Eventually, Ferndale Avenue will get curb bump outs, additional crosswalks and marked parking lanes, changes intended to slow down traffic and protect pedestrians.
First, though, Town of Herndon staff are reviewing options for temporary, more immediate safety measures that can be implemented ahead of the long-term traffic calming project, which has no set funding or completion date yet.
“Based on the public meeting and input from Town Council, staff is currently assessing the ability to perform interim, low-cost improvements along Ferndale Avenue prior to the deployment of the full project,” the town told FFXnow on Aug. 6. “Final design of the project is still anticipated to occur the later part of this year.”
After gathering public input at a June 13 community meeting, Herndon Transportation Engineer Mike Shindledecker presented a concept for traffic calming improvements on Ferndale Avenue between Park Avenue and Herndon Parkway to the town council on July 9.
Lined with townhouse neighborhoods, the roughly 0.2-mile segment is just north of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail as well as the Herndon Community Center, Bready Park and the Herndon Centennial Golf Course, resulting in an area that draws both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
However, the road’s curves and parked cars on both sides limit the drivers’ ability to see oncoming vehicles and pedestrians, fueling “several” concerns and complaints in recent years, according to Shindledecker.
Herndon police records show there have been 17 crashes in the past five years, though the impact has mostly been limited to property damage. A fatal motorcycle crash on July 8 appears to less related to the road’s design than factors like alcohol and a lack of helmets and proper licensing, Town Manager Bill Ashton told the council, cautioning that, at that time, the investigation was still ongoing.
Town staff began exploring traffic calming improvements for the road in 2020, conducting a sight distance study in 2021 and developing a concept design from 2022 to 2023. Earlier this year, the project was added to the town’s Capital Improvement Program for fiscal years 2025-2030.
The proposed traffic calming concept
The proposed concept would bump out the curb at several intersections, including Park Avenue, Boros Court and Trevino Lane, both at Nicholas Court and Elder Court. Crosswalks will be added across Ferndale Avenue at Park Avenue intersection and the Trevino/Elder intersection.
Though the concept shows two crosswalks at Trevino, one on the north side of the intersection and one on the south side, Shindledecker said only one will likely be installed. The location will be determined by the final engineering design, which is now in the works.
“We want to make sure, if we’re installing a crosswalk, it’s very clearly seen and has enhanced conspicuity at that exact location, so we would be unlikely to put both in, but we wanted to assess both locations,” he said.
In addition to making pedestrians more visible to drivers, the curb bump outs will shorten the distance they have to walk to cross the street, create more green and impervious space, and allow marked parking lanes to visually separate them from the travel lanes.
“One of the key concerns along this corridor is the narrow width,” Shindledecker said. “It feels very narrow as a result of parked cars. The parking lanes will help to navigate parkers closer to the curb and away from the travel lane.”
Council supports keeping street parking
The approximately 26 to 28 people who attended the June community meeting expressed overall support for the proposed traffic calming measures, but concerns about the project’s timeliness and the need for more immediate safety protections cropped up, Shindledecker recounted.
Some attendees also urged staff to consider traffic control — specifically, an all-way stop sign — at Ferndale and Park, and some requested consideration of the removal of parking on one side of the street to allow wider travel lanes.
The townhomes in the area were built with around 294 parking spaces, exceeding the minimum zoning requirements that were in place when they were initially developed in 1985, according to Shindledecker, who noted the current zoning requires fewer spaces.
“If we were to remove parking, we could improve sight lines and pedestrian visibility in the corridor and aid in the ability of vehicles to turn into and out of those neighborhoods,” he said. “The wider lanes would ease maneuverability for Fairfax Connector buses or any larger vehicles that make deliveries in this area, as well as the opposing traffic.”
On the flip side, the parking lanes serve as a “natural traffic calming element” since drivers tend to go slower if the travel lanes are narrow or constricted, the traffic engineer said.
Parking near Herndon’s downtown also remains valuable, several council members said, indicating that they wouldn’t support removing parking unless spaces can be provided elsewhere.
“We’re seeing more and more people coming to the area,” Councilmember Cesar del Aguila said. “We certainly want people to come to the area, and we want them to be able to park. If we’re picking off parking, we’re kind of limiting that.”
Vice Mayor Clark Hedrick suggested he would support removing parking if it reduced the impervious surface, rather than widening the travel lanes. The project was designed to keep the drainage infrastructure along the road in its current position, since any underground work would “significantly” increase the cost, Shindledecker said.
Preliminarily, the town estimates the project will cost $650,000, including $540,000 for construction. The estimate is in 2027 dollars to accommodate possible future inflation.
“If we could actually keep the roadway narrower, it would become a more walkable area without parking, but I don’t think that’s in the realm of discussion right now,” Hedrick conceded.
Del Aguila questioned whether stop signs could be added at least as an interim measure. According to Shindledecker, past studies of Ferndale and Park found that a stop sign isn’t warranted at that intersection, and having stop signs where they’re not warranted makes drivers less likely to obey.
“It does erode compliance at other locations where they are critical, such as schools, downtown areas and heavily traveled pedestrian throughways, such as the W&OD Trail,” he said.
