Leesburg Pike unsafe for pedestrians
The recent death of another pedestrian – Nguyet Ly was struck and killed Dec. 13 on Leesburg Pike in Bailey’s Crossroads – has prompted safe street advocates to urge state transportation officials to make improvements to that corridor.
Ly, 68, was walking along a section of Leesburg by Magnolia Avenue at about 11 a.m. when she was struck by a car exiting a business in the 5900 block of Leesburg Pike. She died that evening in the hospital.
Fairfax Families for Safe Streets, the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, and the Coalition for Smarter Growth sent a letter to VDOT Northern Virginia District Engineer John Lynch calling for short-term actions to make the Leesburg Pike corridor safer.
“This corridor is well known for being one of the most hazardous corridors for pedestrians in Fairfax County,” the letter states. It was also sent to other government officials.
There were 14 pedestrian fatalities in Fairfax County in 2021.
Related story: Pedestrian dies after being struck on Leesburg Pike
According to an analysis by the three organizations, the place where Ly was hit had no sidewalks and no safe, reasonable crossing opportunities.
VDOT had installed a road sign alerting drivers to expect pedestrians. The speed limit in that area is 40 mph. Virginia law does not require drivers to stop for pedestrians on streets with posted speed limits above 35 mph.
“VDOT placed the sign without any actual infrastructure to ensure a walking environment,” the organizations state. “During reduced traffic volumes in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the ongoing pandemic, streets are more open for drivers to speed.”
The organizations offer the following recommendations to improve pedestrian safety:
• Install a continuous sidewalk or multi-use path along Leesburg Pike to ensure that pedestrians and bicyclists can safely access shops and bus stops in the Bailey’s Crossroads/Seven Corners area.
With slightly narrowed travel lanes and existing county right of way, there is space to accommodate a shared-use path if it’s bumped out from the existing curb.
• Install high-visibility crosswalks and ADA-compliant ramps across all side streets and driveway entrances on Leesburg Pike.
Increased opportunities for crossing with safe accommodations like a HAWK signal, especially where sidewalks end mid-block. A HAWK (high-intensity activated crosswalk) beacon allows pedestrians to stop traffic so they can safely cross a street.
Related story: Let’s make our streets safer for walking and biking
There are over 1,600 feet between marked and signalized crosswalks on this section of Leesburg Pike. That is equivalent to over four typical city blocks in Old Town Alexandria.
The Federal Highway Administration recommends HAWK signals for intersections that do not meet the criteria for a full signal, but where there is crossing demand, more than three travel lanes, and high volumes of traffic.
• Other safety features should be considered, such as a median refuge island with marked, high-visibility crosswalks, double-sided installation on each curb approach, and a rectangular rapid flashing beacon in the median island.
• Make the travel lanes on Leesburg Pike narrower. The curbside lane where Ly was walking was approximately 16 feet wide. This is well over modern standards for acceptable typical lane widths on non-interstate streets, which range from 10 to 13 feet. Wider lanes encourage speeding.
• Disallow parking within 20 feet of a driveway or side street intersection, including on commercial properties. When sight lines are blocked for drivers, crashes are more likely to happen.
• Design streets for all hours of the day. Reliance on peak commuting hours to design streets with multimodal activity is antiquated and unsustainable. That’s like buying a house to accommodate your entire extended family for the one time each year you host them for the holidays. Overly wide streets lead to speeding during non-peak hours.
5 responses to “Leesburg Pike unsafe for pedestrians”
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Sidewalks are needed for safe walking. Pedestrian signs can heed drivers to look around for pedestrians.
We built cars and made lots of money at it from the 1940s through the 1970s, when other countries, especially Japan, got into the business, so we built the U.S. for cars. But today we realize cars and their drivers cause air, water, and noise pollution, injuries and fatalities. We are a nation of overweight and obese people now. We need to focus more on multimodal means of transportation and encourage walking, bicycling, non-polluting water transport, and public transport, and make handicapped design more the norm instead of the exception.
I would guess that 95% of drivers don’t know the difference between a red-flashing HAWK signal and a solid red HAWK signal on Backlick Road. In a similar vein, the flashing crosswalk on Gallows Road in front of the school does very little to actually get drivers to stop.
We need a holistic overhaul of our landscape to be in favor alternative modes of transportation.
Pedestrian safety improvement is long overdue for a big stretch of route 7 from 7-corners through Bailey’s crossroads and to Walter Reed intersection. Some intersections like with Carlin Springs road have minimal sidewalks and complete mess for pedestrians to traverse.
I’m a firm believer that all roads within the Beltway should have a maximum of 35 mph. The variations in speed make it all the more likely for drivers to fail to maintain safe speeds within posted limits, especially when the posts are few and far between.
HAWK signals are confusing. There is one placed on Eisenhower Ave near the USPTO that nobody can figure out. Drivers fly through it or speed up when it looks like it is going to change. It’s dangerous for pedestrians. I’d rather have regular traffic signals that are well understood and, given the heavy traffic and number of people who are going way over the speed limits on all the major roads in Annandale, we could use more signals to slow folks down and make it safer for both pedestrians and local drivers who are trying to exit or enter a neighborhood.