Celianna Gunderson Responds To Questionnaire from Alexandria Families for Safe Streets and Alexandria BPAC

Earlier this campaign cycle, Alexandria Families for Safe Streets and Alexandria BPAC asked Celianna Gunderson to respond to their candidate survey. The following are Celianna’s responses.


Please describe your walking and biking experience in Alexandria.

I love walking in Alexandria, but I haven’t biked in years because with everything I have going on in my life, it is not a priority for me. My family owns bicycles, but rarely find the time to go on an adventure. We also own an e-bike that is mostly used by my HS Senior as he does not yet have a driver’s license. 

Of course, parts of Alexandria are more scenic for walking than other parts of town. I’d like for more of Alexandria sidewalks to be tree-lined. In my opinion, walking is the best exercise, and it’s something most people can do and enjoy at any age.

Do you feel safe when walking around Alexandria?

Generally, yes, but I feel the need to be more alert.  I think everyone feels the uptick in crime and local social media is full of stories about that. It began when local elected leaders got on the “defund the police” movement. Now they are backtracking.  

Also, while we have a nice network of sidewalks, some sidewalks are uneven presenting a trip hazard.  Though our brick sidewalks in Old Town look charming, one must stay alert to uneven surfaces or risk a face-plant and a lot of dental work.

What three measures do you think should be taken to improve pedestrian / bike safety?

  1. Stop the city’s plans to change 40+ street names, mostly in the West End of Alexandria. Road signage is important, even in these days of GPS, and when street signs don’t appear to have the names they should (or used to) have, we have confused and distracted drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.  
  2. Prevent unnecessary distractions that create safety hazards. Ensure that all official road markings are clear and specific to provide guidance to drivers, pedestrians, etc.  We should not have any decorative road markings (for commemorations, social causes, teams, or anything else) that would distract or confuse anyone driving or be an attractive nuisance for selfie pics by pedestrians.  
  3. Consider requiring licenses for motorized bikes and make sure police have the needed authorities to ticket them for unlawful behavior. Everyone using our roads must take personal responsibility for their behavior and follow the rules of the road. As well, we should ensure bicyclists are educated on -and using- proper road safety rules. When did we start allowing cyclists to zoom across pedestrian crossings, or not use turn signals? If bicyclists want to share the roads, they should also share tickets when they do  not obey the laws of the road.

Do you support a permanent pedestrian only street on the 200 block of King Street?

At first blush it seems like a fun idea, but I fear that it could result in favoring some King Street businesses over others.  I would want to talk to the business owners further up King Street and get their input to see if they would feel disadvantaged or if they think it would provide a bigger draw for Old Town which could be to their benefit.

I don’t want to disadvantage any local business with a local government action or an extra layer of taxes. This is why I am against the Business Improvement District (BID) taxes being discussed for businesses located in parts of Old Town.

If speed cameras with automated ticketing are allowed, do you support speed cameras on streets such as Duke St., Seminary Rd., etc.?

I might support speed cameras, but only if the posted speeds are reasonable and if there is a reasonable delta between the posted speed and the speed at which a ticket is issued. For example, a 15 mph speed limit on Duke Street is unreasonably slow and I would not support a speed camera if that were the limit. And I hate to see tickets for people going only a couple of miles over the speed limit. That’s abusive.

For Seminary Road, I think it might only be necessary to try to catch the egregious ‘speed demons’ trying to go over 40 miles per hour when the road is relatively empty.  Everyone else driving on the road is pretty reasonable.  But given the current state of affairs, it’s probably not a cost-effective idea.

If you are elected, how will you champion investments in walking and biking infrastructure in Alexandria to improve safety and encourage active transportation?

Since the question is focused on transportation, I think analysis would need to be done to determine the movement patterns of our residents to see where they live and what their regular short-distance destinations are.  Is there a macro city pattern that shows a need or opportunity?  Let’s find out if there is a problem before we spend money to try to solve it.

How much do you see the lack of a complete connected bike network as a barrier to more biking? How can we better connect to the network?

Biking is not a hobby of mine.  I’m too busy raising my kids and making a living. I would suggest the cyclists present a cost/benefit case to the city council for any requested modifications.

Share This:
Paid for and authorized by Celianna For Alexandria
Powered By VOTEGTR.com