Virginia is permanently reducing the speed limit on the section of Richmond Highway (also known as Route 1) south of Alexandria, between I-495/I-95 and Mt. Vernon Highway. The speed limit will drop to 35 miles per hour from 45 miles per hour on the approximately seven-mile stretch of road, effective Tuesday May 23. The state, along with Fairfax County, made the change to “optimize safety and operations for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and transit users,” according to a press release from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Since 2015, at least 12 pedestrians have been killed in traffic crashes on the section of road in question, according to state data. For years, advocates have been demanding increased road safety measures — including a reduced speed limit, narrower lanes, and more crossing options for pedestrians.

In response to community concerns, Virginia’s Department of Transportation launched a study of the speed limit in 2021. It found that vehicle crashes were more frequent on Richmond Highway than other comparable highways in Virginia.

The study also showed that between the beginning of 2016 and the end of 2020, there were 1,203 crashes on the stretch of Richmond Highway between the southern city limit of Alexandria and Fort Belvoir. Of those crashes, 404 of them caused injuries, and nine caused fatalities.

The authors pointed out several features of the road’s design that make pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers unsafe – like sporadic sidewalks and a lack of crosswalks at many intersections.

“Within the Richmond Highway corridor, geometric conditions such as the high number of driveways, lack of turn lanes and raised median in certain areas, a high number of traffic signals, and a lack of marked crosswalks at unsignalized crosswalks create situations where drivers may need to react to several conflicts within a short period of time,” the study said. “By reducing overall driver speeds, drivers will be more readily able to identify conflicts and have more time to react. In situations where a collision does occur, the chances for an injury

or fatality to occur are greatly reduced compared to situations with higher speeds.”

VDOT also noted that many of the bus stops along the section of road they studied are not next to crosswalks, which leads to pedestrians crossing the road without the help of traffic signals.

One Fairfax County police lieutenant who met with VDOT for the study told the agency that because the bus stops are not always directly across from the intersections, “the easiest way for a pedestrian to connect from a 7-11 to the nearest bus stop often results in pedestrians crossing six lanes of the highway during the morning commute at a location that has no designated crossings.”

Sonya Breehey, the northern Virginia advocacy manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, says the speed limit reduction is a “win for a safer Richmond highway and the communities along the corridor.”

“The Richmond Highway corridor is just dangerous, and routinely sees higher than average crashes and fatalities,” Breehey tells DCist/WAMU. “So this is certainly a step in the right direction that will help make the roads safer for everybody no matter how you travel — but most especially for our vulnerable road users: those who are walking and biking.”

Breehey added that additional improvements are still needed.

“Dropping the speed limit along won’t be enough,” she says. “It’s one tool in the toolbox.”

The county is currently planning additional changes to Route 1 as part of a broader plan to add Bus Rapid Transit there. In addition to widening the road to make new bus lanes, Breehey says the current plans include significant road safety improvements, like adding continuous sidewalks and bike paths.

Breehey says she wants to see the plans go further to ensure pedestrian safety, by providing people with more frequent opportunities to safely cross the street.

But as residents wait for those plans to be realized, she says the Coalition for Smarter Growth is also pushing for additional near-term improvements, like improving crosswalks to make them more visible to drivers. Breehey also wants to see the county educating drivers on the lower speed limit and effectively enforcing it.

Advocates have been pushing for increased road safety measures in other parts of northern Virginia, too. CASA, a local immigrant advocacy group, and the Coalition for Smarter Growth have also launched a joint campaign around road safety on Leesburg Pike. The area where they’re calling for change is a busy section of Falls Church with many restaurants, storefronts, and neighborhoods that are either immigrant-owned or frequented by immigrants. After their advocacy, Fairfax reduced the speed limit on the road by 5 miles per hour last month.

Breehey says that in general, northern Virginia’s major roads, like Richmond Highway and Leesburg Pike, were designed to center cars and allow them to move at higher speeds. But many people live along these corridors, too — particularly lower-income or immigrant communities. And, Breehey says, many people who live by these major arteries walk or bike to the bus stop.

“These arterial roads…are just built for moving cars,” Breehey says. “Now we’re sort of stuck trying to retrofit them, and it’s a hard process. It takes a lot of time. And unfortunately, while we’re sitting around waiting for these plans to be implemented and fixed, people are still out there walking and biking and taking those buses and they have to navigate the unsafe conditions until we’re able to make a fix.”

As in jurisdictions across the region and country, pedestrian deaths in Fairfax County have increased in recent years; they’re currently at their highest level in a decade.