A recent near-tragedy again has returned the spotlight to safety on S. Carlin Springs Road.
“People after the pandemic are driving like crazy,” Arlington County Board member Takis Karantonis said at a meeting last night (Dec. 2) of the Glencarlyn Civic Association. “There is no way to sugar-coat it.”
His attendance at the meeting had been planned months before, but came just days after a Nov. 26 crash at Carlin Springs and 3rd Street S. that seriously injured two students walking home from school.
It is the latest in a series of crashes in the blocks of Carlin Springs just south of Route 50, civic association president Brandon Hemel said in showing Karantonis photos taken by local resident and former Washington Post photographer Gerald Martineau of a serious incident that occurred last May.
“The one that happened this week was just as terrible,” Hemel told Karantonis and a meeting that included an outpouring of frustration over what Glencarlyn residents see as inadequate attention from the county government on road-safety issues.
A two-lane road until it was widened in the 1970s, S. Carlin Springs carries today handles about 33,000 vehicles per day — much of it from drivers attempting to connect between Columbia Pike and Route 50 (Arlington Boulevard).
Students attending Kenmore Middle and Carlin Springs and Campbell elementary schools walk to school on narrow sidewalks in what Karantonis acknowledged was a “complex and problematic” situation with few easy fixes.
“We need to find a balance,” the Board member said of the needs of drivers and pedestrians. “There is no optimal solution where everyone will be happy. [But] kids, in my opinion, are more important than road traffic.”
The Nov. 26 crash, from which the two female juvenile cousins — one a teen and the other 6 years old — are recovering, occurred after when a vehicle headed southbound on Carlin Springs attempted a left-hand turn on 3rd Street S. It was hit by a vehicle traveling northbound, according to county police.
The striking vehicle careened into a crosswalk and onto the sidewalk. The two youths who were injured had followed all proper steps for traversing the road yet found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A family member said at the Dec. 2 meeting said both girls are recovering at home with internal injuries.
The number of incidents related to, and the list of concerns raised with, Karantonis by residents were lengthy:
- Sidewalks are inadequate.
- Signage needs to be improved.
- The roadway is poorly lit.
- The speed limit is too high.
- Arlington Transit (ART) buses that some students use do not drop off passengers directly at the school.
- Speed cameras in the school zone are only operational one hour in the morning and one more in the evening.
- Planned improvements to the soccer fields at Kenmore will bring more traffic for more hours each day.
- Requests made of county staff do not always receive responses.
Molly Jones, a Glencarlyn resident who teaches at Kenmore Middle, said drivers need “a very strong reminder they are in a school zone.”
“I’ve been almost hit by a car three times,” she said.
Residents said crossing guards do an exceptional job but there are not enough, and drivers run red lights even when crossing guards are in place.
Karantonis said the police department has faced a shortage of applicants for available crossing-guard positions, which led some residents to counter that more aggressive actions were needed.
“Put a police officer there,” a parent and teacher said of the area in front of the schools. “The only day I ever saw a police officer was on the first day of school.”
Another resident pressed for a shuttle-bus service that could take students from Kenmore Middle, on the west side of Carlin Springs, to their homes on the east side. About 150 students could benefit from the service, she said.
Some of the same residents at the Dec. 2 meeting had been in attendance during a workshop held two months earlier as input was sought in preparation for an update of the county government’s Master Transportation Plan. About the same time, county officials announced a delay in a traffic study of the Carlin Springs corridor.
“We’re all a little frustrated,” one resident said from the back of the room at the Dec. 2 meeting.
“I’ve been e-mailing [concerns to county leaders] for three years,” another said.
The county government is “being reactive rather than proactive,” a third said.
“I’m very terrified,” said a fourth. “We have so many incidents.”
Karantonis pointed to some improvements in recent months.
Among them: The two school-zone speed cameras installed at the start of the school year along Carlin Springs appear to be having the desired effect.
In September, as the program was starting, more than 4,300 citations and warnings were issued to drivers. In October, that number declined to about 1,200 and in November to about 700.
“The steep initial reduction is likely due to people who received multiple tickets during the warning period and changed their behavior,” county police said.
Arlington leaders also are working to complete negotiations with homeowners to obtain easements that would allow for wider sidewalks. But the effort has drawn opposition from a few property owners, who already saw significant chunks of their front yards taken several decades ago when the roadway was widened from two to four lanes.
County officials ultimately could turn to eminent-domain powers to take the land they need, but as was found earlier this year in a case involving a longtime resident of Columbia Pike, such moves can be public-relations nightmares.
County staff also are taking another look at whether the stretch of Carlin Springs south of Route 50 should have the speed limit lowered from 30 to 25 mph, as recently occurred on the road north of Route 50. Having data from the speed cameras may help that process along.
Perhaps the seminal question touched on was whether S. Carlin Springs could or should have one or two traffic lanes removed, returning the roadway to something approximating its pre-1970s configuration.
“What do you want your road to be at the end? Who do you want this road to serve?” Karantonis asked residents to consider.
During the pandemic, one lane was closed as a pilot program, but county leaders quickly decided the safety benefits did not outweigh the traffic-management challenges that piled up.
Some residents pressed for trying again, noting that S. George Mason Drive could handle some of the overflow north-south traffic — and does not have schools along its route from Columbia Pike to Route 50.
Reduction of one or two lanes could be discussed as part of the Master Transportation Plan update. Karantonis said local residents need to have their voices heard and be specific in their wish list — but also need to acknowledge there are competing interests that must be balanced.
“Doing major surgery [on the transportation grid] is less than straightforward,” he said.
County officials will be back at the civic association discussing road-safety issues on March 3 as part of a program on the government’s “Vision Zero” transportation-safety initiative.
