ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A new report by a regional advocacy group found traffic near-miss incidents at the same location are happening more frequently in parts of northern Virginia.
In its inaugural “Near Miss/Dangerous Location” summary report, Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS) said out of the 2,500 reports from January 2023 to June 2024, 82% had recurring dangerous events.
“Whatever that location is, whatever the danger is, they see it all the time,” NoVA FSS Founder Mike Doyle said. “It's gotten worse from two years ago.”
The group began collecting data in 2020, but launched its survey and dashboard that compiled near misses in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax in 2021.
The report hopes to bring more awareness to ongoing issues and risks to the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable people to the communities.
The crowdsourced data shows failure to yield is the major reason behind the reports at 65%. It’s followed by speeding at 43%.
The report also found the most problematic road corridors are Duke Street in Alexandria, North Quincy Street in Arlington, and Blake Lane in Fairfax County.
The group said there are many other locations where pedestrians and cyclists experience high risk encounters but the lack of the “Near Miss” (NM) reports at these locations reflects poor knowledge of the NM survey rather than no danger on the streets.
“For every near miss, we've always hypothesized that there's a lot more that are happening that never get reported,” Doyle added. “A lot of people don't know that we exist.”
Among the risky intersections include Duke Street and South Henry Street, where the report said on top of failing to yield, speeding and running lights, there’s also not enough time to cross the street.
Pedestrians such as Emily Kulze agree.
“I feel like there have been a few near misses and I only feel comfortable going to the very defined pedestrian crossing up there and it has flashing lights but even then, we've almost gotten hit several times because it's ignored,” she said. “I'd like to see more enforcement of people honoring pedestrians and fully yielding to it instead of treating the road as a fast highway.”
The organization has submitted its findings to different police departments.
The group broke down the summary report to the three regions:
- Alexandria: Alexandria Near Miss Summary Report
- Arlington: Arlington Near Miss Summary Report
- Fairfax: Fairfax Near Miss Summary Report
Click here to learn how you can report near miss incidents.