ALEXANDRIA, Va. — For months, WUSA9 has been reporting on concerns about dangerous driving habits along Seminary Road.
Monday night, transportation officials with the City of Alexandria held an open house and community meet regarding the Alexandria West Small Area Plan.
"Seminary is considered a high crash segment," explained Ryan Knight, the Transportation Engineering Division Chief for the City of Alexandria.
"We've been implementing different things to try to calm things down, slow down speeds," he told WUSA9.
The speed limit along Seminary Road between I-395 and the Alexandria city limits was lowered from 35 mph to 25 mph in 2021. However, neighbors along the busy four lane road say it hasn't done much to slow drivers down or to prevent crashes.
Monday night, Knight told WUSA9 their data shows that the concerns from neighbors appear to be true.
"It doesn't seem like lowering the speed limit was that effective," said Knight.
"It's insane, cars continue to go 50, 60 miles per hour," said Ron McNeely back when WUSA9 first spoke with him in March.
A driver had crashed into his fence along Seminary Road.
"I hear a big loud boom and my power goes out. I came out the door and saw the car sticking through my fence," said McNeely.
In July, McNeely shared this video, of another crash just steps from his home.
McNeely moved into his home in 2019, and since then "three telephone poles in two years – twice they came through my fence in the last year and a half."
Shortly after that crash in July, neighbors formed the Seminary Road Committee. Their focus is finding ways to improve the stretch of roadway for everyone, drivers included.
In September, the Seminary Road Committee created and launched a survey to collect data from neighbors about their concerns and what they'd like to see be done.
On Oct. 17, another driver slammed into McNeely's yard. The car came about 15 feet short of slamming into his house.
"If they came down just a few more feet they would have gone directly into my kitchen which supports my bedroom," said McNeely.
Alexandria City Police told WUSA9 that the driver was transported for treatment of minor injuries and that their investigation led to the driver being cited for a traffic violation.
On Oct. 24, Alexandria City Mayor Justin Wilson brought up the concerns about Seminary Road, at the very end of the meeting. It wasn't on the agenda, but he, the council, along with the police department and transportation officials, spent about an hour discussing long-term solutions, including adding a turn lane or flex posts. The mayor asked for short-term solutions as well.
"There are some short-term things that we can do. Now, they will involve trade-offs. There will be trade-offs with lane capacity. Trade-offs with potential congestion. But I think given the level of safety concerns that we're dealing with, some of those trade-offs might be trade-offs we're willing to make. The purpose of the conversation tonight was to start a conversation with our staff, as well as the community and the council to talk about these kinds of trade-offs," Wilson said.
Last month, the city installed devices to collect data about the stretch of roadway.
"What we determined that yes the majority of cars that are going down Seminary Road are travelling at higher speeds than the speed limit," said Knight.
He told WUSA9 they also discovered between 33,000-35,000 vehicles pass through each day.
He says last week they installed flexible posts along parts of Seminary Road.
"It kind of gives the perception that the lanes are narrower and therefore slower speeds and more appropriate," said Knight.
Victoria Waskowicz, the Seminary Road Committee Chair commended the city's efforts.
"It's really impressive that the city was able to pull a quick solution together. I've seen a little bit less speeding," said Waskowicz.
She told WUSA9 Monday night, that they received 310 responses to their survey.
The participants of the survey expressed concerns about a lack of turn lanes, excessive speeding, needs for pedestrian safety improvements and visibility among other topics.
"More than 50% of people don't feel safe walking along Seminary Road," said Waskowicz.
Knight says the concerns presented by Waskowicz line up with the issues they've found. Both agreed there needs to be a more thorough study to determine a long term solution.
"We want to make sure the solutions that are put in are the right ones and to do that we may need more thorough data," said Waskowicz.
"We plan to do that it's just a matter of figuring out when and how that study would go about," said Knight.