Metroped Inc - P.O. Box 7244 -  Alexandria, VA - 22307-0244   - Phone  202-747-6031
Metroped is a privately funded non- profit corporation 

THE SAFE CROSSINGS CAMPAIGN

 ¿ESPANOL

Safe Crossings? es un grupo peatonal de la defensa situado en el condado Virginia de Fairfax. Proporcionamos ayuda a los ciudadanos que necesitan la ayuda que solicita a sus legisladores para las mejoras a los caminos que son inseguros para que los peatones y los bicyclists caminen a lo largo, al paseo de encendido, y a la cruz.

SAFE CROSSINGS  POSITION PAPER
Last update 1/30/03

Background

Pedestrians will continue to cross all along the Route #1 corridor between Alexandria and the Fairfax Parkway to visit, shop, catch a bus, go to the Post Office or the Governmental Center, etc under different weather conditions and at all times of the day.  Barriers, lights and crosswalks will not restrict this human activity to selected areas.  Humans will take the shortest path to cross from point “A” to point “B”, as long as they feel they can make it safely across the road.  They may walk or run to accomplish this feat.  Many times they misjudge the speed of oncoming vehicles or fail to see a vehicle and become another Route #1 injury or fatality statistic.

 Recommendation

Using the lane width modification concept instituted on Sherwood Lane to slow traffic using this road, I recommend the following actions as initial low-cost fixes, if possible, to help protect pedestrian traffic crossing Route #1 between Alexandria and the Fairfax Parkway south of Fort Belvoir.

1.  Through communications with the VDOT determine the minimum acceptable lane width for roads where the traffic limit is 45 MPH.

2.  Determine the current lane width of Route #1 from Alexandria to the Fairfax Parkway.

3.  Recommend that the VDOT reduce the Route #1 lane width to the minimum permissible for 45 MPH and use this total road width reduction value to develop a pedestrian median in the middle of the road (between yellow double lines that currently divide the north/south bound lanes).  Width of the new median would be equal to the remainder of the current road total width minus the new minimized road total width permitted by VDOT.   The pedestrian median should be marked with yellow diagonal lines and each side of the median would be bordered with the double yellow lines. The median should also contain multiple vertical, reflective  marker signs indicating  “Caution - Pedestrian Median.” 

4. Develop an estimate of the cost of repainting the Route #1 Corridor as well as the purchase and installation of the Caution signs.  Institute a heavy lobby using the media and local politicians to sell the planned recommendations to VDOT.

Conclusion

These new Pedestrian Medians along the Route #1 Corridor, when coupled with a local education effort, will provide relatively safe areas for pedestrians to pause when crossing Route #1.   They would be required to consider the traffic only in one direction while traversing to the median and be able to pause in the median before considering crossing the remaining half of the road.  This project should greatly benefit Route #1 pedestrian safety until the planned major VDOT changes to the Route #1 Corridor are funded.

Source:  Safecrossing Advocate  Bob Barry [Wed March 20, 2002]

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Additional Concerns

The 45 mph speed limit is appears excessive in the densely populated section of the subject corridor.

All sections of the highway where housing and business establishments exist, should have a median area Concrete is preferred but a painted median is better then having pedestrians stranded on a double yellow line.   

Route 1 traffic lanes should be the minimum width allowed for the speed limit.  The recovered width should be applied to the median area of the road.   Traffic calming is an expected secondary benefit.

Structured 'Traffic Islands'  (protected refuge) should be applied at all crosswalks where there is not an existing concrete median.  At many locations the installation of traffic islands would result in travel lanes with a tight curve.  Considering the high speed of traffic on Route 1, inattentive drivers may swerve at the last minute.   To mitigate this problem,  where no concrete median exists at points along Route 1,  a sufficiently long wide painted median should be emplaced.

Where possible Crosswalks at busy intersections should be offset from the intersection.  Many pedestrians find that crosswalks immediately adjacent to turning traffic are not safe.  They want the extra safety provided by crosswalks off-set from the intersection or midway between the intersection. Where the above is not possible, 'No turn on red signs when pedestrians are present' should be installed 

Large Bright "Yield to Pedestrians" should be numerously placed in the median along the length of the subject portion of Route 1.  Alternately, large illuminated signboards should be randomly placed to remind drivers of pedestrian rights.

Lighting along length of subject highway segment should be brought up to code.  Of particular concern are at intersections and areas where pedestrians are forced to walk adjacent to the road.  At a minimum lighting should be added at intersections

Where 'guard rails' exist they should be between traffic lanes and the side path

Crosswalks should be painted at all 4 road crossing at an intersection.

Countdown pedestrian indicators (aka Alexandria).

Replace dirt paths immediately adjacent to travel lanes with paved sidewalks properly offset from the travel lanes or with a barrier between road and sidewalk. 

Replace dirt paths with sidewalks built to current safety specification.

SPECIFIC LOCATIONS OF CONCERN

Note (1) Unless otherwise stated, all location information relates to intersections with U.S. Route 1 
Note (2) Safecrossing' considers many of these recommendations to be interim.  Any study efforts should be applied to long-term solutions that will correct deficiencies in these interim recommendations.   

Specific concerns

Location - Woodland Terrace Area !!NEED STREET INFO!!
Problem -  Crosswalks in all directions with not traffic signals
Solution  - (1) Traffic Islands after turn lanes (see photo)

Location - Fairfax Annex in the center of Ft Belvoir
Problem - No safe bicycle or pedestrian transit  between SR 613|Backlick Rd and Route 235|Mt Vernon Highway.  (See Photo).  

Location - Route 1 bridge crossing at Dogue Creek (between Route 235 and Coopers Road)
Problem - Bridge has no shoulders; this forces Bike/Peds into traffic lane
Solution - (1) Widen bridge (2) Non-connected multi-use trail bridge on both sides of highway

Location - Sacramento Drive and Coopers Road  (Pear Tree SC)
Problem - Pedestrian crosswalk light in vicinity focuses on Cooper Road which comprises the off-set intersection with Sacramento.  Pedestrians attempting to cross at Sacramento to reach the MacDonald Restaurant cannot see the Cooper crossing light, are confused with the existing complicated traffic light cycle and thereby are clueless as to when they can cross safely. cuts off  and strands people in the middle of 
Solution - (1) Protected Refuge and crosswalks for side streets

Location - Lukens Lane  (Engleside SC)
Problem  - Traffic from Subject Road turning South on Route 1 cuts off  and strands people in the middle of Route1

Location - Sky View Drive
Problem - High accident count ?

Location - Radford Avenue
Problem - Traffic Light visible at Radford does not pertain to that street; it pertains to the intersection of Richmond Highway with Buckman Road (South) and the Potomac Square Shopping Center.  When traffic light for Richmond Highway turns red and thus visible at Radford, the light may still be green facing North (when no vehicles are exiting the Potomac Square Shopping Center).  Pedestrians at Radford and Mike's Restaurant who think it is safe to cross on red can thereby be badly misinformed (similarly as  drivers, unfamiliar with intersection, do not realize that the traffic light does not pertain to them as they face South awaiting to turn into Radford). 

Location - South County Government Center (SCGC) (8300 Richmond Highway)
Problem -  HAS BEEN SOLVED

Location - Janna Lee Avenue
Problem  - Unsafe Crossing of wide section of Route1

Location -  north of Janna Lee Avenue - west side of Route 1 (North of Taco Lucos)
Problem - Loss of Shoulder requires ped transit at edge of  traffic  lane

Location - SR 235|Mount Vernon Hwy entering Route 1
Problem (1) - Coming toward Route 1 Peds on North side are forced by guard-rail to walk dirt path immediately adjacent to travel lane.
Problem (2) - Existing Trail is segmented and shifts sides.  Ped's avoid dangerous multiple crossings of busy SR235 

Location - Ladson Lane (by Multiplex Theaters)
Problem - Turning traffic cuts off peds in crosswalk

Location - Lockheed Blvd    Need Problem and Solution definition from Dana Kaufman

Location - North Kings Highway
Problem - Access to the Bus Stop is difficult
Solution - (1) Relocate to ???

Location -  South Kings Highway 
Problem - difficult to cross
Solution - Add a Pedestrian signal 

Location - New Post Office mid-way between Lukens Lane and Frye Road 
Problem - Significant number of pedestrians will attempt to cross Richmond Highway to reach the new Post Office, in view of the existing rental apartments and projected residential units opposite the Post Office, on the east side of Richmond Highway.

Location - Frye Road     What caused the 18 March pedestrian death ? 
Problem - No crosswalk to bus stop for the high density housing north of Frye Road.

Knights of Columbus Hall, 8592 Richmond Highway (Route 1)
Alexandria, Virginia (Fairfax County)
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 7:30- 9:00 p.m.

Ticketing Pedestrians trying to cross Route 1 Apr 2005
 Metroped Director's comments to fellow advocates

During the Safe Crossing Campaign (SC) we made a major effort to publicized the design improvement that we learned were needed to allow pedestrians to more safely cross Richmond Highway.  [There were many stories in local papers, the Wash Post and even Radio and TV coverage.]

A top SC recommendation was the need for medians or other mid-road safe refuge.  Major Shawn Barrett, an earlier Mt Vernon District Cmdr, spoke at one of our SC meetings.   He told us that at a posted speed of 45mph cars were not required to yield to pedestrians in those crosswalks without traffic lights.  He had also found that, counter to his expectations, most of the pedestrians deaths were happening on the 4 lane section of the highway rather then the wider 6 lane section.  He reasonable concluded pedestrians were using the concrete median [only exists at 6 lane sect] as a safe refuge for crossing.  This fit with what people who came to our meetings were telling us.  They described how, at intersections, often cars cut them off even though they were in a crosswalk.  They told us, where there was a concrete median,  they preferred to cross some distance away from an intersection to avoid the turning traffic.   MWCOG [Mike Farrell] provided a Fed Hywy Admn report [FHWA-RD-01-075] that further validated what the Police Cmdr and our members were saying.  Unless well designed, crosswalk are not necessarily the safest place to cross.  Since then we've also had the MWCOG supported 'Walkable Community Workshop' that further
supported the need for more pedestrian safety infrastructure.   Since the start of the SC campaign some years ago, little has changed.  Based on the FHWA-RD-01-075 recommendation, I doubt one could find even a dozen safe crosswalks in the 8 mile stretch of Richmond Highway between Ft Belvoir and the Beltway.   

I

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