Pedestrian safety improved on Route 7
In a follow-up to a meeting on pedestrian safety for Leesburg Pike in Culmore in August 2022, transportation officials presented an update at a community meeting Oct. 25 on what has been done and what’s in the pipeline.
Culmore residents – along with CASA and the Coalition for Smarter Growth – have been complaining about the unsafe conditions along that roadway for years. There have been pedestrian fatalities and many more near misses.
Related story: VDOT pursues safety improvements for Route 7 in Culmore
In one major improvement, the speed limit along Leesburg Pike between the City of Falls Church and the City of Alexandra has been reduced from 40 to 35 mph, said Houda Ali, VDOT assistant director of transportation and land use for Fairfax and Arlington counties.
The pedestrian signals at traffic lights along that stretch of Leesburg Pike have been upgraded to improve safety for those with disabilities, Ali said. An auditory signal was added for sight-impaired pedestrians, and the pedestrian signals have been lowered to improve access.
The signal at the new crosswalk on Leesburg Pike and Glen Carlyn Road has been adjusted to give people more time to cross the road, and there are new curb ramps at that spot.
A new sidewalk was installed in front of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church between the bus stop near Glen Carlyn and the church driveway.
Additional improvements in the works include a new sidewalk in front of the Liberty gas station at 5930 Leesburg Pike where a pedestrian was fatally struck by a car in December 2021. In April, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved $1.9 million for that project, which requires extensive utility relocation. That will be done “over the next few years,” Ali said.
The traffic lanes on Leesburg Pike will be narrowed to accommodate the new sidewalk, and that section of the road in the Culmore area will be repaved.
Related story: Supervisors approve pedestrian improvements
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation has recommended a new signalized traffic signal and crosswalk on Leesburg Pike at Magnolia Avenue, said Don Moyer, a traffic engineer at FCDOT. That project has not been funded, however.
Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross told the audience that the county will install 12 additional streetlights on existing utility poles at Vista Drive and Glen Carlyn Road in Culmore. That is being done in response to concerns raised by the community about the hazards of walking in the dark.
In addition, Gross said, the county’s Channel 16 collaborated with Second Story to create a public service announcement to educate the public about how to cross streets safely.
9 responses to “Pedestrian safety improved on Route 7”
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Blaming the roads for people jaywalking and getting hit by cars?
How are the roads more guilty than the cars?
We need common sense car control. It’s long past due. No one should support a mass of thousands of pounds that continues to kill men, women, and children all across this (land acknowledgement) land.
Time to take these deadly machines away. Full stop.
You, sir, are brilliant.
Lets making SUVs much harder to buy. If we start had a better welfare state we could increase the gas tax. But we must have increased parking rates for SUVs. We should be able to tax SUVs and pickup trucks specifcally. The rise in pedestrian fatalities and even kid fatalities by their own SUV parents.
A higher gas tax is not the way to go.
Virginia (and especially Fairfax County) needs to get ahead of the curve and implement a mileage tax to appropriately tax those who most utilize the roads.
Either that, or begin taxing the electrical rates of those who use electric vehicles, to help pay for all the safety upgrades that are absolutely needed in Mason District.
The problem is that people jaywalk 20 feet away from the crosswalk. These “improvements” are expensive appeasements, and will do little to nothing to move the needle.
What would make an instantaneous improvement and cost zero dollars is police presence, ticketing speeders and jaywalkers.
No. The last thing needed is Fairfax County Police Department ticketing and imposing costly fines on the relatively poor and oppressed minorities and recent immigrants who reside in this area of Fairfax County.
Fairfax County is one of the most affluent counties of the entire United States, and it demonstrates its “caring” for the less well off who live in Fairfax County by keeping the major roads where the less well off live virtual death traps; AND, blaming the less well off for this state of affairs.
Well, there you have it. Certain people are above the law.
How about teaching people to stop darting into traffic? I get that most of the people here seem to want us to go back to peasants walking on foot or getting around via donkey but wandering into the street while looking a phone in front of a galloping horse, donkey or my car is not good for your health.
Susie, are you insinuating that only the (quoting above) “relatively poor and oppressed minorities and recent immigrants” are the individuals that are jaywalking and speeding? That isn’t nice and WE know that is not true. Wealthy, advantaged and individuals that have lived in the states since birth; jaywalk and speed. Unfortunately, WE do not have the Police force that is needed — and YES ALL should be fined and ticketed — what is the expression: Don’t Do The Crime If You Can’t Do The Time