by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is seeking public input into its comprehensive draft safety action plan, which it released Wednesday.
FAMPO is responsible for transportation planning in the Fredericksburg area, to include the City and the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, and it also provides rural transportation planning for Caroline and King George.
The regional safety action plan supports statewide efforts to eliminate traffic fatalities as outlined in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s five-year Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
FAMPO and the George Washington Regional Commission last year received a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program to prepare the regional action plan. It outlines “strategies and recommendations to improve pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular safety across our communities” and is based on six principles—death and serious injuries are unacceptable, humans make mistakes, humans are vulnerable, responsibility is shared, safety is proactive, and redundancy is crucial.
To develop the action plan, FAMPO staff and stakeholders analyzed crash data for the region from 2017 through 2021. During this period, 1,756 people suffered a fatal or severe injury and 8,373 had a suspected minor injury resulting from a crash.
Twenty-two percent of crashes that resulted in fatalities or severe injuries took place at an intersection, 15% were the result of speeding, and 11% were the result of impaired driving. Ten percent of severe accidents resulted from a combination of speeding and impairment or impairment and an intersection.
In Fredericksburg City, 94% of pedestrian crashes occurred at an intersection and more than half occurred in the downtown core. Other high injury corridors identified by the plan include U.S. 1 (north and south), Carl D. Silver Parkway, Fall Hill Avenue, and Lafayette Boulevard.
High injury corridors in Spotsylvania include Salem Church Road, Harrison Road, U.S. 3 (east and west), Rappahannock Drive and Smith Station Road.
In Stafford County, Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 in both directions account for 74% of all traffic fatalities and injuries, though they make up only 12% of road length in the county, according to the action plan.
The plan identifies multiple specific strategies for reducing and preventing roadway departures; reducing crashes involving young and aging drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists; reducing speeding; protecting vehicle occupants; improving safety at intersections; and reducing impaired driving.
It also highlights corridors that should be prioritized for safety investments. These include:
- Tidewater Trail in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, where the report indicates there should be more dedicated turn lanes, crosswalks, and intersection lighting.
- William, Princess Anne and Caroline streets, where there should be reduced parking around intersections, curb extensions, crosswalk visibility enhancements and prohibitions against right turns on red lights.
- Fall Hill Avenue, where the report recommends installing a roundabout to prevent crashes at Carl D. Silver Parkway.
- Lafayette Boulevard, especially the traffic circle at Lee Drive.
- River Road in Spotsylvania, where curve delineation should be improved.
- Brock Road, which needs wider edge lines.
- Joshua Road in Stafford, where a horizontal curve 0.13 miles west of Cherry Hill Drive has been the site of five of the six fixed object crashes on this corridor.
- Mountain View Road, which needs lighting to reduce nighttime crashes.
- Truslow Road, which needs curve warnings.
- Poplar Road, which needs high friction surface treatment to reduce wet weather crashes.
The public can view the full safety action plan and provide written comment to [email protected] or in-person comment at FAMPO’s March 18 policy committee meeting.
There is also an interactive survey the community is invited to fill out.
FAMPO is collecting public input through March 27.
