Fairfax County residents who live on streets that limit cut-through traffic can now get exempted from those restrictions.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday (Feb. 18) to begin accepting petitions in July from neighborhoods that want to provide the carve-out for residents while retaining restrictions on other drivers.
The county’s Residential Traffic Administration Program allows residential streets to restrict access to non-local traffic if they meet certain criteria, including a 25-mph speed limit, a minimum of 150 cut-through trips in an hour in one direction, and the availability of a “reasonable” alternative route.
Currently, only three neighborhoods in the county, totaling 325 properties, have restrictions in place, county staff told the Board of Supervisors:
- Sleepy Hollow Road/Carolyn Drive/Nicholson Street in Lake Barcroft
- Columbia Pike/Downing Street/Oxford Street in Annandale
- Algonquin Parkway/Thomas Avenue in Great Falls
However, other neighborhoods have requested the restrictions or are considering it.
Even though residents of affected roads are not cutting through but simply getting to and from their homes, all turns onto an affected street currently are prohibited during specified periods.
Allowing residents of the neighborhood to get a permit exempting them from the restrictions “is simply adding another tool,” said Dranesville District Supervisor James Bierman.
Bierman said more neighborhoods might be interested in seeking restrictions on cut-through traffic if residents those living there were exempted.
He pointed to locations in his district, which includes McLean, Great Falls and some of the Herndon area, where cut-through restrictions would make sense, but residents living there were unwilling to face the potential of a 40-minute detour during rush hour just to get to and from home.
“There are lots of people … thinking about putting in place cut-through restrictions,” Bierman said.
When the proposal for exemptions was discussed by supervisors a year ago, county staff said there were seven requests for cut-through restrictions from neighborhoods totaling about 1,300 homes in the queue for consideration. Some of those, however, are inactive.
A number of speakers from the Great Falls area near the Loudoun border spoke in favor of exemption permits for local residents at yesterday’s public hearing, but the proposal drew criticism from several speakers living on Carolyn Drive.
“It is a solution without a problem,” Lamya Moosa said, stating that she attended the hearing to show “strong opposition” to the proposed change.
Gabriella Hammack, who lives near Moosa, took the same position.
“It’s unclear to me why this is necessary,” she said.
Hammack said that if drivers not living in the community see those who do live there making turns, they “are going to feel emboldened” to ignore the restrictions.
In a report for the Board of Supervisors, county staff had a mixed assessment of the program’s equity impacts.
“This could enhance equity by allowing communities who may otherwise suffer from cut-through traffic to remove that traffic without being penalized by the restriction itself,” staff said. “However, this could create issues in adjacent communities if that cut-through traffic shifts to other roadways.”
Under the adopted provisions, neighborhoods wanting to join the residential cut-through permit program would have to petition the Board of Supervisors and go through a public hearing before any changes take place. Supervisors won’t be obligated to authorize the exception.
Requests for exemptions would be accepted from neighborhoods that already have no-through-traffic restrictions as well as those seeking to add them in the future. For the latter, resident exemption permits could be considered either with the initial application or after restrictions are in place.
Residents authorized to get a permit would pay $24 annually to help cover the cost of the program, which is run by the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
According to county staff, it will cost FCDOT approximately $3,000 annually to establish and operate the resident permit program, mostly to pay for signage, decals and other materials.
The General Assembly authorized localities with cut-through restrictions to provide exemptions for residents on those streets in 2019. Emergency vehicles and buses are automatically exempted.
Image via Google Maps
