Image from Google Street View.

A traffic signal and crosswalk was already planned for Virginia Route 234 at the very spot a man was killed yesterday. The signal had been promised for spring 2010, but hasn’t yet been installed.

The man was crossing between a McDonald’s and a commuter bus lot near Route 1 in Dumfries where Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) buses travel to the Pentagon and downtown DC.

The pedestrian danger there is nothing new. According to TBD, people often cross here on foot. It’s not just people eating at the McDonald’s; this is the main way to enter the lot as a pedestrian, including when transferring from other buses.

There are no crosswalks at the intersection of 234 and Route 1, and along the side of 234 adjacent to the lot, there was not even a sidewalk until recently. As part of a large expansion of the lot, Prince William County and VDOT planned a new sidewalk along the edge and a signal at the McDonalds/commuter lot entrance on 237.

Image from Google Street View.

The lot has since been expended and the sidewalk added (the bright white line in the above picture), but not the light. According to information obtained by GGW, Prince William officials said in December that VDOT was scheduled to install the signal by the spring. However, installation was subsequently stalled waiting for parts.

WTOP reports that VDOT is now promising the signal by “mid-November.” If they had gotten it done within even six months of the promised date, however, Mr. Zelaya-Jovel would probably be alive today. And if a crash were to happen in that spot, Prince William police wouldn’t so cavalierly dismiss the issue.