Old Lee Highway Multimodal Improvements
On Nov. 9, 2021, City Council adopted a resolution to approve the major design features of the project.
UPDATE: On Nov. 9, 2021, City Council adopted a resolution to approve the major design features of the project.
Old Lee Highway is a special place within the city; there are a variety of land uses along the corridor including three schools, the city’s public library, the community center and police department, a large and beloved city park, churches, the Historic Blenheim, and multiple residential neighborhoods, along with commercial offerings anchoring both ends of the street at Fairfax Circle and Old Town Fairfax.
The corridor is already multimodal in nature, which means there are multiple ways people use to get around, including driving, CUE Bus, walking, biking, and even riding scooters. However, there is tremendous opportunity to improve the look, feel, safety, and function of the entire corridor, and transform it into a best-in-class multimodal street in the City of Fairfax, and in the region.
In 2015, the City of Fairfax completed a conceptual plan for Old Lee Highway. Conceptual planning took about six months and included extensive public involvement. The result was a recommended concept for the corridor that includes separated bicycle lanes, upgraded pedestrian and transit amenities, and improved lighting, landscaping, and buffering.
Project Goals
The redesigned Old Lee Highway corridor will:
- Improve safety and comfort for all roadway users;
- Provide continuous multimodal connections from Old Town Fairfax to Fairfax Circle;
- Promote alternatives to driving for people accessing the library, community center, three schools, and commercial properties along the corridor; and
- Reduce impervious surface area by nearly an acre.
- Maintain Old Lee Highway as a special place within the city and as a gateway into the city
Major decisions agreed upon by City Council include:
- Maintaining existing travel lanes;
- Maintaining existing turning lane locations;
- Adding bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure; and
- Locating bicycle lanes on north side of roadway only.
Old Lee Highway Reimagined
The project is now in the preliminary engineering phase, and plans are approximately 15 percent complete. City staff are developing an engineered plan that includes the recommended components from the conceptual planning process. Feedback from the community emphasized a desire for better pedestrian and bicycle amenities, and landscaping buffers. Care is being taken to minimize impacts to private property and trees.
When complete, Old Lee Highway will feature:
- Two-way, 10-foot bicycle track and a shared-use path on the north side of the road;
- Continuous five-foot sidewalk on the south side;
- Consolidated crossing locations with consistent signage;
- Reduced crossing widths on side streets;
- Upgraded bus stops and shelters throughout the project area; and
- Improved lighting, landscaping, and buffering.
Stakeholder Advisory Group
City staff members are working together with an early-engagement stakeholder advisory group to provide input on the preliminary plans and various concepts the city is considering. The stakeholder advisory group includes 18 volunteers from the various stakeholder entities along the corridor. There are representatives from the Preserve at Great Oaks, Historic Blenheim, Great Oaks, Old Lee Hills, St. Leo’s. Fairfax HS, Country Club Hills, Daniels Run ES, Christian Science Church, Army Navy Country Club, City Council, Daniels Run Peace Church, City School Board, Farrcroft, and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. The city asked each group to select one person to represent his/her group.
Cost and Funding
The estimated project cost is $25.2 million. Funding sources include state revenue sharing ($10 million), regional Northern Virginia Transportation Authority funding ($13 million), and the city’s commercial and industrial tax ($2 million) – a fund dedicated to increasing transportation capacity. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in spring 2023.
Public Engagement to Date
- May 2014: TLC project endorsement to develop a conceptual plan for a redesigned multimodal Old Lee Highway. View presentation.
- October 2014: Resolution of endorsement to request $2M in FY16 Revenue Sharing funding for Old Lee Highway. View presentation.
- Feb 2015: City Council work session – TLC project kick off with Council. View presentation.
- March 2015: Public Meeting 1 for TLC project
- June 2015: City Council work session to review public input from first public meeting and review conceptual alternatives for second public meeting. View presentation.
- June 2015: Public Meeting 2 for TLC Project
- May 2016: Award of contract for $148,978 to complete Phase I engineering to perform survey and develop typical sections for each segment of the project based on concept developed through TLC project. The goal of this effort was identify property and environmental impacts associated with the preferred concept plan and develop an approximate project cost and schedule. View presentation.
- October 2017: Resolution of support for City’s FY 19/20 Revenue Sharing application for $5M in funding for OLH. View presentation.
- November 2017: Resolution of support for City’s FY 18-23 NVTA 70% application for $5M in funding for OLH. View presentation.
- Nov 2018 work session: Provided project update (showed renderings). View presentation.
- Jan 2019: Award of contract for $815,731 to complete Phase II engineering to perform more detailed engineering work to develop 30% and then 50% plans. Approved unanimously. View presentation.
- July 2019 work session: Discussion of design options (facilities on one or both sides) and utility relocation options. View presentation.
- September 2019: Resolution of support for City’s FY 19-24 NVTA 70% application for $8M in funding for OLH. View presentation.
- September 2019: Resolution of support for City’s FY 20/21 Revenue Sharing application for $3M in funding for OLH. View presentation.
- July 2020 work session: Provided project update and requested go-ahead to proceed with stakeholder advisory group. View presentation.
Comments
On Nov. 9, 2021, City Council adopted a resolution to approve the major design features of the project.
As a resident of Country Club Hills, I had reserved judgement on use of roundabouts, and had formally provided concerns that have never been properly addressed. After observing the work session on July 6th, I conclude that they do not add value for the priorities of this project. Therefore, the added costs and negative aspects, including adverse safety impacts, are not warranted. Details supporting my conclusion are provided below.
Project Objectives: At the beginning of earnest effort for this improvement project in 2015, the top priorities were enhancements for pedestrians, bicycles, landscaping, and buffers and there was no indication of adding roundabouts. The addition of roundabouts came after anecdotal feedback on the difficulty of access to Old Lee Highway from neighborhood streets. However, as presented in the July 6th Work Session, the amount of vehicles accessing Old Lee Highway from the neighborhoods is “very low” which makes the value added for this purpose highly questionable.
Safety:
It has been stated that roundabouts provide a large safety improvement against severe T-bone and head-on collisions. However, this improvement is being cited out of context. Specifically, this improvement is associated with use of roundabouts to replace traffic lights and in major intersections where there can be high speed and high volume traffic in both directions. This is not the case for Old Lee Highway making this safety claim irrelevant. During the July 6th Work Session, a question was asked concerning how many of these severe accidents have occurred on Old Lee Highway and no answer could be provided indicating that this claimed safety improvement has not been seriously substantiated.
Further, there are adverse implications for safety. Bicycle and pedestrian safety is affected because the roundabout provides less shoulder room for the interface between bikers and pedestrians. In addition, there is the adverse impact to emergency response, especially during rush periods, when the roundabout will cause traffic backups. This concern is expressed in the 2005 Old Lee Highway Transportation Study but is absent in current discussions.
Consequently, there is insufficient improvement in safety, as well as adverse safety impacts, making the increased cost (estimated in the July 6th Work Session to be about $1/2 million) and adverse impact to traffic congestion unwarranted. Further, there are several areas of the corridor that could benefit from increased safety measures, such as small optimized turning bays or other judicious features that would mitigate safety concerns such as rear-end collisions that are applicable to Old Lee Highway. It is noted that small judicious turning bays were included in the 2005 Old Lee Highway Transportation Study. The resources saved from not using roundabouts could be used for these features or other features consistent with the priorities of the project.
Traffic Congestion:
At the July 6th Work Session, it was stated that traffic backups are not expected. However, no details were provided to substantiate this counterintuitive assertion, such as traffic volume compared to roundabout capacity and the specific traffic volume used compared to the 2019 VDOT estimate of 17 vehicles per minute. Design guidance for use of roundabouts, such as NCHRP REPORT 672 Subscriber Categories Highways • Design Roundabouts: An Informational Guide, specifically warns that undesired delays to major movement traffic may result. The assertion that undesirable traffic backups will not occur, in the absence of details demonstrating this, is simply not credible.
At the July 6th Work Session, a comparison was made between the alternative of turning lanes to roundabouts showing a $1/2 million increase in cost for land acquisition and construction. The turning lane option consisted of 400 foot long turning lanes to include large tapers characterized as “proper.” While such large tapers may be proper for some roadways, they are grossly inordinately large for this application of low turning volume and speed. There are numerous small properly functioning turning lanes less than 100 feet in the City for roads of higher speed and turning volume. Therefore, this comparison is not valid.
In summary, the benefits of roundabouts for the Old Lee Highway Improvement Project are marginal at best and do not warrant the increased cost and associated negative performance for this project that has limited resources. The additional resources for roundabouts should be invested in judicious features that are consistent with the priorities for this project.
Stephen Rodgers
I am concerned with the lack of community engagement in the City of Fairfax, especially with the Old Lee Highway Multimodal Improvement Project. I understand that this project stems from a 2005 Transportation Study and really kicked off in 2015. From materials online, I see that there were 2 public workshops (2015) and a Stakeholder Advisory Committee from September 2020 - to February 2021.
Most recently, in the July 6th Council Work Session, the Staff recommended that the council plan to approve roundabouts for this project at the July 13th Regular Council Meeting. The staff cited they were being added in response to resident feedback from the Country Club Hills and Old Lee Hills residents. The Council did not agree with this recommendation and questioned the validity of the resident feedback, whether the roundabouts are consistent with the project objectives, and voiced other concerns about whether roundabouts are appropriate for Old Lee Highway. Via social media, all CCH and OLH residents were invited to provide their opinion on roundabouts at the July 13th Council Regular Meeting. More than 10 Country Club Hills and Old Lee Hill residents spoke in opposition to roundabouts. No one spoke in favor of roundabouts. Earlier this week, I was forwarded a message form the Old Lee Hills Civic Association in which Council Member Ross stated: "On July 13, we received a substantial amount of public comments at our meeting (as well as emails) mainly expressing opposition to the roundabout, especially at the intersection of Old Lee Highway and Country Hill Drive. While no final decision has been made by City Council, I do not believe there is any support for this concept." Prior to this time, Council Member Ross was a vocal proponent of roundabouts for this project.
Further, the advance notice of the intent to approve roundabouts was inadequate in that it only appeared in the Staff Report that was listed as a “Status Update” in the Work Session Agenda shortly before the meeting. I note this approval would have occurred prior to the design public hearing scheduled for some time in 2021.
Aside from the unanswered technical questions concerning use of roundabouts on Old Lee Highway, this indicates that the basis of resident feedback was highly flawed and that there was no effort to inform the public of the intended approval action.
Of the City's 23,531 residents, how many of them were engaged and provided feedback on the Old Lee Highway Multimodal Improvement Project? And how many were of the 3,300 residents (2,260 age 18+) that live along Old Lee Highway? I see from documents online, that the attendance from the first and second workshops were 135 and 36 people, respectively. An online survey captured 137 responses. At the most (if each person and survey were unique) this equals 278 participants or 1.2% of the City's 23,531 residents.
The Stakeholder Advisory Committee composed of 18 representatives, including a school board and city council member, operated for only 5-months and during a pandemic. I live in Old Lee Hills and never once heard from anyone on this project. How were these "stakeholders" selected? Did the City select each individual, or could residents apply to be on the committee? Did the selected members represent the demographics of the community?
Besides online surveys, staffing a booth at the Fall Festival, newsletter articles, what other active engagement has the city conducted to understand: 1) how residents use Old Lee Highway, 2) what issues exist, and 3) how the community envisions their neighborhoods (especially those living along Old Lee Highway).
It seems pretty clear that the community has NOT been adequately engaged. For a $25 million project, there should have been continued and active engagement with residents -- not social media and online surveys.
Genuine community engagement is not difficult, it just takes time. I enjoy living in the City and I care enough to write you this message. I want to see the City continue to grow and be an inclusive community that works together with the local government.
I have lived on Old Lee Hwy (OLH) for 3 years and have walked along OLH daily for the past 18 years. To those that say a roundabout will snarl traffic in the morning and afternoons around Fairfax High School have never driven or walked around FHS in the morning or afternoon. Traffic often backs up past my house (between Queen Anne and Brookwood) in the morning, and before Great Oaks in the afternoon. It’s just what happens in the morning/afternoon around the school. A roundabout won’t hurt or help the situation.
To those who want turn lanes to improve the “flow” of traffic don’t live or walk along OLH, as speeds of unimpeded cars often top 50 MPH. Speeding has always bee a serious problem on OLH and creating ways to improve the flow of traffic will only exacerbate the problem. At a minimum, there needs to be raised crosswalks (a speed hump, NOT a speed bump) to make cars slow down to somewhere close to the speed limit (30 MPH). Ever tried to cross at a current crosswalk? Good luck with that!
Another way to reduce speeds that is used in surrounding cities and counties is digital radar speed signs that shows your speed as you approach the sign. Of course, the best speed deterrent would be speed cameras. I know City Council has voted to use temporary speed cameras around the schools, but permanent speed cameras would be best. I realize many believe speed cameras and red light cameras mainly target indigent people, but the type of cars I see speeding daily on OLH are not owned by poor people.
Raised crosswalks, digital radar speed signs and speed cameras. NO turn lanes. We need to slow down, not improve the flow of traffic on OLH.
I don't understand what problems the proposed traffic circle would fix. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but I'm not unalterably opposed to traffic circles. I just don't understand the need, and how the proposed circle would improve things. Please tell me how I can see the work that was done to identify the problems and come up with the proposal. Thanks.
Dear Mayor and Council -
I'm opposed to rotary/circles on Old Lee Highway. They are a solution looking for a problem that does not exist, but if this effort is pursued it will create more problems. In fact, the rotary/circles as proposed would be a hindrance to traffic flow and will just cause more backups on OLH. Traffic circles are inherently slower for throughput. To see how traffic circles do NOT work, go to the circles that they have in Oakton or in Vienna. They are not efficient or effective in increasing the flow of traffic. And that should be the focus of any plan - how to make vehicle traffic flow better safely, not create bottlenecks.
It seems, too, that based on the comments here and in conversations there is little to no support for these circles in the affected neighborhoods. Hence, why pursue something that constituents in these neighborhoods do not want, much less impacting traffic flow for everyone else who uses the road (other Fairfax City residents, visitors)? It makes no sense.
This project is also a waste of taxpayer money. I must say I'm disappointed that the City continues to push unneeded, wasteful projects just because we can "find the money" and falls for the old chestnut that "someone else will use the money." Maybe so, maybe not, but let's not continue to spend taxpayer money when it isn't necessary.
Thank you for your time and service.
Best regards,
Dan Drummond
As a 22 year city resident and the old Lee Hills neighborhood, I am against adding a rotary/circle on Old Lee hwy and Country Hill. . This proposed circle or rotary will cause so many problems for traffic on Old Lee Highway it will be a parking lot in the mornings, dropping off at school, after school and in the evenings, leaving us residents of Old Lee Hills the inability to get to work, to pick up the kids from school, or to make a timely kid’s sporting event. Despite the concern, which is my opinion, the City staff have not provided the Council with the proper information (traditional traffic studies) to validate traffic congestion issues, and other alternative options for the Council to make the proper decision for our Community. It is important to note that the Work session last week, City staff did not understand how the traffic works in the mornings at the High School and at Daniels Run and demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of conditions on this road during times when we as citizens need it most. These are the people designing the one road we as citizens of Old Lee Hills to conduct our lives safely and efficiently. It is important to this rotary has no bearing on the bike lanes or improved sidewalks and based on the review and analysis done by our neighbor in Country Club Hills the rotary will make those features less safe for the kids and families of Old Lee Hills. The City staff has not addressed the safety, congestion, and traffic flow considerations the rotary will bring to our neighborhood. Not in favor of a circle or rotary anywhere of old Lee hwy. Thank you for your time and attention.
Dear Mayor and Councilmembers
I am a resident home owner on Colony Road in the Old Lee Hills/Old Post neighborhood.
I am strongly opposed to the roundabouts proposed on Old Lee Highway and Country Hill Drive.
I see them as detrimental to the safe and efficient access and use of OLH, and unnecessarily expensive and disruptive for our neighborhood and our City.
I would propose alternatives including 1) SPEED HUMPS that are used on Sager Ave and Burke Station Road. 2) SPEED INDICATORS that show vehicle current speed with warning to slow down 3) CROSS WALK ROADWAY POSTS- flexible warnings at road crossings that are installed to the roadway on the centerlines.
These are COMMON, COST EFFECTIVE, and EFFECTIVE to improve safe speed control.
Thank you.
Eric J.
I am totally against a roundabout to be placed on old Lee at country hill drive. For that matter I am also against any roundabout placed at any location on the entire length of the Old Lee
After more than 40 years people still can’t manage the Fairfax city Circle
Not a well thought out idea. Total waste of tax dollars
Sent to city council and Mayor July 12:
As a 30+ year resident of Old Lee Hills, 3603 Old Post, I am very concerned with the impact of traffic due to city plans of changing Old Lee Hwy to accommodate bike paths. Traffic bottlenecks will result due to narrowing the road, eliminating turning lanes, and constructing a traffic "round about" circle in order to build these biking paths. Without pullovers and turn lanes, a safety issue is created for fire and police having the right of way and slowing flow of traffic.
I respectfully request city council to hold all votes going forward on this plan until 1) a traffic study is conducted after all schools are back in full operation in the Fall, and 2) that a plan presentation to all residents and businesses along Old Lee hwy to allow a vote or at least get questions answered.
Living with traffic backups during the three schools concurrent openings and closings and rush hours are bad enough. Please don't cause additional problems by narrowing roadways, reducing existing turn lanes and bottlenecking traffic with circles "round abouts". This will cause bigger backups and difficulty in accessing old Lee hwy from side streets with ultimate bottlenecks to the circle and into the city.
Removed by moderator.
Greetings, thank you for your efforts to update Old Lee Highway with more pedestrian and bike lanes, and native plants. As an Old Lee Hills residents, I however, like many neighbors, have a few serious concerns with the project:
(1) The roundabout moved from Cornell/FHS to Country Hill is non-sensical. A policeman to direct traffic during FHS rush hour will still be required for buses, cars, and students. Please consider keeping the roundabout at Cornell/FHS. Alternatively, while I kind of like roundabouts, I think a traffic light at Cornell/FHS would achieve the same outcome and would only be needed during rush hour. It may likely cost less as well. I have crossed OLH at this point many times and from my experience at best 50 percent of cars pay attention to the yellow cross-walk lights and stop. A real traffic signal or roundabout would be more safer for anyone crossing the street, and more effective at managing high school traffic. I'm actually shocked that the roundabout at Country Hill made it onto the list of considerations over Cornell/FHS. This is no way can be representative of the majority of opinions from Old Lee and Country Hill residents and the High School.
(2) I'm also disappointed not to see above ground power lines being moved to underground. For a $25 million project, I think this would be top priority. Please think about the long-run costs, tree health, aesthetics, and the needs of OLH residents with small children and elderly that suffer most from frequent power outages.
Thank you for your consideration and opportunity to comment. This is a great city and look forward to the improvements, let's make them the best we can for all residents!
Greetings, thank you for your efforts to update Old Lee Highway with more pedestrian and bike lanes, and native plants. As an Old Lee Hills resident, I, like many neighbors have a few serious concerns with the project:
(1) the roundabout move from Cornell/FHS to Country Hill is non-sensical. A policeman to direct traffic during FHS rush hour will still be required for buses, cars, and students. Please consider keeping the roundabout at Cornell/FHS. Alternatively, while I kind of like roundabouts, I think a traffic light at Cornell/FHS would achieve the same outcome and would only be needed during rush hour. I have crossed OLH at this point many times and from my experience only about 50 percent of cars pay attention to the yellow cross-walk lights. A real traffic signal or roundabout would be more effective and safer. I'm actually shocked that the roundabout at Country Hill made it onto the list of considerations. This is no way can be representative of the majority of opinions from Old Lee and Country Hill residents.
(2) I'm disappointed not to see above ground power lines moved to underground. For a $25 million project, I think this would be top priority. Please think about the long-run costs, tree health, aesthetics, and the needs of OLH residents with small children and elderly that suffer most from power outages.
Thank you for your consideration and opportunity to comment. This is a great city and look forward to the improvements, let's make them the best we can for all residents!
As residents at 3545 Old Lee Hwy, we are opposed to the current proposal to place a traffic circle at Country Hill Drive as it is likely to lead to nightmarish traffic delays and safety issues. Relevant traffic data needs to be collected to assess the effect of the planned traffic circles, and this has not yet been done. While a traffic survey was apparently conducted earlier this year, this was during the pandemic, and in no way reflected normal commuter, school, or church traffic.
In addition to providing critical primary, guest, and delivery parking, the extra-wide shoulders currently along most of Old Lee Hwy provide space and sight-lines that contribute to it being so safe. This benefits both vehicles and users of the often-busy sidewalks (with pedestrians, baby strollers, dog walkers, bikers, etc.). We've lived here for 12 years, and have always thought it is convenient and safe to use the sidewalks along Old Lee Hwy, and with very few traffic accidents on the road.
The proposed driveway connections, while adequate for vehicles to pull into if they are arriving from that side of the road, will present a danger for drivers (whether residents, visitors, or delivery) who turn left into the driveway. This will result in them needing to back out into the active lane of traffic when exiting.
Currently, there are wide intersections from Old Lee Hwy to all of the streets leading into the neighborhood. This allows for easy turns into the neighborhood, and facilitates right turns out of the neighborhood even if a preceding car is waiting to turn left. The intended bottle-neck design will significantly slow throughput of traffic leaving the neighborhood, especially during the work and school rush hours. If exiting via some of these intersections becomes notoriously slow, that will likely lead to a caravan of cars through the neighborhood and up the streets that have the planned traffic circles. More time, more traffic, and more safety risks.
For our location in particular, Old Lee Hwy provides primary parking for us, guests, deliveries, and emergencies. The city has not communicated with us at all about the plans for us, even though we provided written comments at the first community forum on the project a couple of years ago and expressed concerns and a desire to speak with someone via the website in April. If that parking is taken away, it will lead to greatly increased usage of the shared driveway on our neighbors property (between two houses with young children). Also, visitors will need to use street parking on Cornell Road (more than 100 yards from our house), exacerbating the issues on that narrow, sidewalk-less street with a planned change to a bottleneck exit. Deliveries will also be an issue, as drivers would likely not be able to figure out how to get to our house. Our property value will be severely impacted if we lose street parking as well. Hard to quantify exactly, but our house would be much less marketable if these plans are finalized (Come buy our house! Door Dash will never find you, and your friends can park 150 yards away!).
I am concerned about the proposed locations for pedestrian crossings. It looks like some are not at natural crossing places, which means that many people will simply not use the marked crosswalks. This will reduce rather than improve safety. In particular, I would like to point out that people crossing between Sherwood Center and overflow parking will tend to cross at the entrance to Sherwood Center parking lot rather than going out of their way to cross in front of Van Dyke Park. The same holds for people going to and from Van Dyke Park - they will tend to continue across Old Lee Hwy from the end of the trail along the park driveway rather than walk over to a new crosswalk. Combining these two crosswalks (Sherwood Center and Van Dyke Park) into a single crosswalk at an inconvenient location can be expected to reduce pedestrian safety in this area.
I personally expect the proposed roundabouts will improve local traffic and make it much easier (and safer) to drive to and from our son’s friends in the neighborhood. We have used the roundabout on Hunter Mill Road to go to and from Oakton Community Park occasionally, and it makes a left turn onto busy Hunter Mill Road so much safer and easier.
Hello, I am opposed to the traffic circles on Old Lee Hwy. Once life returns to normal after COVID, traffic will also return to normal. The traffic circles will only cause more gridlock and traffic delays on Old Lee Hwy. if the goal is to reduce speed, the police department can assist with traffic enforcement. This is an expensive project that is not needed. Thank you.
Roundabouts are dangerous retrofits for residential settings. The force the driver not only to change velocity but also direction. They should not be designed into locations where adequate buffering and barriers cannot be implemented to protect residences and yards. You should also demonstrate that a plan to implement roundabouts will not affect the homeowners insurance rates from damage due to negligent drivers.
Roundabouts were tried in the City of Fairfax previously and were removed at the request of the homeowners as a matter of inconvenience.
They are an awful, confusing and dangerous idea and should be removed from any plan.
What you need are pedestrian bridges from near the schools rather than having crossing guards taking their lives in their hands twice a day.
How will this project affect the property along the road? ie churches, homes, schools. Eminent domain? I am fascinated by the term I see used in other projects. Old school? surely. We moved into the city in1965. I love the city, but I am concerned about the store closings, the amount of "condos" being built, the feeling of being encircled by high rise buildings. I digress. Sorry
Old Lee Highway is the last open stretch of road in the City with our speed bumps. traffic lights and stop signs. Driving it is a tranquil experience at the posted speed limit. Do not destroy this experience.
I live in CCH and have serious concerns with the plans for roundabouts on Old Lee Highway. I use the roundabout on Park Street in Vienna 4 days a week. The use of a traffic circle at Park Street in Vienna should not be used for comparison to assess suitability of circles on Old Lee Highway. Old Lee Highway has far more traffic due to the location of Fairfax High School, 2 elementary schools (Daniels Run and St. Leo’s), St. Leo’s Catholic Church, Van Dyke Park, the Sherwood Center, and City of Fairfax Police Station, all located in a mile stretch. Old Lee Highway also connects 2 major arteries, Route 50 and Route 236. Park Street is a neighborhood street having FAR LESS traffic as it is mostly residential with the exception of the Vienna Community Center, W &OD trail crossing, and the 2 entrances to store parking lots just before the traffic light at Maple Street East. I use this street several times a week and have personally experienced substantial backups during rush hour on Locust Street through the intersection at Glyndon Street, as well as on Park Street. Navigating this circle is awkward and I have observed road rage and numerous instances of aggressive honking. One night, I even witnessed someone drive directly over the traffic circle, which could have been deadly if someone was in the crosswalk located directly on the north side of the traffic circle. Also, Fairfax High School needs a crossing guard to assist students safely cross in the morning and at afternoon dismissal. How will this be practical with the location of the proposed traffic circle? Additional congestion on Old Lee Highway due to backups caused by the traffic circle during rush hour commutes, will result in much unwanted traffic cutting through the neighborhoods to avoid the congestion.
Where are the traffic study reports and data that has been gathered PRIOR to the pandemic? I noticed a traffic counter located on Old Lee Highway near Country Hill Drive in November. If the City plans to use this data it will not represent the true normal Old Lee traffic. The use of power point slides that highlight only the benefits of traffic circles without a detailed assessment of the negative consequences appears biased and sounds more like a marketing pitch for traffic circles.
It is also unclear what exactly is the function of the Stakeholders group? Are they involved in voicing concerns posed by residents they “represent” or is this just something to make it look like there is involvement with the community? Where can I find reports of the meetings, including documentation of the issues and comments that residents have expressed with this plan and how they have been adequately explored and addressed?
I agree that improvements are needed along Old Lee Highway especially for pedestrian/bike traffic. However, installing anything (like traffic circles/roundabouts) that will slow the flow of thru-traffic is NOT a good idea. I do not see the need for the insertion of roundabout anywhere along Old Lee Highway, the traffic moves just fine, why change it?