‘Road diet’ proposed for Gallows Road
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation has come up with a “preferred option” for managing traffic congestion and improving access for pedestrians and bicyclists on Gallows Road. The proposal calls for narrowing travel lanes and adding landscape buffers and wide sidewalks in Annandale.
The entire Gallows Road multimodal transportation project, between Leesburg Pike in Tysons and Columbia Pike in Annandale, isn’t expected to be completed until 2045, said transportation planner Nanditha Paradkar at a July 17 community meeting on the southern segment of Gallows.
FCDOT staff presented three alternatives for the southern segment of the Gallows Road corridor last November – a vehicle-focused option, a transit-focused option, and an option focusing on active transportation.
The southern segment of the study covers Gallows Road from the beltway to Columbia Pike and Annandale Road between Gallows Road and Little River Turnpike.
Related story: FCDOT outlines options for Gallows Road
At the July 17 meeting, transportation planner Tim Kutz outlined the main elements of the preferred option for the southern segment, which he said takes into account community feedback:
- I-495 to Hemlock Drive at Woodburn Elementary School – Two lanes in each direction.
- Hemlock Drive to Hummer Road – One lane in each direction with a turn lane in between.
- Hummer Road to the Gallows Road/Annandale Road split – Two lanes in each direction.
- Brookcrest Place to Thornton Street – The Gallows Road approach to Annandale Road would retain a through/left and right configuration, then transition to a two-lane road with no turn lanes east of Brookcrest.
- Thornton Street to Columbia Pike – one lane in each direction and a turn lane in the center.
- Annandale Road from Gallows Road to Little River Turnpike – one lane in each direction and a turn lane in the center.
Throughout the Gallows Road corridor in Annandale, the vehicle lanes would be narrowed to make room for a landscape buffer and wider sidewalks on both sides of the road.
The wider sidewalks would be shared by pedestrians and bicyclists. There isn’t enough room for a separate bike lane, Kutz said, because there are houses that are too close to the road.
The width of lanes, landscape buffers, and sidewalks would vary throughout the corridor, depending on the width of the right-of-way.
Narrower lanes and buffer zones with trees will encourage people to slow down, which would lead to fewer crashes, he said.
Short-term intermediate improvements could include a traffic light at Hemlock Drive or Aston Street and striping throughout the corridor.
Several people at the meeting complained that narrower lanes would increase traffic congestion, which would encourage drivers to cut through neighborhood streets.
According to Kutz, the cut-through issue would be minimized with signage warning drivers that a side street is not a through street.
Other concerns were raised about the difficulty of turning left onto Gallows Road and the safety of children crossing Gallows to get to Woodburn Elementary School.
The Gallows Road study also calls for a pedestrian bridge over the beltway. Three locations are under consideration: just south of Route 50, just north of Route 50, and just north of Route 29.
A final report on the study is expected to be finalized this fall.
Stop this Road Diet nonsense -it never works – why – why …STOP! no one is going to ride a bike on Gallows -STOP -please….Dear Board of Supervisors and Transportation folks – take a year off…your thinking is driving sane people to drink…!
Weren’t you moving out of Fairfax County, like two weeks ago?
Yeah, Mark just loves yelling endlessly into the void. If he actually moved from the area, he’d have to find another outlet like this on which to vent. It’s probably easier for him just to stay here and be miserable.
Yes…doesn’t mean I can’t mock the stupidity of Democrats to help the rest of the folks that can’t leave.
I don’t care if Mark leaves or stays, however his point about “road diet failure” is accurate. We have challenges in the road layout that starts generations ago in how the area developed and evolved with technology (horses to cars). The planning push for better bike infrastructure is misguided due to the practical needs of residents (particularly families) for cars – be they internal combustion or electric vehicles. The push for road diet doesn’t take into account the workforce needs (to and from work), or that most work places do not have showers (absolutely disgusting when the people that bike to work come in during the summer as no showers – BO smell). All around very poor planning that is more accurately pushing a concept (or fad if you so believe) that caters to specific interests that are actively involved with the elected officials. Want to change this, talk to your neighbors, organize them and more, and then vote those in power out of office. Much harder to do with the off year elections in VA (something else that supports those in power against responsiveness or change).
“No one is going to ride a bike on Gallows” yeah you’re right, given the current 100% car centric design of the road. When roads are redesigned to provide space for pedestrians and bikes, walking and biking magically increase, who would’ve thought?
Study after study after study shows that adding bike and pedestrian infrastructure to roads DOES NOT negatively impact car travel times, most likely due to the fact that more people choose walking and biking when it is safe and present thus reducing car traffic. Fairfax absolutely needs to do much more of this if they want to bring density to specific areas, which will in turn reduce the tax burden for everyone. This isn’t rocket science and to oppose it is to go against every single data point and study out there.
He is correct. This is nonsense and STUPID!!! I just had to drive down Annandale Rd. and now it’s ONE FREAKING LANE IN BOTH DIRECTIONS!!! This is going to cripple this area at rush hour. This is beyond stupid!
Agreed. They did a small road diet thing near Little River and Backlick, over by the Hispanic grocery store and Duck Chang’s (where Party City used to be).
I have not seen a single bicyclist over there.
Gallows is a major traffic route with everyone going towards Merrifield, Metro stops, 495, 66, etc.
This will create a huge bottleneck.
Great. Make the horrible traffic on Gallows even worse. People are not going to give up their cars.
A traffic light at Aston would make that intersection significantly safer for families and children crossing to Woodburn Elementary. There are way too many close calls with pedestrians nearly being hit due to reckless driving, speeding, poor visibility, and poor signage.
I couldn’t agree more!
It would be nice if something could be done about where the Hot Lanes get off at Gallows. There are traffic flow issues because many motorist do not stop where they are supposed to so the traffic trying to exit the Hot Lanes cannot pass through the solid line of cars. This is an issue every single day! Something has to be done before there is nasty road incident.
I couldn’t agree more!
I have lived in Lafayette Village for over 20 years and have rarely seen any bikers or pedestrians on Gallows Rd. The traffic is already congested so to take lanes away for bikers literally makes zero sense. A traffic light at Aston and Gallows across from Woodburn Elementary School would be great for students and cars.
Ugh… as if it weren’t bad enough.
Is there another opportunity to speak? This is crazy. Traffic on gallows from 495 towards columbia pike during rush hour already backs up all the way past the school. Making that one lane, I just can’t imagine how long the line will be to get to the beltway. Then at evening rush hour it’ll back up past the school from hummer. No one in that neighborhood will be able to go anywhere. How is that even remotely workable? It already can take 10 minutes to go from hummer to 495. It’s crazy stupid. Basically, they are taking away that as an option to get to the beltway during rush hour.
Gallows Road was “designed” 60 years ago by folks who didn’t know what they were doing.
What these engineers did to Gallows Road neighborhoods has a name today: Gallows is a “stroad” that doesn’t adequately serve as a neighborhood street or a reliable commuter road.
Drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and homeowners all hate the conditions on Gallows Road today. The County’s proposals improve things somewhat for everyone.
These proposals include I-495/Gallows exit upgrades that will reduce morning commutes.
Turn lanes make Gallows safer, more efficient and predictable for drivers. And sidewalks and crosswalks upgrades will make the road safe for families who hope to walk and bike.
What’s not to like? County staff are only proposing improvements to the I-495/Gallows exit ramp. Until VDOT also upgrades the exits at Route 50, Little River Turnpike and Braddock Road, commuters will continue to use local streets (including Gallows) as detours.
“make the road safe for families who hope to walk and bike” is a gaslighting “hope” to actually find fams hoping to walk/bike Gallows Rd!
My kids commute to school on Gallows every day. People like you are why we drive every day instead of waking or biking.
Gallows is the only access to the beltway in that entire area. I live in “downtown” annandale. It’s much quicker for me to go down gallows to the beltway than 236. Like it or not, Gallows is a commuter road and restricting access to it is going to make that entire neighborhood unusable during rush hour with traffic backing up over a mile. This article doesn’t address what changes will be made to 495 but I can’t image anything they do making up for reducing gallows to one lane from the school to hummer.
Plus, they killed Gallows when everyone became so excited they couldn’t see by adding it as an entry/exit to the new hot, Hot, HOT lanes, everyone in Greater Annandale would be zooming to get on and ride the wave. It’s called “reap what you sow”.
Thank you for injecting a note of sanity. The project as described would make a small positive difference for the residents along & near Gallows. Drivers passing thru may have to drive slower, and walking & biking will be more attractive options to our pervasive car dependence.
20 years to make some bike lanes? Come on man.
So flipping stupid. You wokes are 10 years behind the latest thing, and the latest thing 10 years ago failed miserably.
Am I missing something here? We get to wait 20 yrs and (probably) pay big bucks so that we can swap out two lanes between Hummer and Hemlock (one northbound and one southbound) for a center turn lane and a larger sidewalk? I don’t know, maybe traffic will subside over the next couple decades and it’ll make sense, but I foresee some serious Gallows gridlock on this stretch in the future.
And what happens to the two lanes of southbound Gallows Rd traffic coming from the Beltway when it gets to Hemlock? Does it all merge into the single thru lane? And coming from Annandale at Hummer Rd – how will the two Gallows Rd lanes blend into the single thru lane? I hope they’ve thought this through, as it appears problematic.
The value proposition of this road reconstruction isn’t apparent to me. But it probably won’t matter since Ffx Co and the Commonwealth will be so cash strapped by that time that the project will never be funded anyway.
I love these road diets! Traveling each day up Annandale road towards 50 and back stuck behind someone wavering between 5 to 10 mph slower than the speed limit and obviously on the phone by the way they keep drifting in and out of the bike lanes? Chef’s kiss. Top notch ideas. Fortunately there are rarely, if ever, people using the bike lanes so no one appears to have been put at risk yet, but what a great idea! It really helps make the drive more pleasant every day. I for one salute our forward thinking leaders. If only they would think about today..
Two lanes going to one at the Annandale/gallows split is going to cause even more congestion for people trying to turn left off Wayne or Valley Crest. There are so many wrecks there and with busses trying to get to Mason Crest it’s just not safe. I’m assuming the left lane would turn into a left turn only at the split, but really you need a left lane plus two lanes that go straight through and merge into one closer to the turn for the Safeway. Also an added stop light at Wayne would make it a lot safer. It could be timed like the lights over 495….you have to stop at the light at the split so why not just make a timed one before it to let people out?
I’m with you on the Annandale Rd slog to/from Rt50. I don’t know what it is on Annandale Rd. that causes drivers to forget where their accelerator is, but it is epidemic on this stretch. And all I see is vast expanses of dedicated street parking and unused bike lanes keeping me from reaching my destination in a reasonably timely manner. If the Gallows Rd diet yields this same result, just no thanks.
Narrowing lanes makes people drive slower? Some people more than others. So I guess that’s working at least.
All the pedestrians I see seem to stay pretty close to the curb. The only way those bike lanes are going to be truly safe is if they barricade them off from the traffic lane. But they can’t do that because it’s expensive and helps to illustrate how silly the whole concept was in the first place.
Annandale resident: county staff identified 8 Gallows Road projects to fast-track before 2045.
The current design of Gallows is terrible: long waits at 1 or 2 traffic lights, but excessive speeds everywhere else. And the alternatives are worse: walking and biking is unsafe, and buses are slow. FCDOT’s proposals address all of the above problems, if not as fast as most residents want.
Most residents do not bike or ride the bus and do not need fast buses between Columbia Pike and Tysons. They need them to D.C.
You’re trying to make this be about buses and bike path because you think they’re unpopular.
But 100 percent of residents deserve a safe streets and and less stressful commute.
A better-designed Gallows Road will also help property owners and the majority of drivers! (Sorry, not sorry, to those of you driving 50 on Gallows.)
Perhaps there’s a “better design” lurking somewhere in the transit engineering ether…but this road diet idea is NOT a better design. It looks more like a report/recommendation deadline hit and this was delivered as the least disastrous option short of an eminent domain land grab. The merge-to-single-lane concept is likely destined to produce new road rage incidents as frustrated drivers give no quarter to anyone.
Yeah, I’m not seeing it sorry. I love bike lanes but reducing gallows to one lane is a terrible idea for rush hour. If you live on gallows I’m having a hard time understanding how you can support this. The traffic will be so bad during rush hour you won’t be able to go anywhere.
The concept of induced demand, which basically says that no amount of additional roads will alleviate congestion because the roads will always saturate, if applied here, would say that traffic won’t over the long term get worse, because the short-term/immediate worseness will change enough drivers’ routines that the current level of congestion will be maintained.
This isn’t to say that it’s not imposing a cost. It definitely is; on anyone who drives this road, but the metric for the county is not just convenience for Gallows Road drivers, its both drivers, and non-drivers, residents, pedestrians, bicyclist, area businesses.
I’m not a county planner and I don’t know how good or bad the county’s analysis here is, but the notion that the roads being terrible preempts efforts to otherwise make it more livable ends with situations like Tysons or Skyline or Seven Corners. With roads that might as well be shark infested moats. Oh, you want to go 100 yards across Rte 7 in Tysons? That’ll be 10 minutes and at least a mile in a car. Same thing in Skyline and 7 Corners. Or you can try to sprint across.
Gallows Road was killed when no one stood up and stopped it from becoming an entry/exit to the new express lanes. The traffic congestion on Gallows has steadily increased. It’s called “reap what you sow”. You can’t be so naive to think state & corporate interests will allow vehicle reductions and full-flow access to their big revenue generator – those big, beautiful HOT lanes – do you?
This seems like a terrible idea on an area that already gets maximal congestion during rush hours and when special school traffic speed limits go active. Being an beltway off ramp, the traffic load is consistently high. It’s been several years after being instituted, but I have watched the amount of bike traffic on Annandale Rd where they moved to single car and bike lanes and it really seems like a waste of our tax dollars to have done that. VDoT and FDoT should be mandated to revisit their after a few years, to see if the use has met their projections (in both bike usage or low impact to car traffic with the lane reduction).
Planners get this through you dense skulls. The burbs will remain AUTO CENTRIC . Your dreams of bike lanes and sidewalks are child like fantasies. If you want people out of their cars overlay the county with maps of the Paris Metro or the London tube, where all residents are no more than a 5 minute walk to their nearest station. 60 yrs ago you fed us METRO and what happened we go fatter with more cars You plan these supposed generators of living, Tysons, Fairfax corner, and many more generators of more cars, while Metro cars go by empty. No matter how many diets you’ve put us on they’ve all failed.
The Beltway is the main driver of Gallows Road traffic.
You can only fix Gallows by upgrading the ramps onto the Beltway – which is exactly what planners are proposing for Gallows Road (along with improvements that make walking and biking safe).
No amount of new lanes would fix Gallows Road traffic, because drivers are making 200,000 trips on the Beltway each day.
Gallows Road is capable of handling 2045 traffic volumes without jeopardizing the families who live here. Annandale is not at all like London or Paris, but with better transportation and land use it will one day be as nice as Vienna, Ashburn, or Arlington.
So drivers looking for shortcuts through neighborhoods will clearly be sure to decide not to do it because a sign reminds them that it a side street isn’t a through street. Yes, sure. That will work. Just like stop signs, speed limits and traffic lights. Some choose to totally ignore the signs now.
They didn’t name it ‘Gallows’ for nothin’
Are you crazy? Trying to catch up with visions 10 years ago – bike lanes in Annandale!!! I have lived here 30 years. I can count on two hands the number of cyclist I have scene using bike lanes in Annandale. It is Not Working. People are not going to give up their cars. When will you truly look at the reality. How many car commuter people will be impacted compared to how many cyclist will use these bike lanes? We do NOT need any added stress to our lives, especially since Trump’s bs government has destroyed life as we know it.
Many of your neighbors do bike in Annandale. And a lot of them are working-class people that Trump’s bs government is trying to disappear.
Instead of stressing out about looking both ways for them, why don’t you take a driver improvement course?
I am usually all for traffic calming measures, but not without really looking at the amount of traffic that exists already. If there isn’t an alternate option, a road diet will only serve to make traffic worse.
I’ve also wondered why we don’t use more traffic circles in this area. They can really help traffic keep moving through intersections so that turning vehicles don’t slow down traffic while slightly slowing through traffic. But they don’t cause congestion in the way that stoplights do. They don’t work everywhere, but just imagine what it could do for intersections like Gallows and Annandale, or Gallows/Annandale/Hummer.
With electric scooters and electric bikes coming to market with longer ranges, it would be nice to see a big enough lane to accommodate all the two wheels transport options and separated from the traffic on Gallows.
How about doing something about the ancient main roads in the rest of Mason District before upgrading roads that are decades more modern than other main roads? Within Mason District many sections of LRT, Braddock Rd, Backlick Rd, and Columbia Pike have not been modernized since they were 4-laned in the 70s. Most are narrow, have no (or ancient) sidewalks, have even fewer bike lanes/trails, few bus pull-outs, and more. Yet, at the district lines they all magically become nice wide modern roads. How many children at schools in the area have to be bused short distances because their routes home via these roads are too dangerous for walking?
Gallows Road is an ancient road too! We’ve been waiting almost 60 years for this study.
Woodburn and Stenwood families can’t walk to school either.
Otherwise, right on! Braddock Road within Braddock District was studied a few years ago. Why not Mason District?
This is certainly a solution looking for a problem. Thousands of cars on Annandale Road will be inconvenienced every day for the miniscule number of bikers that are on the road. The lanes past the Annandale Road and Gallows Road light were reduced to one lane last week, and traffic was awful. I am sure no road engineer saw it. They probably come to see the road at 11:00 when there is little traffic. The curves after the intersection of Hummer and Gallows on Gallows cannot afford to be reduced in size. Too many people go over the lines now on that ridiculous curve. There are sure to be accidents. I hope (but am not counting on it) that the BoS will reconsider this awful plan. Maybe someday they will see the folly in trying to make every road bike friendly in a large area that relies on cars, not bikes.
Relying on cars is fine! But pedestrians are routinely hit and killed in downtown Annandale.
Nobody thinks on-street bike lanes are the answer. Trails and other dedicated facilities would be preferable.
Instead of bike lanes Fairfax County proposes separating drivers and cyclists. This is a point that the article fails to emphasize.
By the way, the county is still prioritizing drivers over bike riders. On the narrowest sections, bike lanes aren’t being proposed at all!
Stop fabricating stories please – pedestrians are not routinely hit and killed in Annandale -and why don’t you try to include facts as to how many of those folks weer J-walking and otherwise not paying attention.
Mark is correct. Almost all, if not every pedestrian fatality I can remember in the last several took place outside of a crosswalk, even if a crosswalk was available nearby.
John is correct, too. See photo + AT article – there is no crosswalk where this fatality occurred in Oct. 2022.
https://annandaletoday.com/pedestrian-killed-in-hit-and-run-crash/
Continue at this light or turn left, it is already 1 lane in each direction, not 2.
Going west from this light is 2 lanes in each direction, but “road diet” will be coming soon.
Eileen Garnett isn’t real?
She wasn’t jay-walking. She was killed while volunteering to improve a community you don’t seem to value much.
A simple concrete median would have saved her life.
Within a year of Eileen Garnett’s death, two other pedestrians were killed at the same intersection (Maple Place and Annandale Road).
You can dislike sidewalks or traffic studies all you want, Mark. But please stop complaining that Annandale isn’t nice.
Eileen Garnett’s death was tragic. But, please this needs to be kept in perspective.
AT article “The driver of a 2008 Nissan Sentra dropped food in her car, tried to pick it up, and lost control, hitting the four pedestrians in a parking lot…”
https://annandaletoday.com/eileen-garnett-dies-from-injuries-in-pedestrian-crash/
A “road diet” would not have kept this horrible outcome from happening.
Maple Place is Exhibit A for why Annandale needs road diets, medians, and more enforcement.
The fast-food driver crossed the center line (!) before hitting a crowd of people.
A median on Maple Place would have saved lives: immobilizing the Nissan before it could hit pedestrians.
Ya the stupidity of reducing Gallows Rd to 1 lane from 2 would have a huge negative impact. For those that frequent this road, you frequently see in mornings how Gallows Rd backs up well past Woodburn elementary school. If this road was one lane it might back all the way up to Annandale Rd from 495 and more than double the travel time. Then there are other issues.. The “engineers” and others doing the study didn’t factor in that Fairfax Hospital is just down the street which frequently stops traffic (which further increases congestion at times). Also, school buses that pickup kids stop traffic both ways as well. I’m sure I’m leaving some other factors out as well but traffic would be an absolute nightmare if this was reduced from 2 travel lanes to 1.
Public Meetings Held; Feedback Requested by Sept. 30, 2025
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) presented the long-term vision and recommendations for Gallows Road at two in-person public meetings on July 15 and 17, 2025.
Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on the proposed recommendations.
• View the meeting presentation
• Submit feedback via survey (https://www.publicinput.com/gallowsroad2025)
• Leave comments via voice mail: 703-890-5898; Project Number 4491
Comments will be accepted through September 30, 2025.
Go to https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/study/gallows-road for details.
Ugh. I remember when traffic “improvements” were made in 2016 on Braddock Rd near Wakefield Chapel that resulted in “undesirable traffic impacts.” Rapid revision was required. What a debacle.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/sites/transportation/files/Assets/Documents/PDF/Transportation%20(General)/TDD/2016/TDD%20Monthly%20Status%20Report%20-%20August%202016%20complete.pdf
I don’t understand the goal of reducing the segment between Woodburn School and Trammel road to 3 lanes. Who exactly will benefit? If the families that live around that area will suffer without any advantage: 1- Cut through traffic will increase in their neighborhood that does not have side walks, which will make it more dangerous for all the families with young kids who like to walk there (I don’t believe road signs for no cut through traffic will work when there is a large backup on Gallows). 2- These same families will not walk on the larger side walk in Gallows as the main part most people would walk to is the elementary school which just needs a traffic light on Aston, otherwise, families can take inner roads to reach Aston. 3- Bikers and pedestrian who do not live in that neighborhood would not feel any safer neither as they would usually need to cross the beltway or go to downtown Annadale where they will still meet 4 lanes traffic. So Please revisit: What is the goal? Which families will benefit? Which pedestrians will suffer and be at risk? I see many moms with young kids walking their stroller on Aston, Trammell and Hummer. No reason to put them at rick with cut through traffic (from Aston to Trammell, Hummer, or Walton) that will take place despite road signs.
Good point and well stated
I’ve been here since 1965 and saw Gallows as a 2 lane road and we walked and biked on it. Those days are gone but not out of sight. I have ridden my bike from Gallows at 495 to Dunn Loring and the conditions weren’t great, but a little bit of pavement would really help.
If the road was closed back up at Trammel back near Lafayette Village that would probably help. Those that come from across 236 through the neighborhoods to avoid from The Gallows-Annandake-Humor Rd intersection to the school would no longer be able to cut through. However, at the same time as closing that access ramps to and from the express lanes would need to be built at 236 so people can get in and off from both directions there and a ramp allowing them to get on and off and Gallows would need to be built. If this were done a lot of people I bet would take the express lanes for a small fee from 236 to Gallows and visa versa to alleviate a lot of traffic on Gallows and reduce their commute time. That would probably be less costly and a faster solution than altering Gallows and squeezing the lanes.
I hope and think this is a good idea.
Unfortunately the “traffic dirt on Annandale Rd approaching Gallows/ Hummer is a great example of more congestion to come with these proposed changes. Backed up from Hummer to Round Tree Park most afternoons is typical. Cut through traffic on Masonville Dr approaching Gallows/Hummer is horrendous and has been for a long time- with speeds up to 40 mph. No “signage” will help. It will not be enforced. And the fact that they say they will add signage shows they KNOW it will be a problem with cut through traffic in our neighborhoods. Additionally have they thought about the extensive Kiss and Ride line for Westminster along Gallows to Columbia Pile and how that will play into the reduced lanes? I’d rather our tax money be spent on something that is not a fad. How about fix the terrible condition of some of our roads?
This is absolutely stupid! Who was the ***** behind this idea? We need MORE lanes for CARS, not bikes! This isn’t Europe! If you want to make this area OK for bikes, then install double wide sidewalks(like in Europe) and have one side for walkers and the other for bikes. No sane person wants to ride a bike on a roads with cars! All it takes is one distracted driver and you’re dead. Why are my tax dollars going to dumb projects like this and not fixing the potholes like the one on Heritage Dr. It’s been there for months now and only getting bigger. I did NOT vote for this!!!