With a “yes” vote this weekend, not coming to a complete stop for a pedestrian at a crosswalk in Arlington County, Virginia, could land you a hefty fine.
The county’s council is set to vote on an ordinance that would allow for the enforcement of a new state law that doesn’t allow drivers to come to a slow roll when they encounter a pedestrian. The rule applies to drivers in any lane at any given crosswalk.
“This is about is really getting us caught up with the state Vehicle Code, which changed at the beginning of July,” Arlington County’s Transportation and Engineering Operations Bureau Chief Dan Nabors said.
He said the biggest change is the wording of the law. Right now, drivers are required to “yield,” which results in drivers getting away with rolling stops around pedestrians. This new ordinance will replace the word yield with “stop.”
According to county data, since 2020, 14 people have been killed in pedestrian crashes. Crashes involving people on foot also accounted for almost 30% of the county’s serious crashes during the same period.
Nabors said some of the areas that see the most of these crashes include busier streets, such as the Columbia Pike area, as well as the Roslyn and Ballston neighborhoods.
Passage of the ordinance, which is expected, would mean all drivers at a crosswalk must stop, even if the pedestrian has not reached their lane of travel.
“If there is a crossing where there’s more than one lane in each direction, the vehicles in both lanes are required to stop, and that’s for all lanes,” Nabors said.
He said this is one of many steps to keep pedestrians safe, others include looking at speeds of streets. Nabors said right now, the highest speed limit on a county-owned road is 30 mph.
“We’ve been looking at speed as a function of that, because we know if we can get people to slow down, then if there is an incident, then it’s less severe for a pedestrian,” Nabors said.
