Falls Church Council To Allow 20 Mph Speed Limit On Certain Streets

FALLS CHURCH, VA — On Monday, Falls Church City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to allow 20 mph speed limits on many residential streets in the city.

"What the ordinance does is lay out in city ordinance the authority to lower the speed limit to 20 mph on local streets," City Manager Wyatt Shields told City Council Monday. "So what is intended with this is Route 7 and Route 29 will be unchanged...Our larger collector streets such as West Street, Lincoln, Hillwood, Great Falls and Park Avenue would also remain at the current 25 mph zone."

Shields said these smaller residential streets already have a design to support a 20 mph speed limit. A map shows the Speed Zone 3 streets that are eligible for reduced speed limits.

March 30, 2023 is the earliest the changes could happen. According to Shields, the city plans to have an extensive public education campaign.

"The hope here is to change behaviors," said Shields. "That's what we're trying to do and have people drive through a residential street in a manner that's appropriate for that residential street, which is to say, slow and carefully."

State legislation provides authority for localities to lower speed limits below 25 mph but not below 15 mph. Data provided in a city staff report showed the risk of severe injury from vehicular crashes increases with speed.

"I support the movement from 25 to 20 in as many streets as possible because of the data on what happens to pedestrians when they're hit at higher speeds and bicyclists and others," said Councilmember David Snyder. "Considering the speeding and distracted driving that plagues not only the city but the region and the country, this is something we can do now."

One street that has seen high speeds is Columbia Street, a residential street eligible for the 20 mph speed limit. In a traffic study on three days in August, the average speed was 26 mph. However, the highest recorded speeds were 72 mph in the southbound direction and 57 mph in the northbound direction.

Vice Mayor Letty Hardi responded to some public comments that the city is not being car-friendly.

"A different way of thinking about it in my mind is that we are actually prioritizing people, and we are talking explicitly about making it a people-first place," said Hardi. "And that doesn't mean prioritizing cars. That means we are also trying to elevate the roles of pedestrians and cyclists."

Hardi also said the city intends to get collector street speed limits lowered to 20 mph as well through efforts like the Park Avenue Great Streets project.

Mayor David Tarter said the ultimate solution would be design changes to roadways.

"We have very wide travel lanes. People are just naturally going to speed," said Tarter. "I think you need, bumpouts or whatever it is, physical infrastructure in place to slow people down unless you're going to have police there every day. We tend to not have our police on the side streets, or at least in my experience they tend to focus on the major corridors like Route 7."

According to a city staff report on the ordinance, city police can enforce the 20 mph speed limits if there's clear signage in place for drivers. However, the report noted "traffic speed enforcement on local side streets can be difficult" due to limited space. Officers have Lidar devices on hand to identify a speeding vehicle, find its location and confirm the exact speed.