Fairfax County supervisors are expected on Tuesday to approve a slew of measures that would force drivers to slow down.
The board is looking to add a string of new stop signs, “watch for children” warnings and a speed hump throughout the county in an attempt to rein in the increasing number of drivers who speed through neighborhoods.
As part of the Residential Traffic Administration Program, a speed hump is slated for Birch Street in Falls Church. Multiple stop signs are planned along Herndon’s Quincy Adams Drive and at the intersection of Magna Carta Drive and Keele Drive. The intersections at Vienna’s Abby Oak Drive and Meadowlark Road and Springfield’s Greenview Lane and Harland Drive also would get stop signs.
County officials say the devices are necessary to handle the increasing number of drivers using residential areas as shortcuts.The projects were suggested by residents with safety concerns, tired of drivers ignoring the speed limit signs they zoomed past.
Residential roads are eligible for the traffic-calming program if they have a posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour, between 600 and 4,000 vehicles daily and either 85 percent of drivers traveling at least 35 mph or at an average speed of at least 30 mph.
Though welcomed by nearby residents, speed humps are routinely detested by everyone else, acknowledged Fairfax County Senior Transportation Planner Bill Harrell.
“What we run into is that the folks that live along the particular street [with the speed hump] are the ones who support the device, and the ones who just drive through are the ones who usually don’t approve,” he said.
Harrell said transportation officials polled area residents and drivers who would be forced to drive over the speed hump and found that more than 60 percent — the minimum threshold required by the county — signed off on the plan.
Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said he understood the frustration with such speed-killers but called them necessary given the state of the area’s roads.
“Because our main roads are so congested, people are taking back roads and residential streets to their destinations,” he said. “And they tend to drive a lot faster than the posted speed. It’s not a safe situation.”
He predicted the county would pass similar projects throughout the year.
The Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesdays this year rather than Mondays.
