For years now residents of North Tysons have had to mitigate a lingering sidewalk gap that doesn’t appear to be going away. Along the north side of Westpark Drive near the intersection of International Drive a steep slope and forested area has kept FCDOT from being able to connect the neighborhood of Park Crest to the offices, farmers markets, and restaurants near by. A three foot wide towpath has been created by the many residents who sneak between the overgrown tree branches and traffic only inches away, but FCDOT has yet to provide the laughably inexpensive sidewalk link because of limited space.
It turns out FCDOT wouldn’t have to affect the slope, acquire any new right of way property, or construct any retaining walls. The caveat is they need to stop designing road ways in a wasteful and over sized manner. For years Virginia roads have been over sized with 12 foot lanes placed without any thought or rationale, despite AASHTO itself pointing out that 10 foot lanes are perfectly acceptable in slower speed areas.
Westpark Drive is only a 35 mile per hour road at this location, a frankly should eventually become a 25 MPH road considering it is a residential street with thousands of residents and school children, but that is a whole other battle. At these low speeds, provision of a 12 foot lane actually has the opposite effect, inducing drivers to speed faster and therefore making the road more dangerous.
Condensing the 4 lane wide intersection configuration to 10 foot lanes would provide back 8 feet of space. Combining this 8 feet with the 3 foot towpath that exists provides 11 feet of space. That is more than enough to provide a comfortable 6 foot or 8 foot sidewalk and even a grass strip buffer for signage and planting.
All of these changes would meet the new concepts and guidelines crafted in the Tysons Comprehensive plan. All of these changes would encourage walkability and habitability in Tysons. All of these changes, aren’t much in the way of changes at all and wouldn’t cause any traffic disruption one bit.
Costs aren’t the problem here, we are talking about a few thousand dollars of curb and sidewalk. More has been spent to de-ice just this stretch of Tysons roadway this year (even without any snow). This is about looking at our infrastructure in a more cognizant manner, utilizing space more efficiently, and serving all modes of travel to minimum standards. Change has to be more than concept, this is how you implement it.