Northfax Transportation Improvements - A Turning Point in Fairfax City

At the April 23 council meeting, the city held an open house to discuss a major storm drainage and road improvement project for the area around Route 123 and Fairfax Boulevard.  This is a project that has been in the works for well over a decade, and the stormwater portion is critical to allow for redevelopment of one of the city’s primary gateways.

But the fact that it has been on the boards for so long means that attitudes have changed, particularly regarding traffic improvements.  Where we only used to be concerned about channeling traffic through, we are now concerned about creating a pleasant environment for the people who live here and businesses who invest here.  The responses from the public on Tuesday night showed this.  Many of the speakers were business owners whose access would be hampered by removing left turn access at several points.  Many were residents who were concerned that the difficult pedestrian environment on both roads would only get worse.  Many from both sides referenced the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan and questioned why that effort, which painted a picture of a more pleasant and walkable street network six years ago, has not been used to guide these types of projects.

Eric Snyder spoke on behalf of the City of Fairfax Citizens for Smarter Growth, asking “how far do we want to go” citing several intersections in Fairfax County that have expanded to the point of being unusable to pedestrians. 

One additional example that is particularly fitting is the Route 29/Gallows Road intersection project in Merrifield which was completed simultaneously with the adjacent Mosaic project.  Mosaic has been the recipient of much acclaim for it’s internal pedestrian oriented design, but one constant criticism is how isolated it is from surrounding neighborhoods, including the redeveloping area near the Dunn Loring Metro Station, thanks to the adjacent roadway expansion.  With significant interest in redeveloping the Northfax area around Route 123 and Fairfax Boulevard into a mixed-use and pedestrian oriented area, we do not want to repeat the mistakes of Merrifield.

This doesn’t mean that we need to trade locally serving infrastructure for worsening through traffic, it just means that we need to reconsider our approach.  The traditional way of thinking for thoroughfares is that more lanes, higher speeds, and fewer turning movements, equals higher throughput.  But that approach has a detrimental impact on adjacent neighborhoods and businesses, and often only shifts the congestion elsewhere along the thoroughfare.  Instead, we should be looking at controlling traffic to improve the pedestrian environment and make turning movements less intimidating. 

If done properly, this may even increase throughput and decrease congestion.  In a March post on the “Place Shakers and Newsmakers” blog, Geoff Dyer explains that the design speed for peak throughput in urban areas is 25-30 mph, citing resources from the Transportation Research Board and the Institute for Traffic Engineers (note that Fairfax City would be considered urban because of the number of stop lights along our thoroughfares).  The argument is that beyond 30 mph, each car needs more space for visibility and breaking, so the road has less carrying capacity.  The problem with our current system is that despite the 35mph speed limit on Fairfax Boulevard, we have design speeds of 50 mph, which means we have a lot of fast moving traffic suddenly jam up at bottlenecks, creating congestion.

Based on the public response to the road improvement portion of this project, I hope the approach to this project is reconsidered, and it will become a model for future transportation improvements within the city.  The days of turning local roads into highways are over.  It is time to take them back to best serve the residents and businesses of our community.

Please click here to see the full presentation of this project on the city web site.  You can also submit your comments to the city until May 10 by sending an e-mail to NorthfaxImprovements@fairfaxva.gov.