As many of you might have noticed, our local roads have been feeling a bit more chaotic lately. In fact, 2023 turned out to be quite a rough year for us in terms of traffic injuries. Here’s a quick look at what’s happening and some thoughts on how we can make our streets safer.
The Hard Numbers:
- Last year, injuries on our roads jumped by a whopping 50% compared to 2022.
- Pedestrian injuries skyrocketed by 166%, while bicyclist injuries increased by 57% compared to their seven-year average.
- Car occupants weren’t spared either, with 203 reported injuries in just 10 months, far surpassing the previous full-year peak of 161 injuries back in 2017.
- Most concerning? At least 22 pedestrians found themselves injured in 2023, shattering the previous record of 14 in 2021.
- Our injury rate, per mile traveled or per capita, exceeds Alexandria, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Fairfax County and is 200% higher than Arlington’s.
- Fatalities are rare because of our small size but do happen every 10 years – and the people we lose are always walking or biking and are often seniors or children.
Where Are These Injuries Happening? It turns out that about 65% of all these mishaps occur on just two streets: Broad and Washington. Busy crossroads with these two streets are hotspots, e.g., crossings of Broad St by Cherry, Washington, Maple, Virginia, Oak, West, and Haycock. Crossings of Washington by Columbia, Park, Annandale. Wilson Blvd and N Roosevelt Blvd is also a hot spot, at Eden Center. After Broad and Washington, 35% of injuries occur on roads signed 25mph, like Hillwood Ave, Great Falls St, Lincoln Ave, and Roosevelt Blvd. For our cycling friends, the W&OD Trail is where most injuries occur, almost exclusivelyat the road crossings.
So, What’s Driving These Numbers? Both road design and behavior play massive roles in our local traffic safety. Most of our streets were designed half a century ago or more with the goal of maximizing the speed and number of cars. Cities like Hoboken, NJ (also 2 square miles like Falls Church) have stopped fatalities and drastically cut injuries by redesigning roads to prioritize safety and make inevitable human mistakes less risky. In terms of behavior, road manners have worsened since COVID. We also see some themes in the crash data:
- Distractions, including cell phones, factor into 24% of all injuries.
- Teen drivers are implicated in 10% of all injuries but account for 22% of those involving bicyclists.
- Our senior drivers, meanwhile, are involved in 31% of bicyclist injuries and 33% of pedestrian injuries.
- Although less frequent, alcohol and speed are still culprits in about 9% of injuries each.
Taking a Closer Look at Bicycles: Bicycles and Falls Church roads have a bit of a complicated relationship. While we all love the freedom and health benefits of biking, it’s not without its risks, especially on our main thoroughfares and W&OD Trail road crossings:
- Police reports suggest (but do not explicitly state) that drivers were at fault for ~45% of bicycle crashes, bicyclists crashed themselves (“single vehicle”) 20% of the time, and 13% of the time bicyclists were at fault for hitting cars. ~15% of crashes involved the W&OD stop signs, where 'fault' is muddied by the intersection design (more on that below).
- 50% of police reports involving children on bicycles occurred on Broad Street and none were on the W&OD. Crashes with children are more common closer to the High School.
- About 30% of bicycle crashes happen where the W&OD Trail crosses roads, with the crossing at Great Falls Street seeing more injuries than any other crossings on the entire 45-mile Trail. This is consistent with a pattern along the W&OD for similar intersection types, but several risk factors come together at Great Falls St.
- Police reports show 54% of bicycle crashes on the W&OD involve cyclists not adhering to the stop sign, yet just 4% of crashes elsewhere involved cyclists ignoring a stop sign or signal—a sign that perhaps the stop signs on the trail aren’t as effective as they should be. In fact, those trail stop signs fail 3 of the 5 requirements in the federal Manual for Uniform Traffic Control devices that identify whether a traffic control device (e.g., stop sign) will be effective, suggesting poor design.
- 3% of drivers injuring a bicyclist on the W&OD have gotten tickets, while 80% of drivers who hit other cars at the W&OD get tickets (typically rear-endings).
- Reported bicyclist-pedestrian, bicyclist-bicyclist, and altercations involving bicyclists are rare in the data.
Ideas for a Safer Falls Church: What can we do to turn these numbers around? Here are a few ideas brewing:
- Revamping Broad & Washington (65% of reported injuries): We could ban right turns on red, install pedestrian-friendly signals that don’t require pushing buttons, coordinate signals like Old Town Alexandria to encourage riding a “wave of green” at 25mph, and up the ante on automated enforcement of traffic rules. Coming improved pedestrian crossings will help too.
- Rethink Other 25mph Roads (35% of reported injuries): Maybe it’s time to shift our focus from quieter 20mph neighborhood streets ("Neighborhood Traffic Calming") to the busy roads where regular injuries occur, with projects like Greening of Lincoln or the high-level plans for Wilson Blvd.
- Better W&OD Intersections: At those tricky trail crossings, we could improve the signage to make behavior more predictable. The new crosswalks will help too, but something needs to be done about the complex intersection at N West St (where a senior citizen was hit while riding a bike in May 2024, by a driver turning right across the crosswalk).
- Educational Push: Updating driver's education to stress the importance of being mindful of bicyclists and pedestrians could be key, especially for our teens and seniors. Children at Oak Street Elementary could be taught safe bike riding skills, like they do for many students in Arlington, Alexandria, and DC.
- Follow Vision Zero and Use Data: Reports on traffic safety data (and performance vs. our transportation goals in general) should be published by the City, not private citizens. Using the principles of Vision Zero, the City can convene the cross-section of stakeholders needed to follow that data to rapidly implement safety improvements with the best return on investment and build safe design into larger and longer-term projects.
What Do You Think? We’ve covered a lot here, from the startling increase in injuries to some proactive ideas that might just make our streets a bit friendlier. What’s your take on this? Do you think these measures would make a difference? What other ideas should we consider to boost our road safety? Share your thoughts and let’s chat about how we can keep Falls Church safe and friendly for everyone!