The Town of Herndon is turning to the public for assistance with identifying the most hazardous spots on its roadways.
Feedback collected through an online survey and other avenues will help shape the town’s new Roadway Safety Action Plan, an initiative that aims to eliminate traffic deaths and drastically reduce serious injuries resulting from crashes over the next decade.
Launched on Monday (Aug. 18), the initiative will involve an in-depth analysis of data on crashes and other safety issues to identify high-risk locations around Herndon. The findings will then inform future transportation strategies and projects that could make local streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.
Possible recommendations could include crosswalk and intersection improvements, new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and safety measures for vulnerable road users, such as children and people with disabilities.
“The Roadway Safety Action Plan is a huge step toward achieving our goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways,” Herndon transportation engineer Mike Shindledecker said in a press release. “It will help us figure out which projects need to be funded first and which will have the most impact.”
Relying primarily on a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the town allocated $500,000 to fund the Roadway Safety Action Plan’s development in its capital improvement program (CIP) for fiscal years 2026 to 2031.
When discussing the plan with the town council last year, staff reported that Herndon has fewer fatalities than other, similar jurisdictions and Virginia has a whole, but crashes that result in serious injuries are higher than average — a concern for a town where speed limits even on major roads like Elden Street and Herndon Parkway top out at 35 mph.
Public engagement will be critical to the success of the action plan, Shindledecker stressed.
The online survey will remain open until Sept. 30, and community members can leave comments about specific sites — an intersection in need of a crosswalk, for example — on an interactive map.
The staff leading the project will also host several pop-up events over the next month:
- Aug. 22, 6-9 p.m.: Friday Night Live at the Town Green (777 Lynn Street)
- Aug. 28, 8 a.m. to noon: Herndon Farmers Market on Lynn Street
- Aug. 30, noon to 3 p.m.: Outside Sprouts and Lotte Plaza Market (490 Elden Street) at the Herndon Centre shopping center
- Sept. 10, 4-7 p.m.: Herndon Metro station (585-A Herndon Parkway)
- Sept. 14, noon to 3 p.m.: In front of Fresh World (1070 Elden Street) in the Dulles Park shopping center
- Sept. 25, 5-8 p.m.: Herndon Community Center (814 Ferndale Avenue)
“Our team will be present at Town events, community gathering places and even grocery stores to meet people where they are,” Shindledecker said. “We are also relying on our community partners to help us reach places that Town staff may not typically access.”
A second round of public engagement on draft components of the plan is expected to take place around February and March 2026, before a final proposal is presented to the Herndon Town Council next spring.
