HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico County is investing $570 million over the next 20 years to make its roads safer and more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists, with 74 active safety improvement projects currently underway.
The county's long-term HenricoNEXT 2045 Comprehensive Plan includes 20 miles of additional sidewalks, 16 miles of shared use paths, and 75 benches, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals.
Henrico County Director of Public Works Terrell Hughes said the county has been working to make its roadways more walkable and bike-friendly. In the past five years, bike lanes in the county have increased nearly sevenfold.
"I was looking at one of the annual reports we did in 2021 and it showed that we had nine miles of bike lanes, and then last year's annual report showed that we were currently up to 60. I think we're beyond that now, so we have been very active and adding bike lanes with repaving projects or strategically going in and finding areas where we have extra pavement that we can place bike lanes," Hughes said.
Hughes said crashes are the main catalyst behind the improvements.
"Some of the data has been pretty alarming from a safety standpoint," Hughes said.
According to the state traffic record electronic data system, so far this year in Henrico there have been at least 29 crashes, including three fatalities involving pedestrians, and at least eight crashes involving cyclists, with no fatalities.
Hughes said the safety projects benefit drivers as well as pedestrians and cyclists.
"By narrowing the lanes or by reducing some of the lanes on some of the roadways, it's also making things safer for cars. So getting rid of conflict points and providing safety safer accessible routes, I think we are able to accomplish with these projects," Hughes said.
The county currently has 288 miles of sidewalk alongside more than 1,400 miles of roads.
"There's a lot of needs. We've got really about 288 miles of sidewalk, but we have over 1400 miles of roads so there's a lot of road in the county that do not have sidewalk that do not have pedestrian amenities or bike amenities," Hughes said.
The county has also put together a draft bike plan to be adopted alongside the comprehensive plan.
"We want to make our network as safe as possible we put together a draft bike plan that will be adopted with the comprehensive plan and we currently have a bike network is a little bit better so our ultimate goal is connecting," Hughes said.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here.
