoubi declined to support it on the roll call. The second, offered by Elnoubi and seconded by Chapman, would have preserved parking on both sides of Braddock Road through Segment 3, retained left-turn lanes at the Commonwealth Avenue intersection, and replaced protected bike lanes in Segment 3 with shared lane markings and paint-only treatments. It also failed.
Gaskins, before calling for the final vote, said she was looking for an approach that brought back some level of parking while maintaining the pedestrian and bike improvements the board had endorsed. "What worries me about us sort of making changes that we have not studied or fully looked at is I also don't want to make people's lives more confusing or add something that might be worse than what we're already looking at," she said.
The project now moves to detailed design, with construction anticipated in 2028.
More than bike lanes
The Braddock Road Corridor Improvements Project is broader than the bike-lane debate that has dominated public discussion. The plan reduces Braddock Road from two lanes to one in each direction between Mount Vernon Avenue and West Street, consolidates turn and through lanes at the intersections of Braddock Road with Russell Road, Commonwealth Avenue, and Mount Vernon Avenue, shortens pedestrian crossing distances at major intersections with new median refuges and protected crossings, adjusts signal timing intended to maintain or improve traffic flow, and adds Emergency Vehicle Pre-emption at the West Street intersection. On-street parking is removed on Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road, with limited exceptions including the preserved block in front of Good Shepherd and shorter retained sections on East Braddock Road, and on Commonwealth Avenue between Braddock Road and Spring Street.
The bike lane treatment varies along the corridor. A two-way protected bike lane runs near the Braddock Road Metro station in Segment 1. Segment 2, between Commonwealth Avenue and Mount Vernon Avenue, is the longest segment of the corridor and has unprotected bike lanes along its full length because, according to city staff, the roadway is not wide enough to accommodate protected lanes within the existing right-of-way. In Segment 3, the bike lanes are protected for most of the segment but unprotected on the block in front of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, where parking has been preserved. City staff have framed the project as a safety redesign of a corridor where traffic-speed data presented at the February board hearing showed 85th-percentile speeds exceeded the posted 25 mph limit across the entire stretch.
Public comment ran more than six hours
Discussion of the Braddock Road appeal began just after 10 a.m. Saturday with staff presentations and council questions, paused for a lunch break from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m., and turned to public comment around 2 p.m. The comment period ran until shortly after 8 p.m., followed by council deliberation before the vote.
Of the 105 residents who signed up to address the council, 88 spoke before the comment period closed. Approximately 48 spoke in favor of the project and 28 opposed, with the remainder offering mixed or neutral testimony — a roughly two-thirds-to-one-third margin that exceeded the 37-29 split at the six-hour Traffic and Parking Board hearing in February that produced the underlying 6-0 vote. Saturday's hearing drew roughly a third more speakers than the February board hearing, and the pro-project share of testimony grew with the audience.
The room's geography was more divided than the topline numbers suggest. Among speakers who volunteered a home address on Braddock Road itself, opposition outnumbered support, with multiple residents on both the East and West Braddock segments speaking against the project. The handful of pro-project speakers who said they live on the corridor were outnumbered by corridor residents on the opposition side. Most pro-project testimony came from broader Del Ray and Rosemont residents, Alexandria-wide cyclists, and several speakers who identified themselves as living adjacent to but not on the corridor.
Appeal and the path to Saturday's vote
The appeal had been filed on March 6 by a coalition that included Save Braddock Road, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, and Community Praise Church, Seventh-day Adventist, with 53 signatures — 28 more than the 25 required under city code to trigger a Council review. Appellants asked the council to overturn the board's 6-0 vote, arguing that the removal of parking would harm access to homes and houses of worship and that the redesign would worsen congestion at the corridor's key intersections. City staff had recommended that the council uphold the board's decision.
The Good Shepherd parking preservation approved Saturday responds to accessibility concerns the church raised throughout the appeal process. Pastor Kate Costa testified at the February board hearing that parking access was essential for INOVA blood drives and a monthly meal program serving the congregation.
Reaction
Ken Notis, chair of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, praised the council's vote in a statement Sunday morning. "We applaud the decision of the majority of City Council to prioritize safety for everyone on Braddock Rd," Notis said. "Our positive, fact-based campaign expanded our coalition of supporters and showed how our community can come together. We cannot wait to ride and walk along a better Braddock Rd in 2028."
"We applaud the decision of the majority of City Council to prioritize safety for everyone on Braddock Rd. Our positive, fact-based campaign expanded our coalition of supporters and showed how our community can come together. We cannot wait to ride and walk along a better Braddock Rd in 2028". - Ken Notis
Council Member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi, one of the three no votes, said in a statement Sunday that his opposition rested on what he described as gaps in the city's safety and traffic case for the project. Elnoubi said the corridor is not on Alexandria's High Injury Network, that the two segments in dispute had no recorded pedestrian or cyclist crashes during the city's 2019-2023 study window, and that the Segment 2 design does not meet the "All Ages and Abilities" standard the project has been framed under. He also questioned the traffic study underpinning the city's claim of "minimal delay," noting that the data was based on counts taken on a single weekday in January 2025, before federal workers returned to in-person work, and was not updated as traffic on the corridor increased over the past year. "The impact on a 500-member church — CPC — and on neighbors, including residents with disabilities and seniors, doesn't outweigh the marginal safety benefits," Elnoubi said. He added that he had offered a substitute motion preserving some parking and turn lanes at the most disputed intersections, which was rejected before the version that passed. "The version that ultimately passed kept a handful of spaces in front of one church and left the rest of the concerns unaddressed," he said.
“The corridor isn’t on the city’s High Injury Network. The two segments in dispute had no pedestrian or cyclist crashes in the study window. The Segment 2 design doesn’t meet the All Ages and Abilities standard the project is being sold under. The traffic study supporting the claim of ‘minimal delay’ is based on counts taken on a single weekday in January 2025, before federal workers returned to in-person work — and was never checked against the heavier traffic many residents have noticed on this corridor over the past year. The impact on a 500-member church - CPC and on neighbors — including residents with disabilities and seniors — doesn’t outweigh the marginal safety benefits. I offered a substitute motion that would have preserved some parking and turn lanes at the most disputed intersections. It was rejected. The version that ultimately passed kept a handful of spaces in front of one church and left the rest of the concerns unaddressed.” ~ Councilman Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi
City staff and the project's supporters have argued that the safety case for the disputed segments rests not on the High Injury Network or recent crash counts but on a Safe System approach, the VDOT designation of the corridor as a statewide priority for pedestrian and bicycle access, a 2023 Safe Routes to School audit at George Washington Middle School, speed data showing 85th-percentile speeds exceed the posted 25 mph limit across all three segments, the 2015 pedestrian fatality at Braddock and Commonwealth, an April 2026 pedestrian crash at Mount Vernon and East Braddock, and federal AASHTO guidance that streets with few crashes may reflect suppressed bicycle and pedestrian demand rather than actual safety. During Saturday's deliberation, Carroll told the council that the city had conducted multiple site visits during Community Praise Church services and that the church's congregants park primarily on Russell Road, Nelson Avenue, and West Alexandria Avenue, not on Braddock Road. Carroll also told the council that three pedestrian crashes and one bicycle crash have occurred on the corridor since the project's design work began, in addition to the 17 crashes documented in the 2019-2023 study window.
The Alexandria Brief has reached out to the city for reaction and more information on Elnoubi's statement.
Former Council Member Frank Fannon, who lost the April 21 special election to Marks, 53.52 percent to 29.22 percent, after running explicitly against the Braddock Road project, criticized the council's vote in a statement Sunday afternoon. "Saturday's 4-3 vote further confirmed that the Alexandria City Council will continue pushing a progressive urbanist agenda despite the concerns voiced by many of its constituents," Fannon said. He cited a Change.org petition, public comment, and hearing attendance as evidence of opposition to the project, and said, "The role of local government should be to stand up for its citizens and communities — not prioritize ideological policies that lack broad public support." The Save Braddock Road petition Fannon referenced had collected 1,888 signatures as of May 17; signatures are not audited for residency in Alexandria.
"Saturdays 4-3 vote further confirmed that the Alexandria City Council will continue pushing a progressive urbanist agenda despite the concerns voiced by many of its constituents. More than 1000 residents expressed opposition to the Braddock Road bike lane proposal through petitions, public comment and attendance at community hearings, yet the project was still approved. It is unfortunate that local neighborhoods, homeowners and churches will now be impacted by what many residents see as a needless and unpopular decision. The role of local government should be to stand up for its citizens and communities- not prioritize ideological policies that lack broad public support". - Frank Fannon
The Alexandria Brief has requested comment from those who filed the appeal/opponents and will update this story with any response. Opponents did not respond to multiple Brief requests for comment during the appeal period earlier this spring.
What comes next
With the appeal denied, city staff will proceed with detailed design work on the Braddock Road Corridor Improvements Project into 2027. Construction is expected to begin in 2028. The project will add bike lanes — protected in most stretches, unprotected in others — connecting the Potomac Yard Trail, the Metro Linear Trail, the Braddock Road Metro Station, and Commonwealth Avenue.
The full audio and video recording of Saturday's hearing is available on the city's Granicus archive at alexandria.granicus.com.
The Alexandria Brief has requested the exact text of the approved motion, including the two modifications from the Mayor and the city's communications office.
Updates
This story was updated on Monday, May 18, at 11 a.m. with clarifications to the description of bike-lane protection along the corridor. An earlier version of this story described the bike-lane configuration as unchanged from the Traffic and Parking Board's Feb. 24 plan; the council's Saturday vote changed the bike lane on the block in front of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church from protected to unprotected. The earlier version also described "shorter unprotected segments where parking is preserved"; Segment 2, the longest segment of the corridor, is unprotected along its full length under the board-approved plan.
Earlier Monday, the story was updated with details of two substitute motions and additional remarks from city staff and council members; the parking-related modification was previously described as a "parking bay," but the approved motion preserves approximately 11 on-street parking spaces in front of Good Shepherd on the block between Hancock and Luray.
An earlier Sunday update included public comment details, reactions from project supporters, and statements received on Sunday from Council Member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi and former Council Member/candidate Frank Fannon.
Original breaking post published on Saturday, May 16, at 9:04 p.m.
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Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
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