Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia
Do you remember the 2020 Transportation Plan for Northern Virginia? That was a 20-year plan that outlined transportation improvements that area planners figured were most needed for Northern Virginia. Widening Route 50 from four to six lanes between the Beltway and Seven Corners was part of that unfunded plan.
In 2002, the Virginia General Assembly created a Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and charged it with developing a long-range regional transportation plan, looking at roads, mass transit, bike paths, and sidewalks. This plan, called TransAction 2030, updates the 2020 plan and provides a blueprint for how to best spend money on transportation improvements.
TransAction 2030 is a comprehensive plan that takes into account surveys of citizen's priorities and projected growth in the region. The result was a mix of proposed improvements, most being mass transit and road improvements outside the Beltway. Widening Route 50 is the one proposal on a long list that directly affects our neighborhood.
Some details I forgot to mention. TransAction 2030 calls for almost $650,000,000 per year in spending above and beyond what was previously planned, and the previous plan was not anywhere close to being fully funded. If TransAction 2030 were to be fully funded, transportation modelers predict that road traffic congestion in 2030 would be roughly as bad as it is today. If not funded, the congestion we see on the Beltway and Route 66 would spread to highways outside the Beltway, congestion on major roads in our local area would get even worse, and cut-through traffic on secondary roads and side streets would increase.
I don't know why, but of the many road projects proposed in TransAction 2030, widening Route 66 inside the Beltway was not one of them. I would have expected that to be a top priority for almost everyone who has ever been stuck on that road between Route 29 and Glebe Road. I suspect that strong opposition from the Arlington County Board, which opposed the construction of I-66 through Arlington County in the first place, probably kept this much-needed road improvement off the plan.
TransAction 2030 does not call for any improvement to the Route 50 intersections with Annandale Road and with Graham Road. Widening Route 50 and naïvely assuming no additional traffic on Route 50 could result in shorter stop light cycle times for cars on these cross roads waiting for a green light. Of course, there would be additional traffic on a widened Route 50, so the stop light cycle time might not change much if any.
As with the previous plan, widening Route 50 appears to be a relatively low priority compared to the expansion of mass transit and the widening of major highways outside the Beltway. Whether any of us living here today will still be here when Route 50 is widened is anybody's guess!
$970,000 has been budgeted for the addition on Route 50 of a westbound dual left turn lane and a right turn slip ramp at the intersection with Annandale Road. Final project design is expected in June 2004 with land acquisition beginning in January 2005, the advertisement for bid to be distributed in February 2005, and estimated project completion is in October 2005, pending funding availability.
Final project design for improvements at the Gallows/Hummer/Annandale Road intersection has been completed. Land acquisition efforts have been ongoing due to unexpectedly high appraisals. New appraisals are being negotiated and the project is scheduled to be advertised for bid in June 2004. Funding for the project is estimated to be just under $1 million.
The state also is planning for improvements to several intersections in Fairfax County, including Balls Hill Road at Old Dominion Drive (southbound left-turn lane); Leesburg Pike at Glen Carlyn Road (extend eastbound left-turn lane); and Gallows Road at Idylwood Road (extend southbound left-turn lane). Funding is provided from the Governor's Congestion Relief Program.
$1,072,000 has been budgeted to improve pedestrian access to activity centers along Route 50 from Jaguar Trail to Patrick Henry Drive. This project is supported by Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) improvement program funding.
The state has budgeted $2,628,000 to install a pedestrian bridge across Route 50 east of Route 7 at Seven Corners Shopping Center.
According to statistics from Fairfax County, the intersection in the county with the most accidents for 2002 was Route 50 and Graham Road. There were 67 accidents at or within 100 feet of the intersection, and about a third involved personal injury. The intersection of Route 50 and Annandale Road was tied for eighth place, with 40 accidents that year. And the intersection of Route 50 and Jaguar Trail had 30 reported accidents. Do you see a pattern here?
Before the installation of a photo red light in May 2001, the Jaguar Trail intersection had been one of the most accident-prone intersections in the county. Other photo red lights in our general area include Route 7 @ I-66 and two new ones coming to Route 7 @ Carlin Springs Road and Little River Turnpike @ Heritage Drive.
Photo Red Light began operation in Fairfax County on 1 October 2000. The county will soon have 16 monitored intersections, and state law allows the county up to 25 intersections. Fairfax County has over 750 intersections with traffic lights.
All violations are reviewed by county police officers who have knowledge of traffic laws and vehicle handling. These officers check the violations for accuracy and completeness before issuing them. Violations are mailed, according to Virginia law, to the registered owners of the vehicles.
Fairfax County has compiled vehicular crash statistics for the first two months of 2003. During this time, there were 5,262 crashes throughout the county, averaging out to more than 89 crashes in Fairfax County every single day. Over half of these involved damage assessments of $1,000 or more.
In Mason District, 465 crashes occurred in January and February with damage assessments of at least $1,000. This averages out to almost eight crashes with significant property damage every single day in our community.
Please drive defensively. Be aware of your own driving habits and be alert to the drivers around you.
Stop Signs: On Monday, 27 January 2003, the Board of Supervisors endorsed our request for stop signs at the intersections of Westlawn Drive at Barrett Road and Barrett Road at Greenway Boulevard. The signs should be installed by the end of April.
Route 50 Median: Our request to close the median strip on the Route 50 Service Road at East Tripps Run Road in front of the McDonald's was reviewed and denied by VDOT in the past, but Supervisor Gross agreed to resubmit this location for review. The Fairfax County Police Department also is investigating the safety concerns at this location and will be communicating their findings directly to VDOT. Once Fairfax County Police inform Supervisor Gross and VDOT of their findings, Supervisor Gross will work with representatives from VDOT and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) on developing a plan to increase safety, but not restrict access to the businesses along the service road of eastbound Route 50.
Northbound Graham Road at Route 50: Once again, we raised our long-standing request to modify this intersection with Supervisor Gross. Her office contacted Mr. Tad Borkowski, VDOT's traffic engineer for our area. After reviewing the situation at this intersection, he said he would support modifying the lanes on the south side of the intersection of northbound Graham Road at Route 50!
The modifications would change the middle lane of northbound Graham Road to accommodate left turn or through traffic just as the middle southbound lane does. The existing right turn lane would not change. Directional arrows on the span wire would be installed along with new pavement markings indicating the new traffic pattern. There would be "puppy tracks" painted from the through lane leading toward westbound Route 50 to guide vehicles through the intersection, which is wide enough to accommodate dual left turns. This change should be especially helpful in the weekday mornings when so many cars want to turn left, but currently have only one lane available for left turns.
Leaving Seven Corners Shopping Mall: If you ever have tried to come home from the west side of Seven Corners Mall near SunTrust Bank by crossing Route 7 and working your way to Sleepy Hollow Road, you face an awkward situation. The southbound lane that goes straight also doubles as a left turn lane, and directly in front of you is a line of oncoming cars trying to turn left onto westbound Route 7! You have to jog to the right to get around them.
We asked Supervisor Gross to contact VDOT and see if anything could be done to improve this situation. Mr. Borkowski responded that with current restrictions on widening the intersection and with current traffic volumes, any changes would make matters worse.
He said the lane designation for southbound Thorne Road (which becomes Castle Road once you cross Route 7) was based on traffic volumes for the right turn lane and left and through lanes. The sum of left turns (east on Route 7) and through traffic (toward Castle Road) was less than all right turn movements (west on Route 7), which are approximately 1,500 vehicles per day.
Changing the lane designations so that the right turn lane on southbound Thorne Road doubles as the through lane would eliminate the free flow for right turns and create long back-ups on Thorne Road.
When the owners of the former Pizza Hut and the SunTrust Bank building considered redeveloping the property several years ago, the county was going to try to require space for an additional 12 ft. wide right-turn lane on Thorne Road, but the owners chose not to redevelop.
Signal on Route 50 at Cherry Street: This signal installation was a surprise to Supervisor Gross's office and to FCDOT staff, as VDOT staff did not contact either office about the proposed installation. According to VDOT, several factors contributed to VDOT's installation of this traffic signal.
Requests for a signal at this intersection go back to 1998. The intersection was first studied in 1999, but at the time did not meet the warrants for a signal installation. Requests from residents in 2000 and 2001 prompted VDOT to restudy the intersection. In 2001, the intersection met the warrants for vehicular volume and safety, and at that time, put this intersection in the queue for design and construction. The traffic on the side streets increased from prior counts as a result of new businesses opening and the re-occupation of buildings in the vicinity of the intersection. Pedestrian traffic also increased. All of these factors contributed to the signal installation.
Following a lively discussion on this issue at our February General Meeting, Supervisor Gross agreed to submit a request for a signal study at the Route 50 intersections at Wayne Road and at Westmoreland Road. VDOT staff has completed their traffic counts at these two intersections, and neither met any of the warrants to support a traffic signal at either location. In a 12-hour period (7 a.m.-7 p.m.), Wayne Road had the following counts: 107 left turns, 2 through, 333 right turns, and no pedestrians. Westmoreland Road had the following counts: 62 left turns, 23 through, 366 right turns, and 20 pedestrians. According to Mr. Borkowski, a minimum of 75 cars in one hour would have been the minimum number of cars needed for Wayne Road or Westmoreland Drive to meet the volume warrant criteria.
Unnamed Intersection With Route 50: Just east of Patrick Henry Drive is a stoplight on Route 50 that drivers can use to make left turns, even though there are no dedicated left turn lanes. It is quite annoying to be driving along in the left lane only to have a car in front of you come to a stop, often waiting to the last second to put on its left turn signal. With the opening of Target and PetsMart, left turns from eastbound Route 50 are becoming more commonplace at this intersection.
According to Mr. Borkowski, Route 50 has six lanes and carries 80,000 cars per day. In order to provide a left turn bay on east and westbound Route 50 at this intersection, VDOT would have to eliminate one through lane on Route 50, or widen it. Since there is not sufficient right-of way to add a dedicated left turning bay, VDOT supports the timed left turn restrictions on Route 50 during afternoon peak hours.
The signal at this intersection is controlled and maintained by Arlington County, not VDOT. The missing left turn restriction sign, which restricts left turns from 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. on eastbound Route 50, was replaced on the span wire next to the signal head. There also is a sign on westbound Route 50 that restricts left turns from 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. VDOT also checked the sensors on the service roads, north and south side of Route 50, to verify correct placement and function.
Washington Post Home Buying and Auto Buying Guide Boxes: According to Supervisor Gross, the Washington Post and other retailers who advertise through the various publications in the pink, yellow, and white boxes, place them in the state right-of-way without permission from VDOT. VDOT does not have an enforcement division within its agency, and therefore does not pursue the business owners who put their advertisement boxes on the state's right-of-way. The former superintendent of maintenance for Area 2, which includes the Westlawn Community, said he did not have a crew to collect these boxes for disposal, as they are more focused on road maintenance for safety.
The previous Virginia State Attorney General issued a ruling that these boxes represent free speech and cannot be removed. Advertising signs are illegal, but boxes with books that advertise apartments and cars are not, according to the Attorney General. Nobody could provide a satisfactory explanation for this counterintuitive ruling. I wonder if the Attorney General would feel the same if someone covered the sidewalk in front of his house with these boxes!
Have you noticed that many of the green and red lights in Northern Virginia traffic signals are burning brighter? VDOT's Smart Traffic Signals Systems team is replacing 7,500 bulbs in 3,750 signals throughout Northern Virginia with new energy efficient lights known as Light Emitting Diodes (LED). By October, motorists will see sharper reds and greens at intersections across the area.
LEDs are small electronic lights, each one roughly the size of a pencil eraser. Unlike an incandescent bulb with a single filament that can't spread light evenly across a surface, the LED fills the entire "hole" of the signal with hundreds of tiny points of light with equal brightness across the entire surface.
"They are not only brighter but use considerably less electricity--15 watts instead of 130 watts, and last up to 10 years rather than one or two years," said signal systems manager Mark Hagan. "Since traffic signals burn 24/7, switching to LEDs is a smart decision." Converting to LED bulbs could save about $200,000 a year.
Milled rumble strips along the shoulders of Virginia's highways are saving lines. In a before-and-after analysis using six years of crash data, VDOT found that milled strips, rather than rolled strips developed in the 1970s, reduced the number of run-off-the-road crashes by more than 51 percent, and related fatalities by 48 percent.
Milled strips are three times louder than rolled strips but it's the vibration level they create that makes the difference. When tires pass over milled strips the vibration level is 12 times greater, jolting a driver to attention. VDOT has established a policy to install rumble strips on all of its rural interstate highways, and today there are about 1,750 miles of rumble strips.
Recently, VDOT received a National Highway Safety Award by the Federal Highway Administration for demonstrating the effectiveness of milled rumble strips.
Early this summer, VDOT re-timed traffic signals along major corridors in Prince William and Fairfax Counties to smooth traffic flow and reduce travel time for motorists. The work is part of VDOT's ongoing traffic signal optimization program to improve signal coordination at the approximately 1,000 signalized intersections in Northern Virginia.
"For commuters trying to get to the office, home or to the daycare center, every minute counts," said Mark Hagan, VDOT's signal system manager. "The re-timing means less stop-and-go on heavily traveled corridors like Route 234 in Prince William County and Route 50 in Fairfax County-saving time, gas, and frustration."
Over the last several years, VDOT has upgraded traffic control equipment at signalized intersections throughout the region. A computerized signal control room at VDOT's Smart Traffic Center in Arlington allows engineers to re-time signals and troubleshoot and verify malfunctions before sending crews to the problem intersection.
Previously, VDOT relied on police, the public, or VDOT personnel to report malfunctions before dispatching a crew. Now, engineers receive real-time information about traffic signal operations and can collect traffic volumes and speeds.
On 6 August 2001, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the installation of cut-through measures on South Street between Annandale Road and Route 50. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will install two speed tables, one of which will be painted as a pedestrian crosswalk. The speed tables are designed to reduce vehicular speed to 20 mph.
I testified against the proposal, and so did two residents from the Sleepy Hollow community, while more people spoke out in favor. The issue generated quite a few e-mails and phone calls to Supervisor Gross and other supervisors, a majority in opposition. The entire process of requesting, evaluating, and selecting traffic calming measures was discussed between the residents of the Sleepy Hollow community, the Supervisor, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) and VDOT. The residents from Westlawn and other neighborhoods were never consulted, and our opinions and ideas never solicited. This is the standard operating procedure for cut-through and traffic calming requests throughout the county.
Board members seemed to be persuaded by arguments of "people and children playing" and the high speed of traffic driving "through the neighborhood." VDOT traffic data that showed normal speed profiles were unpersuasive, and nobody noted that the road borders the neighborhood rather than goes through it. Also, the fact that VDOT granted waivers for certain requirements under the cut-through program was not discussed.
The cut-through and traffic calming programs offered to residents by VDOT, and administered by FCDOT, are designed to help them address traffic concerns, such as speeding and cut-through traffic within their communities. Both programs have specific criteria that must be met to develop a plan to address the concerns of neighborhood residents because no two neighborhoods are alike. The cut-through and traffic calming programs are designed to address the traffic concerns of communities on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, rather than a regional or multi-community basis.
At our 2 October General Meeting, we will discuss a proposal that we could present to the Fairfax County Supervisors for consideration to change the choice of which neighborhoods are included in deliberations of proposed cut-through or traffic calming measures. Under current practices, only one neighborhood is consulted. Neighborhoods that border on the ends of streets that are under consideration for changes to reduce traffic volume or speed are not consulted, and their interests not represented. It may be that a more regional or multi-community approach would provide a more balanced methodology to address traffic problems in our neighborhoods.
Beginning in August 2001, Washington D.C. police started using a new technique to battle excessive speeding-photo speed enforcement.
Five Ford Crown Victoria cruisers will roam 60 speed enforcement zones across the city. Each car will carry a camera that aims a narrow radar beam across a street and snaps a photo if a vehicle crosses at or above a threshold speed. The police will primarily target residential areas, although some cars will patrol highways during non-rush hour periods.
Photo speed enforcement produces many more speeding tickets than traditional speed traps, where police have to pull over a speeding driver and write a ticket while other cars either speed by or slow down at the sight of flashing police car lights. No longer is it safe to travel at the same excessive speed as the car in front of you-you will both get tickets.
The cameras are operated by officers working overtime Monday through Saturday from about 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. They will generate a printed photo of the speeding vehicle, along with the owner's address, violation date, speed and fine. Because the cameras cannot tell who was driving, no points will be posted on the owner's record.
The police have more or less indicated that the cameras will be set to take a photo of motorists traveling more than 5 mph in a school zone and 10 mph on other roads. I suspect that if everyone were careful to keep their speed this low, there would be no such thing as a speeding problem and the rate of traffic accidents would drop considerably.
Nationwide, photo speed enforcement is being adopted by more communities, while at the same time it is growing in controversy. Some complain that the cameras are merely a quick way to raise revenue.
Fairfax County is not likely to rush into adopting this new approach to control speeding. Our county prefers to fully analyze big investments like this-about $100,000 per camera-equipped car. When the Fairfax County Police Department selects programs or equipment such as this, they look to see how other police departments have been using it and how beneficial the program/equipment has been. They look at the impact the program/equipment has made and weigh it against the expense to determine if it is worthwhile for Fairfax County to invest in.
Nevertheless, it is a good idea not to drive above the speed limit wherever you are. Be especially alert going down long, steep hills. Fairfax County still uses traditional speed traps, and judges at traffic court repeatedly note that speed limits on a street are the same at the bottom of a hill as at the top-that's what brakes are for!
Fairfax County has a long-range plan (10-20 years) to widen Route 50 to three lanes each direction inside the Beltway. Long before this project is funded, I'm sure that the rush-hour traffic will stretch completely between Graham and Annandale Roads-perhaps one continuous string of cars between Seven Corners and the Beltway!
Conventional wisdom has it that widening Route 50 would allow large trucks to travel on the road. NOT SO! First, the existing roadbed is not strong enough to support large truck traffic. Route 50 has a weight limit of eight tons because of design limitations. Major reconstruction would have to be done to the pavement, which would be very expensive. Second, there is a state law that designates Route 50 in our area as a truck-free road. The law would have to be changed, and Fairfax County or the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) would have to find a source of significant funding to replace the entire road before Route 50 could be used as a truck route in our area.
With a grassy area between the eastbound and westbound lanes and between the main road and the two service roads, VDOT should have enough room to work with without having to affect the service roads or take away any land from the Westlawn homes along the service road. For the near future, VDOT will be preoccupied with the Beltway widening project. There are no immediate plans for what a widened Route 50 might look like, nor is there any funding identified for future widening of Route 50 at this time. Stay tuned!
For those of us who have been lamenting the sorry shape of the cracking and crumbling roads in the south part of our civic association area, great news! Without a lot of fanfare, a bunch of No Parking signs went up at the end of May announcing that the roads were being repaved. No longer do I have to watch the weeds growing through cracks in the middle of the street! Other roads in surrounding areas were also repaved.
In early May, Rachel Webb of VDOT responded to my continuing requests for pavement markings for our neighborhood. I had requested VDOT to review several streets for faded crosswalks and stop bars. As a result of her investigation, VDOT agreed to do the following:
At my request, VDOT is actively looking into repainting crosswalks around Westlawn Elementary School and painting new crosswalks at two intersections on Barrett Road near the school. VDOT will also look at painting stop bars at several of our intersections with four-way stop signs.
Sherrell Crow of VDOT discussed traffic issues at the Broyhill Park Civic Association meeting in December. He noted studies that showed that drivers are likely to drive faster down a side street if it has a double yellow line down the middle, not slower! Drivers think that a yellow line means that the street is a major side street, and subconsciously they feel comfortable driving faster.
Sherrell noted that speed humps, such as those on Kerns Road, do help to slow down average traffic speed. However, traffic volume drops only a little at first and quickly returns to its original levels-the drivers simply have no better alternative routes, speed humps or not. He also said that saturating a street with successive stop signs only leads to speeding between the stop signs as drivers race to make up for the delays caused by frequent stopping.
I forwarded to Sherrell a recommendation I made last year to slightly modify the northbound lanes of Graham Road and Jaguar Trail where they intersect Route 50 to allow more traffic to get through the intersection on a green light when traffic is heavy. He will investigate the matter. I believe that the change at Graham Road would result in more cars on northbound Graham Road staying on the road and turning left at Route 50 rather than diverting down Marc Drive to turn left onto Route 50. Marc Drive residents are concerned with the high traffic volume and high speeds on what has become an important cut-through road for local residents, including many of us in Westlawn!
Broyhill Park has two special situations that create ongoing traffic-related problems. The high school is a constant source of new teenage drivers who have been known to speed and drive recklessly on Marc Drive and Camp Alger Avenue from time to time. Also, the school administrative center at the former Walnut Hill elementary school has created tremendous parking problems on Camp Alger and adjacent roads. The parking lot is barely large enough for a typical school staff, not an entire office building of employees, each with their own car to park.
Broyhill Park residents have asked VDOT to investigate further traffic calming measures on Marc Drive, as well as parking restrictions on side streets near the Walnut Hill administrative center. I reminded everyone that the people most likely to use Marc Drive as a cut-through street are neighbors like us in Westlawn, just trying to deal with the heavy traffic on the major roads.
Patience is required when requesting road improvements from VDOT. Given the ongoing staffing shortages at VDOT, it is not unusual for non-priority requests to takes months or even years to work through the system. We have waited years for several requests, such as the repainting of crosswalks, so I guess we are due!
VDOT is still evaluating the issue of painting white parking lines on Wayne and Westmoreland Roads. Both roads are 36 feet wide curb-to-curb, just barely meeting VDOT's minimum requirement of eight feet for each parking lane and 10 feet for each travel lane. (I measured the parking lane on Annandale Road, and the outside edge of the white line is exactly eight feet from the vertical edge of the curb.)
Of interest to Westlawn residents, I have joined with the Broyhill Park Civic Association in requesting that the stop sign where Marc Drive intersects southbound Graham Road be moved forward another 25 feet or so to where the two roads intersect. In addition, two proposals that I submitted months ago are on VDOT's plan:
VDOT has changed the painted turn arrows on westbound South Street at Annandale Road from left/straight and right only to left only and right/straight. The changes followed a request I made to VDOT several months ago, re-establishing what were the de facto traffic patterns before VDOT painted turn arrows at the intersection. Our thanks to VDOT for investigating our request and acting promptly on the matter.
VDOT is still investigating safety improvements to the area around the intersection of Route 50 and Annandale Road. The ultimate outcome remains undecided, but it is encouraging that VDOT is taking the time to examine concerns from the Westlawn and Sleepy Hollow communities as well as the local business in the area.
No word yet on our request that the southbound right lane of Annandale Road that ends just before Barrett Road be designated a Right Turn Only lane. I also am working with Supervisor Gross' office to find out what happened to the crosswalks in our neighborhood that VDOT agreed to repaint, but hasn't yet.
On 30 June 1998 at 6:00 p.m. Supervisor Penny Gross held a meeting with Mr. Sherrell Crow, a VDOT Traffic Engineer, to discuss a proposed change to block off the Route 50 service roads at Annandale Road similar to what was done at Graham Road. Westlawn residents and interested business owners from the south service road area also were in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was for VDOT to explain the research it had conducted concerning traffic accidents at and near the Annandale Road/Route 50 intersection, and for residents and business owners to express their concerns over the impact of blocking the service roads.
Mr. Crow began by outlining the background behind this project. Every year VDOT has a small amount of money set aside to spend on low-cost, high-impact projects that VDOT identifies based largely on accident statistics. The flashing yellow stop light on Route 50 and South Street was such a project. Given the low cost of pouring a little concrete to block off the service roads, the cost-benefit ratio of this project was very attractive compared to other projects in the Northern Virginia area, even if only a handful of accidents per year would be prevented.
VDOT management recently assigned the project to Mr. Crow, and he is looking to finish it. VDOT does not have to hold hearings or get approval from anyone to go ahead with these low-cost safety improvement projects. Based on a tip-off from a Westlawn resident, Pat Stehnach, I called Mr. Crow and discussed some of our concerns, including the point that despite what police statistics indicated, we thought that there were far more accidents at the south service road in front of McDonald's than at Annandale Road. Mr. Crow agreed to research the accidents at the areas in question on a case-by-case basis and volunteered to present his results to the community.
The carefully researched VDOT statistics appear to vindicate what Westlawn residents have been saying all along: police data bases do not give precise accident locations, and the service road experiences many more accidents in front of McDonald's than at Annandale Road. Mr. Crow compiled precise information on accident locations for a three-year period. The statistics covered only angle collisions--no rear enders. The north and south service roads combined had a total of 22 accidents at Annandale Road, whereas the location in front of McDonald's had 27! The little cut-through in front of Bill Page Honda also had about a dozen accidents.
Business owners made it clear that their businesses would be substantially harmed by the blocking of the service road. The IHOP owner said that he never would have located here if the service road was blocked. Without an open service road, how would a tourist traveling west on Route 50 get to IHOP--turn left on Annandale Road, left on South Street, and left into the back entrance of the CVS/IHOP shopping center that has no signage? The business and property owners reinforced what I had said in an e-mail to Mr. Crow weeks earlier--local businesses would lose customers because of the inconvenience created by blocking the service roads.
Several of us noted that the traffic changes that occur in reaction to the blocking of the service roads might cause more harm than the accidents prevented. Some McDonald's traffic might detour through the Westlawn shopping center to use the stop light at South Street. CVS and IHOP customers from the local area might start using South Street as a primary entrance--something Sleepy Hollow residents want to avoid. Mr. Crow noted that it is difficult to estimate how traffic will respond to a change like this, let alone how much this response would increase accidents elsewhere.
Business owners made several suggestions for VDOT to consider before taking the permanent step of blocking the service road. They suggested better signage, better painting on the road of stop lines and turn lanes, rumble strips on the service roads just before the Annandale Road stop signs, and even the possibility of an extra set of stop lights on Annandale Road at the service roads to keep traffic from creeping up on a red light into the little space between the service roads and Route 50.
I suggested that if anything needs to be blocked to prevent accidents in our area, it appears that the service road entrance in front of McDonald's is the best candidate.
Mr. Crow agreed to take all our ideas and concerns back to his office to discuss with other VDOT officials. He also agreed to research the service road accidents in front of McDonald's and further west at Westmoreland Road. VDOT will then reconsider its plans in light of all this information and get back to Supervisor Gross with its decision(s).
Regardless of the outcome, the Westlawn community would like to express its appreciation to Mr. Crow and Supervisor Gross for their efforts to address community concerns on this issue. Mr. Crow went far beyond his minimum job requirements by thoroughly researching the issue and taking his own time to address what he knew would be a confrontational crowd. We look forward to working with VDOT on any future issues of mutual concern.