Lakeside residents divided on proposed bike lanes and traffic-slowing measures

Henrico County has big plans for improving the walkability and bikeability of the county, including proposed bike lanes and trails for the Lakeside area.

But not all Lakeside residents are aligned on the idea of trading car lanes for bike lanes that some argue are “hardly used” by riders and left in poor shape. Others expressed safety concerns for riders using bike lanes that do not yet connect to other bikeable routes.

At an Aug. 10 community meeting, county planners introduced several new projects impacting the Lakeside area over the next five years, including a roundabout and sidewalks on Lakeside Avenue, bike lanes on Hilliard Road, sidewalks on Brook Road, and shared-use paths that will run through the area as a part of the greater Fall Line Trail.

These projects are just one piece in a broader plan to create a vast network of biking and walking routes across Henrico to shift the car-centric county towards alternative transportation. The county’s 2045 Bike Plan, approved within the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, recommends miles of new bike lanes, routes, and shared-use trails that would connect the few spots in the county with already existing bike infrastructure.

For Andy Clark, a frequent cyclist who lives just southwest of Lakeside in Libbie Mill, more bike infrastructure in Lakeside would not only make his rides much safer, he also said it would benefit the entire neighborhood by connecting more areas of the county to the corridor.

“It is beyond time to make life safe in the county for people on foot and on bike and on transit,” he said. “We should be doing everything we can do to provide choice for people in the neighborhood, for people to come and enjoy the amazing resources, the shops, the retail, everything on Lakeside. And we just won’t do it if we only do it for people in cars.”

But other residents expressed concerns about how adding bike lanes that only exist in small, disconnected segments – lacking existing connected bike infrastructure countywide – will prove dangerous for riders.

“My concern with bike lanes is they’re so inconsistent across [Richmond] City and Henrico County,” said Bruce Woodsman, a longtime Lakeside business owner and resident. “You go down Brook Road and there’s parking, then there’s a bike lane, then it ends at the next intersection. It’s unsafe for the bicyclists. And car drivers are not paying attention that much.”

Henrico County has proposed $5.7 million in bike and pedestrian improvements along a small stretch of Lakeside Avenue near its intersection with Brook Road, including a five-foot sidewalk on one roadside, a 10-foot shared-use trail on the other side, an on-street parking lane, and a small roundabout on the road’s intersection with Landsworth Avenue.

Another $60.6 million is set aside for separate projects impacting other areas near Lakeside: sidewalk and pedestrian crossing improvements to Brook Road, the replacement of the Lakeside Avenue bridge, and construction of segments of the Fall Line Trail along Brook Road, Hilliard Road, and Villa Park Drive.

Pedestrian improvement projects impacting the Lakeside area:

• Sections of the Fall Line Trail (multi-use 12-foot pedestrian and bike trail) will include:
– Lakeside Community Trail from Spring Park to Hilliard Road – $11.8 million – estimated construction from 2026-2028;
– Villa Park Trail from Villa Park Drive and East Parham Road – $9 million – estimated construction from 2027-2028;
– Brook/Hilliard Road Trail from the Belmont Recreation Center to the intersection of Brook Road and Lakeside Avenue – $6.8 million – estimated construction from 2026-2028

• Lakeside Avenue bridge replacement crossing over North Run Creek – $9 million – estimated construction from 2026-2027

• Lakeside Avenue bike and pedestrian improvements from Brook Road to Fairway Avenue – $5.7 million – estimated construction from 2029-2031

• Brook Road improvements from Villa Park Drive to Hilliard Road – $24 million – estimated construction from 2029-2031

Other projects that are proposed within the 2045 Henrico Bike Plan include a bike lane on Hilliard Road (which would connect to the Fall Line Trail) and signed bike routes along Maplewood Road, Galaxie Road, Woodrow Terrace, and Club Road. Proposed bike lanes on Lakeside Avenue, which were included in a redesign plan for the corridor that was ultimately put on hold by the Board of Supervisors, will be “studied” by the county.

But the Fall Line Trail, which will eventually connect from Ashland to Petersburg, and Henrico’s planned bike path network are a long ways out from being completed, with residents urging the county to prioritize the bike trails to ensure that bikers are not forced to take unsafe routes on the roads.

“I hope we get it done as soon as possible,” said Lakeside resident Andrew Mann, who is also the past president of the Richmond Bicycle Association. “I just want to get the [Fall Line] Trail fixed so I can ride my bike from Lakeside out to Ashland without being out on the road.”

But county leaders said that building bike connectivity has to come in separate phases due to funding and resource constraints.

Other residents said they worried that adding more bike lanes by removing car travel lanes and other traffic-slowing features will increase traffic congestion in the area. Some said that the current bike lanes in Lakeside along Dumbarton Road are used very infrequently by riders and are not well-maintained, arguing that the push for bike lanes comes from just a small group of cyclists and bike advocates.

“I go up and down Dumbarton Road and rarely, if ever, see anybody on the bike lanes,” said Barbara, a nearby resident. “And if you come from downtown on Brook Road, it’s a nightmare of traffic because of the bicycle lanes that are there. So I’m all for improvements and walking areas, but it seems to me that it’s a small group that is pushing the bike lanes and kind of rolling over everybody else.”

“We’re standing here tonight looking at the expensive, unneeded plans to shrink Lakeside Avenue for a bike trail, which is ambivalent at best,” said another resident. “We know from Dumbarton Road that these lane reductions do nothing but create gridlock. Drivers and local businesses are affected by this.”

Henrico County is tracking the number of people using bike lanes in the county, said Henrico’s Assistant Director of the Transportation Development Division Sarah Briggs, and has recently brought on a street sweeper that will tend to bike lanes.

But other residents and cyclists said that the proposed bike lanes and paths included in the 2045 Bike Plan “can’t happen soon enough.” The Lakeside area particularly lacks connected biking and walking infrastructure, making it unsafe for residents who want to ride their bikes, said Clark.

“I currently use [the bike lanes on] Dumbarton. One enduring curse of being on a bike is that people just don’t see you, but I can assure you, we’re out there,” he said. “And I would like to be able to safely get to the Fall Line Trail that everyone seems to want, but doesn’t seem to want people to be able to get to very safely.”

“If you’re talking about people not utilizing these bike lanes, it is because it’s inconsistent, and that improves through projects like this and through investing in people that don’t have cars like myself,” said Angelica, another Lakeside resident. “You have to build usability first, and that comes in phases.”

While the Lakeside Avenue bridge replacement is expected to be completed next year, nearby segments of the Fall Line Trail will likely open in 2028 and improvements to Lakeside Avenue and Brook Road will not be completed until 2031.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.