MANASSAS — Bike racks could be coming to the Manassas Virginia Railway Express station.
Monies from the Interstate 66 E-ZPass Express Lanes’ Commuter Choice program, a total of $55,000, will be used to install bicycle shelters, 10 bike lockers and a repair station at the Manassas train station in Downtown. The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission approved the funds at its meeting Thursday night in Arlington.
The project is one of 15 the was funded by the Commuter Choice program, which is designed to enhance transit in the region to take more drivers off the road to make room for toll-paying drivers who opt to the I-66 toll lanes inside the Capital Beltway.
“This project benefits the toll payers by allowing more people to travel using VRE commuter rail service and therefore reducing congestion on I-66 inside the Beltway. It increases multi-modal connections and access to the VRE Manassas Line which is located along the I-66 corridor. This project will provide safe and convenient long-term bicycle parking facilities which will provide transportation choices for the first and last mile of train commuters,” Manassas officials state in their application for the funds.
The bike racks come as the city is set to begin work on its city-wide enhancements to bicycle network. In the works since the early 2000s, the $600,000 effort will aim to improve its network of bicycle trails that are separate from the city’s roads and walking paths. The bicycles lanes are meant to provide access to parks, as well as downtown business district.
With more biking options, the bicycle repair station that would be funded along with the bike racks might come in handy.
“A bike repair stand is similar to a car lift at a garage. It holds the bike off the ground so that it can be worked on more easily. I would expect that it would be used most often at a parking garage to repair flat tires,” stated Tom Finn, of Village Skis and Bikes in Lake Ridge.
The project and the 14 others approved Thursday night still need final approval from the Commonwealth Transportation Board in Richmond.
Some of the other projects approved by the NVTC is a $1.1 million Uber-like commuter lot shuttle service that would be operated by OmniRide in Haymarket and Gainesville, and a $134,200 effort to expand the transit agency’s popular OmniRide Metro Direct service along the Linton Hall Road corridor to the Tysons Corner Metro station.
