The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has begun looking at reducing speed limits on a select number of roads across the county.
The board’s transportation committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday) included a preliminary discussion on how the county can get the ball rolling on addressing roads with speed limits of 25 mph.
“I do think this is a case where we have asked the General Assembly for this right,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. “We need to follow up on that.”
The discussion comes after the Virginia General Assembly approved legislation this spring — H.B. 1071 — that gave local jurisdictions the authority to lower speed limits on certain roads under 25 mph via an ordinance, although new limits can’t go lower than 15 mph. The bill took effect at the beginning of July.
Targeted roads must be located in either a business or residence district, according to the legislation, which took effect in the beginning of July.
State lawmakers had passed a bill in 2021 that enabled localities to reduce 25 mph speed limits, but the Virginia Department of Transportation denied most requests, arguing that only the state Commissioner of Highways can make changes to state-owned roads — which make up the vast majority of Fairfax County’s network.
To fix that technicality, this year’s legislation explicitly gave local goverments the authority to lower speed limits on roads in the state highway system as long as they notify the Commissioner of Highways of the change.
At Tuesday’s meeting, which finished ahead of schedule, most of the board members who spoke on the subject expressed support for conducting a pilot program before rolling out widespread changes across the county.
“Because it is a change and would be distinct from most of Northern Virginia, it either needs to be very limited or targeted, or there needs to be some uniformity about it,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said.
But tweaking speed limits means more than just changing signs, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said.
“I’m also thinking on the implementation that it’s not just the speed limit,” Alcorn said. “If we could also [adjust] the signage, the striping, the making it feel like the speed limit’s lower, not just changing the sign, I think is really important for the public.”
A lengthier discussion is expected at the transportation committee’s October meeting, according to committee chair Jimmy Bierman, who represents Dranesville District.
“Supervisor Bierman looks forward to continuing to explore the issues and considerations related to exercising the authority granted by the General Assembly to reduce speed limits in certain areas,” Bierman’s aide Prabha Rollins told FFXnow. “He believes that lower speed limits could be very useful in creating safer environments for pedestrians and cyclists in these areas and wants to ensure that any changes to speed limits are made after careful consideration.”
