Park Service presents options under consideration for improving Parkway safety
The National Park Service has received more than 700 comments from the general public about safety concerns along the southern end of the George Washington Memorial Parkway since July 2019, GW Parkway Superintendent Charles Cuvelier said Tuesday evening at a community meeting about Parkway safety.
Speaking at the Park Service open house at Walt Whitman Middle School, Cuvelier joined other Parkway staff, traffic engineers and U.S. Park Police in presenting several of the engineering, education and enforcement solutions under consideration, as well as some of the locations where they might be implemented.
To address the public’s top safety concerns about vehicle speeds along the Parkway, the Park Service is weighing options ranging from an educational speed management action plan to driver speed feedback radar signs, reduced speed limits, and better speed enforcement via a “new injection of officers,” according to Park Police Lt. Allan Stone. The Park Service also has been in discussion with authorities at Fort Belvoir about leveraging garrison communications channels to educate Belvoir commuters about safer Parkway driving behavior.
Recent Park Police efforts to improve speed enforcement along the entire Parkway between I-495 and Mount Vernon have led to a 35 percent reduction in motor vehicle accidents between 2018 and 2019, Cuvelier said. The superintendent added that public opinion about installing speed cameras was about evenly divided, but that the cameras raised a larger issue involving data requirements.
More than half the comments submitted so far have been related to the Belle View Boulevard and Belle Haven Road intersections, where nearly 125 crashes occurred over a five-year period.
To help improve intersections that are currently difficult to navigate — especially when making left turns — the Park Service proposed solutions like road diets and roundabouts, including ones at Morningside Lane. Some of these proposals will require more investigation, Cuvelier acknowledged, due to potential downsides like queuing.
The Park Service also offered several potential solutions for improving pedestrian safety and access, a major safety concern among commenters. Recommendations for improving pedestrian safety included a safety campaign, better signage, and various types of pedestrian crosswalks. Cuvelier stressed that pedestrian improvements would only be effective in conjunction with other safety solutions like road diets.
The Park Service is giving the general public until January 10 to submit additional comments about safety concerns and the proposed solutions. By spring 2020, they hope to have a final report ready on actions to be taken.
Actual implementation of Parkway safety improvements may take some time as the bigger-ticket items are funding dependent, said Cuvelier.
“Once I have the money,” is the timeframe for construction, he said.
Following the Park Service presentation, Del. Paul Krizek praised the Park Service for being transparent and showing how public input has impacted its recommended approach. While Krizek is optimistic about the overall process, he says “the devil is in the details” regarding how to pay for some of the bigger improvements.
Meanwhile, he was pleasantly surprised to hear about how recent speed enforcement activities have reduced Parkway crashes.
“Let’s keeping doing that,” Krizek said.
Copies of the December 3 public meeting materials can be viewed here.
Erika Christ has lived in the Mount Vernon area for nearly two decades & has worked in strategic communications for 25 years. She’s part of the communications team at the American Horticultural Society at River Farm.
This plan, without solving the overall traffic issues with commuters coming from the south heading into DC. And from all over to Fort Belvoir. The traffic patterns are constant, with rush hours snarling traffic in all directions. Without addressing these issues, you’re wasting time trying to pretty up the GWMP for commuters.
Something that seems never to be considered in the Parkway discussion is associated with Route 1 that runs parallel with the Parkway. I have lived my entire life in this area and have commuted up Route 1 for going on 40 years now and rarely utilize the Parkway. While much discussion about the upcoming Route 1 widening in the Ft. Belvoir area is a good thing (although the proposed trolley/train up Route 1 in my mind is a total waste of money). If VDOT does nothing about the archaic traffic light timing on Route 1 through the entire Woodlawn/Hybla Valley/ Beacon Hill/Groveton area the result will be nothing but window dressing for Route 1 and will accomplish nothing in terms of efficiently moving traffic that would take some pressure off of the Parkway as a commuter route. When you have to go light to light to light to light on Route 1 it is no wonder that the Parkway becomes the route of choice for pass through commuters. Instead of spending millions on a train to nowhere, how about some competent brainpower be put to work to make Route 1 a viable highway instead of a frustrating; fuel wasting; air polluting rolling parking lot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_wave