The Wiehle Avenue of the future will be less auto-centric and more accommodating to pedestrians, bicyclists and other non-motorized travelers — or so Fairfax County hopes.
Reston residents got a glimpse into possible versions of that future at a community meeting on May 23, when the Fairfax County Department of Transportation shared three concepts for new roadway configurations with multimodal facilities, landscaping and other changes.
The concepts will be refined into a final recommendation based on feedback from the meeting at Langston Hughes Middle School and other comments submitted to the Wiehle Avenue study team.
“This is a great example of a road that is not serving the entire population and engaging the community to provide suggestions on how to make it useful and safe for everybody, and staff going off and analyzing different suggestions,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who represents Reston, said. “So, I’m very pleased with the way this is moving.”
Residents share safety concerns
Kicked off in November with a brainstorming workshop, the Wiehle Avenue study evaluated the road from Sunrise Valley Drive to the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail with the goal of identifying ways to make it safer and more inviting, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.
In its current condition, the road is “a death trap,” says Alex Krikorian, a resident of the Lake Anne area. Talking to FFXnow at last week’s meeting, he vowed to “never again” bike down Wiehle after one harrowing trip, adding that driving through the “gigantic sea of asphalt” isn’t exactly pleasant either.
Two residents who live near the Wiehle Metro station say speeding drivers make the corridor, which spans 11 lanes at the Reston Station Blvd intersection, daunting for pedestrians to cross. One admitted that she sometimes just drives the block to CVS in Reston Station to avoid the crossing and ongoing construction.
“The crosswalk there is very unnerving, and sometimes that light doesn’t even work,” one said.
The studied section of Wiehle was designed for the sole purpose of getting vehicles off and on the Dulles Toll Road as quickly as possible, according to Alcorn. The county hopes to adapt the road to better serve the dense, urban development emerging around the Metro station, which is now nearly a decade old.
“Right now, it’s very dangerous for anybody who wants to walk or bicycle on Wiehle or along Wiehle,” the supervisor said.
Concepts replace travel lanes with pedestrian/bicycle facilities
The design options presented by FCDOT last week all narrow the road to make room for new pedestrian and bicycle facilities, but the scale and style of the improvements vary.
The most conservative alternative would remove some turn lanes and the slip lanes to Sunrise Valley Drive to allow 10-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides and a 12-foot-wide, landscaped median from the toll road to Reston Station Blvd. The through lanes would remain, but the speed limit would be lowered from 35 to 30 mph, according to the staff presentation.
The other alternatives would reduce the road to two through lanes in each direction, maintaining the current speed limit. One would add a two-way cycle track on the west side, a 10-foot-wide sidewalk on the east side and a 12-foot-wide median from the toll road to Sunset Hills. The other proposes one-way, protected bike lanes on each side of the road and roundabouts at Sunset Hills and Sunrise Valley.
The initial reactions have been “a mixed bag,” with community members expressing both hope at the prospect of a more accessible Wiehle and “guarded skepticism of what we can actually do and when we can actually do it,” county transportation planner Timothy Kutz says.
He noted that removing lanes will inevitably prolong waits for drivers at some intersections. The study found that the delays would still be within an acceptable range, except at Wiehle and Sunset Hills Road, where they could last 92 to 314 seconds during the 5 p.m. rush hour, depending on the scenario.
“There’s going to be a give and take,” Kutz said. “It’s not going to make everybody happy, but hopefully, these alternatives provide for options. People can walk, people can bike, people can drive if they choose to.”
More immediate improvements sought
Among the meeting attendees, the second concept with the cycle track appeared to win out, based on a “dot exercise” where they voted for their preferred approach to bicycle facilities, landscaping and placemaking — things that give the street an identity and encourage people to visit, not just pass through, Kutz explained.
Arguing that roundabouts wouldn’t make sense for this road, Krikorian advocated for a cycle track with no on-street parking and street trees to separate pedestrians and cyclists from cars. He said having seating areas along Wiehle would be “a fantastic idea,” suggesting they could create an environment similar to Lake Anne Plaza.
“Every weekend, there’s a farmers’ market, there’s a craft fair, they’ve got outdoor eating areas, so you have people walking around and buying things and eating at restaurants,” Krikorian said. “It’s just a very enjoyable place to be.”
Not everyone favored seating areas as a placemaking element, as one of the Wiehle Metro station area residents said loud groups congregating in the area late at night is already an issue. The other resident, who regularly walks and runs on Wiehle, cast a vote for fitness or recreation equipment.
Though they support some of the potential changes, both residents worried they’ll take too long to implement. According to Kutz, FCDOT is planning for what the road could look like in 2030, but a clearer timeline will come after the study is completed this fall, and it may depend on how the area develops.
“That’s way too far in the future. We live there now and we need improvements now, not six years from now,” one of the Wiehle Metro area residents said.
He suggested a ban on right turns on red for eastbound drivers on Reston Station Blvd, along with more speed enforcement and new signals that would give pedestrians a head start.
Kutz said some interim measures could be considered, including a couple that are already on the way. A pedestrian bridge over Wiehle at the W&OD Trail is set to open next month, and FCDOT has received a grant from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to install a cycle track from Sunrise Valley past Sunset Hills Road — possibly as soon as 2025.
With the police unable to monitor the area around-the-clock, Wiehle could be a good site for automated traffic enforcement, such as speed or red light cameras, Alcorn proposed. However, the county would need to get more authority from Virginia, which limits localities to a certain number of red-light cameras and only allows speed cameras in school and construction work zones.
In February, the General Assembly postponed a vote on legislation that would’ve allowed speed cameras in any location until 2025.
While enforcement “plays a role” in road safety, design improvements will ultimately be more effective at reducing speeds long term, Kutz told FFXnow.
“When you narrow the roadway and add in these elements, like street trees, and you add in pedestrian walkways and bike trails, people are going to see that and it’s going to trigger something in their brain, ‘Oh, I need to slow down, this is not a runway for me to speed along,'” Kutz said.
