Fairfax County Police to ticket jaywalkers at Vienna Metro station

[mstone]

Speed was not a factor, right?

[dplasters]

I ride through there every day. Its the south side of the Vienna Metro. Let me know when they start ticketing all the cars that drop people off there/wait despite all the signs telling them not to :rolleyes: Its a brand new section seeing large amounts of growth. Its a shame they don’t lower the speed limit to an appropriate level given the amount of pedestrian traffic.

I’ll have to test their 13 second light report… It takes way longer than that in my personal experience.

[americancyclo]

@n18 90406 wrote:

The reason according to the article is that they were “seeing 24 crashes in the last 18 months involving walkers or bikers.” I live near the station, but I only go there few times a week, and I certainly didn’t hear about accidents.

According to the Virginia TREDS system from DMV, in that same time period (Jan 2013-Jul 2014) in Fairfax county there were 130 bicycle crashes and 2429 pedestrian crashes. So this intersection makes up slightly more than 1% of the crashes in the county. Can that be right?

[eminva]

I travel through Vienna metro on average four times a week (two mornings and two evenings). I spoke with an officer who was canvassing about a week before this initiative started. He was at the intersection on the north side of the station (Virginia Center Lane) so I think they are focusing on a number of areas around the station which might account for the high statistics. He said at that intersection, they were focusing on drivers who turn right out of the metro kiss and ride without yielding to pedestrians. Indeed, this week I saw a squad car on two different afternoons parked well down the road (near the I-66 on ramp) intercepting motorists that failed to yield. No officers were close enough to the intersection — at least when I came through — to ticket jaywalking pedestrians there.

Liz

[Terpfan]

I wish they could come sit on Rt 1 with me in the evening rush hour just south of Beacon Hill to catch all of the cars flagrantly running the red lights. And by flagrantly, I don’t mean yellow/red or even red for 2 seconds, but red for 5-10 seconds while going 45-60mph. Although I did have a nice chat with some of the FFX police in south county that ride bicycles around. They did seem to totally understand where I was coming from about a couple of things and followed up on some.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@americancyclo 90429 wrote:

According to the Virginia TREDS system from DMV, in that same time period (Jan 2013-Jul 2014) in Fairfax county there were 130 bicycle crashes and 2429 pedestrian crashes. So this intersection makes up slightly more than 1% of the crashes in the county. Can that be right?

I question your maths.

24/(130+2429)=0.94%

[dplasters]

@eminva 90432 wrote:

I spoke with an officer who was canvassing about a week before this initiative started. He was at the intersection on the north side of the station (Virginia Center Lane) so I think they are focusing on a number of areas around the station which might account for the high statistics. He said at that intersection, they were focusing on drivers who turn right out of the metro kiss and ride without yielding to pedestrians.

Liz

Would love to see a no turn on red when pedestrians present sign there too…. Just to make the drivers that much more aware of them. They creep out into the walkway to try and see around the corner, and when a metro bus is there trying to turn left it gets bad. I would think that intersection is worse in terms of accidents vs south of the metro.

[mstone]

@dplasters 90457 wrote:

Would love to see a no turn on red when pedestrians present sign there too…. Just to make the drivers that much more aware of them. They creep out into the walkway to try and see around the corner, and when a metro bus is there trying to turn left it gets bad. I would think that intersection is worse in terms of accidents vs south of the metro.

In my experience those signs are completely ignored.

[dplasters]

@mstone 90466 wrote:

In my experience those signs are completely ignored.

Agreed. But it can’t hurt and if it helps even slightly all the better.

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