Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan Addresses Existing and Future Conditions

In recent years, local jurisdictions and citizens have sought to address the problem of ever-increasing street traffic that is progressively eroding their home environments. In suburban communities such as Falls Church, Virginia, the most commonly voiced complaints include increased traffic volumes, speeding, and commuter and commercial parking on residential streets.

These concerns were expressed with the proposed Northgate at Falls Church mixed-use project, developed by Hekemian & Company, Inc. To address these issues, Wells + Associates prepared a neighborhood traffic management plan that studied prevailing traffic conditions on surrounding neighborhood streets. We suggested traffic mitigation measures to address existing and future conditions with the proposed Northgate development.

W+A’s traffic engineering team recommended these measures as part of an overall neighborhood traffic management plan for this development in Northern Virginia:

• Inbound access restriction through use of a bulb-out
• Speed and pedestrian safety enhancements at intersections using nubs/curb extensions
• Strategically spaced speed humps
• Implementation of incentive measures to encourage and increase alternative transportation mode share