Arlington County’s efforts to get drivers to slow down has residents in at least three neighborhoods up in arms at a government they said does whatever it wants without consideration for residents. In North Arlington, Terry Dean, the president of the Chain Bridge Forest Civic Association, said county staff refused to listen to her neighbors’ complaints about a street improvement project now under way. Neighbors wanted $16,000 worth of speed humps, she said. What they got was $200,000 worth of concrete dividers and narrowed lanes that they said increased the risk of drivers being rear-ended while turning into the neighborhood.

“I think there was a time when ‘the Arlington way’ meant good governance,” Dean said. “‘Arlington way’ now means my way or highway.”