Hot on the heels of changes to streets near William Ramsay Elementary School, the City of Alexandria is looking to make streets safer near a local Catholic school.
Changes (page 15) to West Glebe Road and Russell Road are headed to the Traffic and Parking Board on Monday, July 22 with the goal of making the intersection near Saint Rita Catholic School safer.
The proposal is to install No Turn on Red signs at the intersection and implement a 15-mile-per-hour school zone on West Glebe Road during morning and afternoon pickup/drop-off.
“In response to continuous dialogue and engagement between the City and the Saint Rita School Parent Teacher Organization regarding traffic and pedestrian safety, the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is proposing to implement safety improvements near the intersection of West Glebe Road and Russell Road,” a memo from Transportation and Environmental Services (T&ES) said.
SRTS is a project that aims to make is safer for students, teachers and other community members to walk to and from schools in Alexandria.
The report said there have been over 25 crashes in the immediate vicinity of the intersection since 2016 with eight crashes resulting in visible or severe injuries.
The report also notes that the affordable Sansé and Naja development at the intersection makes addressing problems with the intersection more timely. According to the report:
Many of these crashes are due to speeding or are angle crashes, which a school zone and NTOR safety restrictions can help mitigate. The intersection is also home to a joint development venture between the City and a local affordable housing developer to construct 417 units of affordable housing and more than 30,000 SF of community-serving retail. As the intersection will be home in the next two years to more than 1,000 of the City’s most vulnerable residents, the needs to improve safety and awareness is heightened.
The report said response to the proposed changes has been positive, with some suggesting additional improvements such as signal timing adjustments and potentially moving the painted stop bars further back from the intersection, which staff said they will continue to explore.
