Woodbridge Bike & Pedestrian Trail System More Than Halfway Funded

By URIAH KISER

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Afternoon rush hours here are loud, busy, and full of both pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles. And if you’re not behind the wheel of a car, U.S. 1 in Woodbridge is not a very friendly place to be, despite portions of the road having sidewalks, several bus stops, homes, and shopping centers.

On Friday afternoon, several pedestrians could be seen schlepping backpacks, shopping bags, and pushing strollers with small children in them, all of them dodging traffic to get across the busy four-lane highway at Featherstone Plaza. Along this stretch of road over the past five years, 17 pedestrians have been killed – many of them right here at Featherstone Plaza. Another trouble spot in Woodbridge is the area around Marumsco Plaza, where many residents cross the highway to shop for groceries and other items.

“We typically see most of the pedestrian accidents where we have a high concentration of homes that meets retail shopping areas,” said Prince William Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank J. Principi.

He’s been working for the past five years to improve the U.S. 1 corridor with not only helping to greenlight roadway improvements — including work that’s about to begin to widen portions of the highway from four to six lanes from Neabsco Creek to Featherstone Road and from Mary’s Way to the Occoquan River — but to also build a new network of pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and trails.

It’s been dubbed Woodbridge’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Network, a project Princpi has often called “fixing Woodbridge’s sidewalks to nowhere.” Of the 34 sidewalk and trail projects that have been identified as needed improvements at an estimated cost of $25 million, 22 of them now have a dedicated funding source that totals $17.5 million, Principi announced Friday afternoon.

The top five projects include:

— U.S.1 at Powell’s Creek Bridge – $710,000

— Dale Boulevard from Neabsco Mills Road, across U.S. 1 and along Rippon Boulevard – $1.8 million

— Opitz Boulevard from WaWa to Neabsco Mills Road $1.5 million

— Blackburn Road from Rippon Boulevard to the Cow Branch Bridge – $500,000

— Blackburn Road from Reddy Drive to Featherstone Road – $600,000

Overall, the new network of sidwalks and trails when depicted on a map resembles something like a network of roadways, but these paths will allow those on foot or bike to travel alongside major throughfares. Smaller spoke routes depicted on the map branch further into neighborhoods like Belmont Bay, Featherstone Shores, Harbors of Newport, North Woodbridge, and River Oaks.

For Henry Hiltpold who used to live in Washington and now rides his motorized scooter to a bus stop and relies on OmniLink for a ride around town, a more pedestrian-friendly network sounds appealing.

“The sidewalks are narrow, and it would be easier for me if traffic would move along here slower than it already does, but I don’t guess that is going to happen,” said Hiltpold, referring to the hustle and bustle of U.S. 1 when it’s not congested with morning or afternoon commuters.

The pedestrian network announcement comes as the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments launched their “Street Smart” campaign. Principi, who serves on the MCOG Board, drew the Street Smart campaign to Woodbridge on Friday to highlight the dangers both pedestrians and bicyclists face.

Last year in the Washington area there were more 3,000 crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists. Of those, 70 of them were fatal. In Prince William there were fatal crashes involving bicyclists or pedestrians, according to Street Smart statistics.

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