‘Road diet’ proposed for Annandale Road
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is proposing a “road diet” for Annandale Road in Mason District.
Annandale Road currently has two traffic lanes in each direction. Under the road diet plan, there would be one lane in each direction, a center turn lane, and bike lanes in both directions.
FCDOT invites the community to a virtual meeting on reconfiguring Annandale Road on Monday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. Access the meeting on Microsoft Teams here.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, a road diet can improve safety, calm traffic, and provide better mobility and access for all road users.
Having a dedicated left-turn lane would reduce rear-end and left-turn crashes, and pedestrians would have fewer lanes to cross.
40 responses to “‘Road diet’ proposed for Annandale Road”
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There we go again with the bike lanes nonsense again.
mark def some fat diabetic that hates exercise why are you so pressed about a bike lane lol
No need to make these types of comments. Most are for or against – I am all for the introduction of bike lanes and rightsizing this stretch of Annandale Road.
The lanes today are too wide, cause speeding, and is hostile to pedestrians
my fault mark shouldnt have said those things.
Mark, you need to move to LA, since all you care about is cars cars and more killer cars.
UGH. The road was widened to four lanes for a reason. Lets call this what it is: stealing lanes from cars to further the folly of bike lanes on roads in a futile attempt to get people out of their cars.
This plan takes away lanes from motorists to give bicyclists about 500 yards of a bike lane. A short bike lane like that is not very useful. This plan like most road diets only creates more traffic congestion without providing anything useful to bicyclists.
Come on Marks! At least 2 or 3 bikes per day will use this!
I say lets make Fairfax County refund 1% of the property tax charged any residents in which their area has bike lanes if at least 50 bike riders day don’t use the bike lanes – PER DAY…In about 100 days I get all my property tax back from these useless ideas.
They’d simply raise taxes to compensate.
Not nonsense. Get on a bike and help improve your health and reduce the cost of your medical bills.
Go ahead stick to your killing machines and watch what happens to your grandchildren when there is no longer any air to breathe. They are certain to thank grandpa for being so myopic.
Sounds great but the weather around here sucks, I commute quite a distance, I have several children I chauffeur around, and I’m over 12 years old.
I do agree with you on vaccines though. I received my 11th jab just the other day!
I ride all the time, but avoid major automobile arteries as much as possible. Some roads need to remain for automobiles. Take your time machine back to the late 60’s when the original predictions of the earth’s demise were made – END OF THE WORLD BY 1980 BECAUSE OF OVERPOPULATION! You’ll fit right in. Mark is correct – useless. My grandchildren, if I am so blessed, will be just fine.
I guess climate change is nonsense too?
“No one will use sidewalks on Sleepy Hollow!!!”
This is such BS. We need two lanes for traffic. That road gets busy. We do not need bike lanes there. Didn’t a pedestrian get hit there not too long ago!?! Maybe address safety for people crossing the streets in annandale instead!!!
What a waste of money. I’ve been hit by a car while riding a bicycle SIX times. Bicycle lanes on that stretch of road is foolish. Lanes have their place on some roads but that’s not one of them.
I wish people would stop telling others what to do, as in, “Get on a bike…” and then begin referencing your family as if they have permission to do so. Rude and offensive name calling.
It is nice to see local authorities make efforts to make roads safer for humans outside cars instead of just moving the cars faster. Where were these collisions, JB? In May 2012 an elderly driver with handicap plates clipped my arm with his passenger mirror on Gallows Road near the intersection of Annandale Road as he tried to pass me on my bicycle. The driver didn’t realize the Virginia Code requires a driver give three feet clearance. The Virginia Code also now requires a driver to move into the next lane of a substandard width lane. Anyway, a clearly marked bicycle lane should have prevented that mishap, even with an elderly driver.
While proper bike lanes are important for safety reasons, however that section of Annandale Road needs the two lanes to facilitate traffic at 236. A single lane during rush hour will increase commute time.
Another stupid BofS idea. I almost never see a bike in one of the new bike lanes in Annandale. Most distances to shop, etc. are too far for biking. Many people have bad knees, backs or are older and cannot bike long distances. There are hundreds or thousands of cars on these roads. They should take precedence. Put bike lanes on the wider roads. Reducing lanes just causes more traffic jams. Somebody needs to vote these people out of office before they ruin our county.
We need walkable cities like yesterday
I travel that stretch of road daily I’ve only seen one or two bikes weekly. Better rethink this
This will be a nightmare at rush hour. There’s bike routes posted through the neighborhoods off Annandale…that’s a much safer option for those that prefer biking (plus more pedaling = healthier!) Also developers will eventually win and there will be apartments and more housing built in the area…reducing travel lanes does not seem smart. As much as people would hate it, adding some stoplights to major intersections would help to manage traffic flow (like Wayne dr where there’s been multiple wrecks and an elementary school that creates a lot of traffic).
Also for all the people saying to bike instead of drive…where are you biking to?! Merrifield? 495? Like what’s off Annandale that you need to bike to? (Btw I live off Annandale Rd and I very rarely see anyone on a bike…)
If you had ridden the bike trails, particularly to DC for work you will find that there is allot of bike commuter traffic at rush hours. Prior to COVID it was very heavy and had overloaded the trails, but the trails are limited to where bikers may need to go. The MBT (Metropolitan Bike Trail) in DC is hugely busy as is the Mount Vernon and W & O trails in NOVA.
The problem with the bike lanes in NOVA is that these are spotty and in many cases do not connect to major bike trail commuting patterns such as: Four Mile Run, W & O, Curtis Trail, Mt Vernon and the Jerry Connolly Cross County Trail.
This is an eminently sensible plan that is well supported by well over a decade of successful traffic engineering practice throughout the U.S. Providing a dedicated left-turn lane will reduce rear-end crashes while not increasing congestion or motorist delays (because left-turning motorists will no longer stop directly in the path of straight-through traffic) and the bike lanes, even when unused, will improve pedestrian comfort and safety (by providing a wider buffer between the sidewalk and motor vehicle traffic). Furthermore, by coordinating this change with scheduled roadway resurfacing, the cost to the taxpayer is practically zero.
Earth to angry motorists: “You own a vehicle, but you don’t own the road”.
Driving cars pay the bulk of the taxes to buy and build that road. Not one dollar comes from a bike tax. Sorry but motorist do pay for and own the roads. Even when we all benefit from having roads.
AMEN!
JTR is incorrect. Roads are for people, not just people in cars, and the *overall* cost of car travel is in fact subsidized by non-motorists. While non-drivers do not pay the (ridiculously low) gasoline tax, they do pay sales taxes–a good portion of which is now spent to widen and maintain roads–and real estate taxes, which help maintain and rebuilt local streets. The right-of-way of most roads in NoVA either predates the auto or was provided when the land was developed. Suburban motorists get “free” parking almost everywhere, and that “free” parking is subsidized by non-motorists through higher prices, lower wages, etc.
Regardless of all the supposed healthy, safer “benefits” of this proposal, the area’s substantial use of Annandale Rd as a main feeder thoroughfare to Rt 50 is a long-standing and well-known traffic pattern – and it’s not anywhere near optimal now. Maybe some traffic modeling such as the case for the 7 Corners road realignment would be good before BoS jumps on enacting work under this proposal.
I am not convinced that people in this area k ow how to use a left turn lane. The county put some on Linconia by Barcroft shopping center. People constantly stop in the travel lane to make a turn into the shopping center blocking traffic.
The reason you don’t see bicycles on this stretch of road, and many others in Annandale, is because the roads are extremely hostile and unsafe to bicycles! It is a silly argument to say that bike lanes are not needed because you never see bikes. Maybe you never see bikes because there are no bike lanes! Now I am not saying this particular project is good or bad- I personally think it is good, and it should be extended to meet Hummer Road/Annandale Road, which already has a bike lane, which would basically connect Annandale by bike lane all the way to Route 50 and Falls Church. But, whether you support the project or not, the idea that not seeing bikes = no interest in bike lanes is simplistic at best.
Annandale is too hilly to bike in, especially that road. To make this viable, there should also be county tax cuts for an e-bike program. If you want more folks using bike lanes, make it more accessible for everyone to use, not those who are the most athletic bikers. Get e-bikes in the house of folks living here, with bike lanes, and I guarantee you, you will have more people using those bike lanes and less cars on the road.
The recently narrowed Sleepy Hollow Rd is showing some problems. Delivery vehicles, mail trucks, and garbage trucks stopping in front of houses now block travel lanes – especially around the pedestrian islands. Also, some residents are now unable to park or have visitors or contractors park in front of their homes which pushes them to park across the street or on nearby side roads. We’ll have to see if there will be problems when it snows and the snowplows fill the sides of the more narrow road (and the bike lanes).
Sleepy hollow takes 20 min to drive through now and man if you get stuck at sewage renovations area you get to sit there and smell chit like I do everyday at 6 pm all the while looking at empty bike lanes.
This area is going to have a ton of empty houses, empty apartments and a ton of empty bike lanes and they deserve it too. You reap what you sow.
So a road diet is kind of the opposite of induced demand? Slim down the roads to encourage people to find other modes of transport than cars. Combine that with investment in those other modes of transports, including bike lanes, and that should help reduce traffic. Does this actually work?
Bike lines should be physically separated from the road, akin to this example:
https://altago.com/wp-content/uploads/Lincoln-N-Street-Cycletrack-1170×780.jpg
It is incredibly dangerous to cycle on a road that is not separated from traffic in Annandale. There is no respect whatsoever for cyclists in Northern VA and I think this comment section proves that. If we want cyclists to actually use the infrastructure built for them, we first need to make it safe to use.
I would say based upon watching bicyclists run stops sign, using incorrect arm signals, that more bicycle riders have contempt for car drivers than car drivers have for bicyclists. Bicyclists feel entitled – look at the violence they committed against those opposed to bike lanes on King Street near old town. AND, in 4 years – I have seen exactly 2 bicycles using those lanes.
Agreed. I have no data to support it, but I think Bike Lanes adjacent to car lanes are possibly more dangerous than no lanes at all. When there is a bike lane, I feel like it gives car drivers license to not pay attention to the bikes or consider the difference in speed or response time. Especially with everyone on their phone drifting all over the place.
And It doesn’t even need to be the cycle track like you showed, 1) move the bike lanes to between the curb and on-street parking (and ticket parking violators), and/or 2) put up a physical divider, like a narrow partially solid, partially see-through concrete block wall
This generation of Northern Virginians has no respect, no matter the means of transportation.
Bike lanes at the expense of existing lanes is a really stupid idea, which means we’ll do it for sure.
Enjoy your traffic, crime, inflation, homelessness, drugs, gangs, and decreased quality of life.
This is great news and I support this wholeheartedly. This stretch of Annandale Road is too wide. I rode this for several years when I bike commuted to Arlington, and the number of vehicles on this road does not support four full lanes. Walking and riding along here feels dangerous because drivers are going too fast. Walking a dog along here will be more pleasant with slower speeds and more room between pedestrians and cars. Annandale has too much asphalt for cars and we need to make it safer to both leave and enter the town center on foot, bicycle, scooter, etc. I am very happy that the county has proposed this and we need more of it.