Alexandria Living Magazine
The speed limit on Route 1 between Four Mile Run and Monroe Avenue in Alexandria will drop from 35 mph to 25 mph on Aug. 20, 2018.
Expect slower traffic on Route 1/Jefferson Davis Highway in the Potomac Yard area this fall.
On Aug. 20, the City of Alexandria will reduce the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 mph from the Monroe Avenue bridge to Four Mile Run.
The change is part of the City’s three-year Vision Zero Action Plan, which is meant to improve safety on Alexandria’s streets, prioritizing pedestrian safety.
The plan identified six areas where there have been serious vehicular accidents. The streets in those areas include much of Jefferson Davis Highway and parts of Seminary Road, Beauregard Street, West Glebe Road, Duke Street and Washington Street.
The City made reducing the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 mph in one of these high-crash corridors a priority action item for the first year of Vision Zero. West Glebe Road and Washington Street already have reduced speed limits.
“Due to the current roadway design characteristic, increasing density and uses along the corridor, increasing pedestrian activity and existing average speeds, Route 1 was the selected corridor for this action item,” according to City documents.
Route 1 in Alexandria sees 39,000 vehicles per day on average.
What used to be an industrial area has transformed into mixed-use development with residences close to the roadway and an increasingly popular rapid bus transitway dividing northbound and southbound traffic.
“As Potomac Yard continues to develop and the new metro station is constructed, there will be even more pedestrian activity along this corridor. South of the Monroe Avenue Bridge, the speed limit is already 25 mph,” City officials noted.
City officials estimate that by implementing new timing of lights designed to keep traffic flowing at 25 mph, the total time added to a commute along that stretch of road will be less than one minute.
Since other roads in the area also have 25 mph speed limits, City officials do not expect much traffic diversion.
Alexandria staff reached out to neighborhood associations in the area for feedback and received none.
For more information on this specific change, see the July 2018 Docket from the City of Alexandria Traffic and Parking Board here. (Scroll to page 57.)
