What are the facts?
In 2005, Vienna was named #4 Best Place to Live by Forbes Magazine, for this reason, it attracts many young families. Since 1997, our community has experienced a tremendous turn over. Many original owners who bought homes to raise their families in the 60s are now moving away and many are being replaced by young families with children.
It is a fact that one of the attractive features of this community is the proximity of homes to Westbriar Elementary School, a short walking distance from surrounding homes. As you can see, the number of new families who moved to our community within a ½ mile radius of Old Courthouse Road range from a low of 30 in 2001 to a high of 56 families in 2000 and 2005 with an average of 43 new young families per year.
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This picture was taken in September 2008--Outdated, paint peeling and worn out crosswalk to Westbriar Elementary School; Antiquated signage throughout the entire stretch of Old Courthouse Road. |
September 2008--a short sample of AM traffic on Old Courthouse Road and Fairway Drive |
One of the challenges this community faces is the increasing volume of cars that pass through Old Courthouse Road. The blue portion of the bars represents traffic going towards Tyson’s Corner and the green portion of the bar represents traffic going away from Tyson’s towards Reston.
To demonstrate the alarming changes of traffic patterns on Old Courthouse Road, here is a side by side comparison of the Tennyson Study in 1996 and Nu Metrics Traffic Study conducted by the Town of Vienna in Sept 2005 and May 2008. The change from 1996 to 2005 is drastic. In 1996, the number of cars that pass OCR was 2,295 a day. In 2005, that number increased to 10,329 cars per day, this is a 350% increase over 1996. From 2005 to 2008, the volume increased again from 10,329 to 11,748 vehicles per day respectively, this is a 14% increase over 2005.
The heaviest traffic volume is from 7-10 in the morning, with an average of 2,600 cars which is 45% of the total Northbound traffic volume for the day and 4-7 in the evening, with an average of 2,700 cars, 45% of total Southbound traffic volume per day.
Another challenge we are seeing is the increase in vehicle speed. Here is the side by side comparison of the traffic citations on Old Courthouse Road provided by Town of Vienna Police and Fairfax County Police for time period 1 August 2007 to date:
Town of Vienna wrote 306 traffic citations on Old Courthouse Road in that time frame. It is important to note that out of 306 citations, 94% were speeding violations ; 4% were violations such as driving w/out license, driving w/out sticker, driving w/suspended or revoked license or driving outside learner’s permit provision; 2% were violations such as passing when overtaking vehicle, passing a stopped school bus and not paying full attention to vehicle operation.
Fairfax County wrote 8 speeding citations for the time period.
We understand it is cost prohibitive to ask for our own Fairfax County or Town of Vienna Police stationed on our street 24/7 but all the more reason to implement physical traffic calming devises to slow down speeding vehicles.
The information that is most alarming is the number of accidents from August 2007 to date. Fairfax County Police reported 11 accidents on a mile stretch of a road from Pine Valley Dr to Arabian Ave. In the Town of Vienna, there were 2 accidents, one on the hill and the other on Westbriar. This is a total of 13 accidents in a 12 month period.
Of the 13 accidents, 6 accidents involved personal injuries and 7 were property damage only; 6 were T-bone accidents, 4 were rear end accidents, 2 were fixed object-off road accidents, 1 was sideswipe-same direction accident.
The chart you see to the right is the location of accidents; 4 occurred close to Westbriar Elementary School.
