On May 19, 2026, Active Prince William Co-Chair Allen Muchnick delivered the following statement at the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s (CTB’s) Spring Pre-Allocation Hearing for Northern Virginia (NoVA).

He noted that at the recent rates at which planned active transportation facilities are implemented in NoVA (e.g., 22.4 miles were added in 2025), it will take hundreds of years to establish NoVA’s 5,000 miles of already planned but unfunded active transportation facilities, and he expressed support for the several local active mobility projects that the CTB is presently considering for funding under VDOT’s Transportation Alternatives and Revenue Sharing programs.

To cost-effectively retrofit more active transportation facilities, he asked that VDOT better enable roadway reconfiguration opportunities during scheduled pavement resurfacing throughout urbanized Virginia as well as expand VDOT’s limited program of roadway-reconfiguration  technical assistance.

He further noted that most of US Bicycle Route 1 within Prince William County is hostile for bicycling and in dire need of bike-lane or paved-shoulder retrofits.

Finally, he urged VDOT to establish policies, procedures, and budgets to adequately and proactively maintain its existing active mobility assets, especially VDOT’s extensive sidepaths and sidewalks throughout NoVA.

Commonwealth Transportation Board Pre-Allocation Public Hearing for the Northern Virginia District, May 19, 2026

Statement of Allen Muchnick, Board Member

Virginia Bicycling Federation and Active Prince William 

Good evening.  I’m Allen Muchnick, a Manassas resident and active mobility advocate on the boards of the Virginia Bicycling Federation and Active Prince William.

We appreciate the recent release of VDOT’s Statewide Multiuse Trails Plan and that VDOT is now updating its outdated Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Policy Plans.

VDOT has identified 5,000 miles of locally planned but currently unfunded active transportation facilities throughout the NoVA District with an estimated year-2022 construction cost of roughly 14 billion dollars if implemented as standalone projects.  In that regard, we support the transportation alternatives and revenue sharing projects requested by Manassas, Manassas Park, and Prince William County.

At the present rate at which active mobility facilities are created, it would take hundreds of years to complete those already planned active mobility facilities.  Meanwhile, VDOT lacks effective programs to proactively maintain its hundreds of miles of VDOT sidepaths and sidewalks in NoVA.  Our urbanized region needs better programs to more effectively expand and maintain active mobility infrastructure.

Reconfiguring excess travel-lane space on existing roads during scheduled resurfacing is the most cost-effective way to retrofit bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements.  Since 2010, Fairfax County has effectively used VDOT’s roadway reconfiguration program to improve scores of roadways and reduce speeding during scheduled resurfacing.  Unfortunately, Prince William and Loudoun Counties have been largely excluded from this program because their local transportation planners were not notified early enough of the candidate road resurfacing projects.  VDOT’s maintenance division should extend this earlier notification of repaving candidates to all Virginia counties.  Expanded VDOT technical assistance for roadway reconfiguration projects is also very much needed.

US Bicycle Route 1 through Prince William County is a prime case where retrofitted bike lanes or paved shoulders are desperately needed.  Although AASHTO and VDOT established this Maine-to-Florida bicycle touring route 44 years ago and a VDOT consultant re-evaluated the route’s alignment through NoVA more than a decade ago, most Prince William route segments are hostile for bicycling, as the County’s online Bicycle Skill Level Map and VDOT’s 2015 Bicycle Level of Service Map for the NoVA District both indicate.  We urge VDOT and the County to expeditiously fix those embarrassing and dangerous deficiencies.

Despite hundreds of miles of VDOT-owned shared-use paths and sidewalks throughout the NoVA District, VDOT still performs little maintenance and repair of such assets, except in response to reported complaints.  After construction, the pavement is left to deteriorate for decades and is fixed only after repeated complaints.  VDOT still has no annual budget or established policies and procedures to adequately and proactively assess and maintain its active mobility assets.  The Virginia Transportation Research Council might be asked to study how to best accomplish this perpetual maintenance.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

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