Walk & Bike

Bike and pedestrian connectivity are a great way to enhance quality of life and create healthy, thriving urban communities. The gains to a community are numerous and can include expanded transportation options, greater economic development opportunities, and improved health and wellness.

Third Annual Mobility Summit Celebrates Success, Launches Collective Work Plans

For the third February in a row, the Piedmont Mobility Alliance came together in Charlottesville to celebrate progress, discuss ways to broaden participation, and lay out some specific work plans for 2023.

Third Annual Piedmont Mobility Summit set for Feb. 24

Mobility Summit banner
Banner image for the 3rd Annual Piedmont Mobility Summit

At this free workshop, representatives from organizations, local businesses, agencies and passionate individuals who share a mission to promote walking, biking, running, everyday access to nature and active lifestyles will gather to identify areas of collaboration and lay out work plans.

Learn more and sign up

New Fifeville Trail Grand Opening set for November 5

New Fifeville Trail Grand Opening set for November 5

On Saturday, Oct. 1, community leaders and residents of Charlottesville will celebrate the formal opening of the new Fifeville Trail with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:15 a.m., followed by a Community Block Party from 12 – 4 p.m. The ribbon cutting will be at Tonsler Park, 500 Cherry Avenue; the block party will be at the Shops at Cherry Avenue, 814-830 Cherry Avenue.

Lessons from Loudoun: What can Albemarle County learn from Loudoun County’s Rural Roads Program?

Lessons from Loudoun: What can Albemarle County learn from Loudoun County’s Rural Roads Program?

As Albemarle takes another look at its own future⁠—and how to preserve what it has historically done well⁠—now seems like a good time for local advocates to hear from their counterparts in other localities, who have been successful in similar socio-physical landscapes.

Rivanna Bridge Update

Rendering: VBH via VDOT

Update (August 1): The MPO submitted the Bridge proposal (with the Wool Factory terminus) to VDOT this afternoon for SMARTSCALE funding. We will find out if the project is approved in January of 2023.

Read the full project background here.


As you may know, the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board voted last week to pursue VDOT SMARTSCALE funding for a pedestrian bridge connecting Pantops and Woolen Mills at the end of Market Street (the Wool Factory). Allison Wrabel wrote a good story about the vote.

Getting a pedestrian connection over the Rivanna in this area is a big win for the community, and I’m excited for the next step. Although the public survey and MPO Technical Committee both preferred the Chesapeake Street location, Market Street has powerful logic of its own and some late-breaking and not-obvious factors were decisive in the vote.

For one thing, much of the support for Chesapeake Street was contingent on the bridge being an elegant suspension bridge, which came into doubt late in the process. Many people might well have voted differently if they had known the bridge style would likely be more industrial in nature. Of course, it would have been better to know this from the beginning, but the process did work in that it brought the issue to light before the final location was selected.

What’s more, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors has a strong preference for the Market Street alignment adjacent to the Wool Factory site, which locates the bridge entirely in the County. Albemarle is stringing together a series of projects that merge economic development and community wellness in Pantops, the Old Mills Trail, the Wool Factory and Broadway. The bridge at Market Street ties them all together.

Not only is Albemarle putting forth plans, it is putting money behind them. The existing improvements at the Wool Factory are one example. Also quite interesting is the fact that the county has recently juiced several transportation projects with millions from its Transportation Leveraging Program.

That kind of local support (or Economic Development funds) could help mitigate the cost difference between the two bridge location options and be of critical importance if unforeseen contingencies arise. Although both options had strong appeal, the Policy Board (with representatives from Albemarle, Charlottesville, and VDOT) selected the one that it would best be most able to get behind and push to completion.

For all those reasons, this is a very positive outcome.

Second Active Mobility Summit Celebrates Collective Action and Launches New Initiatives

Second Active Mobility Summit Celebrates Collective Action and Launches New Initiatives

On February 28, representatives from organizations, local businesses, agencies and passionate individuals who share a mission to promote walking, biking, running, everyday access to nature and active lifestyles gathered for a free, half-day workshop to identify areas of collaboration and lay out work plans. About 30 people joined the Zoom-based meeting to check in with one another about collective work started at last year’s first virtual Mobility Active Summit.

Your input needed on planning efforts in Albemarle and Charlottesville

Your input needed on planning efforts in Albemarle and Charlottesville

Charlottesville and Albemarle are in the midst of major planning efforts, and both are thinking about their capital budgets, which is a big part of how those plans get implemented. At this time, the two localities seem to be heading in different directions when it comes to quality-of-life infrastructure.