County Board members say further steps to protect students along S. Carlin Springs Road will be in place before classes resume in late August.
“We want to be responsive — all of us care and have been engaged,” Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said in response to concerns raised at the Board’s Saturday (July 18) meeting.
“There are things we are working on,” the Board chair said, but before meeting with the community, the county government has to get its plans in order internally.
“The Board and the staff, the left hand and the right hand, need to know what each other are doing,” de Ferranti said.
Dixie Duncan, a Glencarlyn resident and civic activist, used the public-comment portion of the meeting for the second time in two months to address roadway dangers before the 2026-27 school year. She noted that three schools — Kenmore Middle, Carlin Springs Elementary and Campbell Elementary — are located along a stretch of the road slightly more than a half-mile in length.
“If this was your child, or this was your grandchild, what would you do?” Duncan asked of Board members. “It’s pretty straightforward: This road has got to have changes.”
One of her requests was to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph at all times, not just at certain times of the day.
“I just would like a plan, because school starts in five weeks,” Duncan said.
De Ferranti promised an update soon.
“The long and short is, we’re trying to get a [community] meeting that is in the range of Aug. 3 and sometime the end of that week,” he said.
Residents in the area of S. Carlin Springs have raised concerns for years, but the issue gained new urgency in November 2024 after two students were struck in a crosswalk following a multi-vehicle crash at the road’s intersection with 3rd Street S.
The students were on their way home from school. One youth suffered serious injuries.
Board member Maureen Coffey, who has been working with the surrounding neighborhoods on a variety of issues, said efforts to address the traffic concerns are ongoing.
“It’s in progress,” she said.
Coffey said she hoped the result would be a multi-phase approach, focused first on quick fixes to improve the situation.
“It’s a little bit about triage and figuring out where the most effect for what we can get done in a relatively short amount of time,” she said.
Duncan has been the public face of community concern, but efforts to advocate for public safety also are being undertaken by the Glencarlyn Civic Association.
The civic association’s president, Brandon Hemel, wrote to Board members and top staff on July 13, outlining concerns and offering suggested improvements. The civic association requested installation of automated red-light and crosswalk cameras at the intersections of S. Carlin Springs with 3rd Road S. and 5th Road S.
Hemel also sought crossing guards at the intersections, and traffic-calming efforts to slow down and potentially deter drivers who use Glencarlyn’s narrow neighborhood streets, such as S. Manchester Street, as a cut-through.
The letter expressed appreciation for steps already taken to address safety in the corridor. They include reducing speed limits to 25 mph, speed cameras in school zones and ongoing work to widen sidewalks.
S. Carlin Springs Road carries about 30,000 vehicles per day as it runs from Arlington Blvd south to Columbia Pike.
