“It’s a disaster in Fairfax County.” Can a near miss dashboard make Northern Virginia’s streets safer?

When Karen McCluskey of Northern Virginia Families for Safer Streets first began compiling the 2022 pedestrian crash data for Fairfax County last November on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, she never expected the carnage to be so catastrophic. What she found was 188 cases of drivers crashing into people walking in the commonwealth’s most populous county, 53 pedestrians with serious injuries, and 32 dead neighbors who would never walk around Fairfax’s streets again.

The recently released 2022 Fairfax County Safe Streets Report McCluskey assembled is full of such shocking statistics, each with a real person and grieving families and friends behind the numbers. From 2021 to 2022 the number of pedestrian fatalities more than doubled in Fairfax, mirroring a tragic statewide trend which resulted in more than 1,000 dead Virginians for the first time since 2007. Including cyclists, vulnerable road users made up over 15% of all those killed on the commonwealth’s roads last year, potentially triggering a new federal safety rule which would force the Virginia Department of Transportation to spend Highway Safety Improvement Program dollars on walking and biking infrastructure for the first time in history.

Mike Doyle, the founder and president of NVFSS, wants local and state leaders to wake up to the pedestrian fatality crisis happening in his home county.

“It’s a disaster in Fairfax County,” he said. “When we try to advocate for change and go to the county transportation people, they often say they agree, but they don’t control the roads. VDOT are nice people, and they listen, but their level of urgency is very different from ours. They have studies, but we know speed kills.”

Under Virginia’s unique system of independent localities, only cities retain control (and the cost of repaving) over most of their road networks. VDOT is in charge of the vast majority of roadways in counties with one exception: Arlington which enjoys an “urban county” designation with similar rights and responsibilities to cities.

Legislative loss

That’s why this year Del. Ken Plum, D-Fairfax introduced a bill to Virginia’s General Assembly which would have authorized “the governing body of any locality to reduce to less than 25 miles per hour, but not less than 15 miles per hour, the speed limit of highways that are part of the primary and secondary state highway systems located in a business district or residence district within the locality’s boundaries, provided that the reduced speed limit is indicated by lawfully placed signs.”

Fairfax Supervisor James Walkinshaw requested Plum carry the proposal in response to the countless constituents who complain to him and his colleagues about unsafe road conditions in the county.

“Every single week every member of the Board of Supervisors hears from residents about unsafe speeding and dangerous driving around business districts, school zones, and neighborhoods. We were hoping the General Assembly would recognize this as a modest measure to give us some flexibility to tackle this issue on a case-by-case measure.”

A 2021 bill carried by Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond granted localities the power to lower speed limits to as little as 15 mph in residential and business districts; however, VDOT and its lawyers concluded that bill didn’t apply to them because it didn’t explicitly list that state-maintained roads were included, according to Walkinshaw.

Plum’s bill to extend that authority to counties like Fairfax failed on a party-line vote in a Republican-controlled House subcommittee last month. Walkinshaw for one doesn’t understand why VDOT testified against the bill as the state agency already allows localities to reshape their streets via their residential traffic calming program.

“VDOT already gives local governments authority to make changes to their road design consistent with their guidelines and in concert with communities,” he said. “If VDOT was willing to do this on their own, then we wouldn’t need to ask for this authority, but they haven’t shown that willingness to look at these safety issues on a case-by-case basis.”

Near miss messaging

Facing a locality unable to act and an intransigent state legislature, NVFSS has taken road safety into their own hands with their Near Miss and Dangerous Location Dashboard. Covering all the localities of Northern Virginia, the dashboard was created thanks to ten Virginia Tech students and a $45,000 grant from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The dashboard allows people to crowdsource dangers on the road by dropping a pin or putting in an address to log near misses with drivers and unsafe intersections around the region.

“This is a way for the community to have a voice in what they perceive as the risks from traveling the road as a pedestrian or cyclist,” said Doyle. “Politicians want broad feedback, not just the voices of people who live in one neighborhood.”

Two years ago, NVFSS used their crowdsourced data to demonstrate the unsafe conditions around schools and help get a bill to allow automated speed enforcement in school and construction zones through the General Assembly in Richmond. Since then, few jurisdictions have followed through on their authority to set up such speed enforcement cameras. Doyle and his supporters have similarly fought for permanent speed display cameras in Fairfax County similar to those in Alexandria which he perceives to effectively slow drivers down.

As an advocacy tool, NVFSS’ dashboard has garnered national attention. Safe streets advocates from across the country have reached out to Doyle looking for guidance and permission to steal their concept. Even in D.C. proper the Washington Area Bicyclist Association is developing their own near-miss and dangerous location dashboard for the District’s students.

Despite the dashboard’s popularity among advocates, there is still one group Doyle wishes would take notice of NVFSS’ efforts: state transportation officials.

“VDOT is only concerned about traffic flow because that is their priority,” he said. “They know that there are low-tech things that should be done like high visibility crosswalks, bump-outs, and reduced speed limits, but they haven’t done it. We aren’t asking for million-dollar projects. VDOT has the authority; therefore, they are accountable, but who is holding them accountable? Nobody.”