Remake Dale City: How new signs, bus stops could help create a sense of place

A plan for a reimagined Dale City calls for neighborhoods that are friendly to pedestrians, bus riders, and drivers.

These new neighborhoods must have better crosswalks so people can easily cross Dale City’s main thoroughfare Dale Boulevard. And while there’s already commuter and local bus service along the corridor, a plan calls for even more transit service along Dale Boulevard.

The expanded service could be more OmniRide commuter buses and OmniLink local buses, or a jitney, or shared taxi service that would run in the corridor.

The plan also calls for increasing the frequency of buses at the commuter lot behind Center Plaza Giant, adding special HOV / turn lanes on Dale Boulevard east of Benita Fitzgerald Drive, and encouraging even more carpooling, or “slugging,” on the I-95 EZ-Pass Express Lanes.

There’s also call to make bus stops in Dale City look more appealing. City planners from the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assesment Team (SDAT for short) who came to Dale City last week to make their recommendations provided some examples of bus shelters that have worked in other places around the U.S.
Would they work in Dale City? You decide.

The SDAT team also recommended better lighting at bus stops. They also called for more pedestrian benches, and distinctive lighting fixtures throughout the corridor — especially in the envisioned downtown areas near Minnville Road and Mapledale Avenue.

Planners also called for more distinctive signs that would denote specific neighborhoods in the community like these: