In Northern Virginia, speeding, distracted driving and failing to yield are leading to close calls between cars and people on foot or on bicycles, according to a new report.
The findings are from the Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets nonprofit organization, and the data comes from hundreds of incidents that both motorists and pedestrians reported to the organization.
“Most of the reports that we do have are from the vulnerable road user perspective, the pedestrians or cyclists, and they are telling us about incidences where drivers or vehicles are failing to yield,” said Mike Doyle, founder of the organization.
Doyle said the group has been crowdsourcing what they call “near-miss” reports from those involved in them, with a goal of identifying which roads in Fairfax County, Arlington and Alexandria need the most attention.
He said drivers not giving the right of way to pedestrians continues to be the highest reported reason for the close calls.
According to the group, in Fairfax County, nearly 151 reports came in after Jan. 1, 2023, about near-miss collisions, and the most reported streets are Beulah Road, Fairfax County Parkway and Blake Lane.
“There’s a lot of incidents where drivers are not slowing down or not giving the pedestrians or the cyclists that benefit of right of way,” Doyle said.
More than half of the reports cited drivers not yielding to pedestrians. The Fairfax County report also said 90% of those who were involved or witnessed near misses also claimed to have seen similar incidents at those same locations.
For Beulah Road, most of the reported close calls happened at either the intersection of Abbotsford Drive or Talisman Drive.
In one report from the Talisman Drive intersection, the submitter claimed, “the near misses occur when parents are dropping their kids off at school by parking in the neighborhood instead of using the Kiss ‘n’ Ride.”
Doyle said the reports have shown a rise in near collisions involving children.
“We saw incidences of more children along with the parents being on the street as they were trying to cross an intersection,” he said.
In Arlington, North Quincy Street saw 42 reports of near misses, followed by Fairfax Drive with 26 reports and South Arlington Mill Drive with 17 cases.
The group also took in reports from Alexandria, where the most dangerous streets in terms of close calls included Mount Vernon Avenue, Duke Street, Patrick Street and Seminary Road.
Doyle said while the number of reports the organization has received is small, he believes they highlight a bigger problem.
“For every near-miss report we get, there’s 100 out there that people just don’t report on,” he said.
Doyle said his hope is the information they gather will help local jurisdictions get an idea of which areas need the most attention.
“When they see a cluster of these dangerous location near misses, they can direct their resources to those areas at times,” Doyle said.
Among the solutions he believes could be helpful is technology, such as cameras that slow drivers down.
“When you slowed drivers down, that improves the chance of avoiding or, if there is a crash, to help to reduce the impact of that crash and minimize the injury of that crash,” Doyle said.
Doyle also hopes the database of reports will grow, and he encourages people in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County to report the near misses they’ve had or witnessed.
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