Annandale Residents Want Bumps on the Road

A group of Annandale residents who live on and near Old Columbia Pike have formed a task force and are working to have speed humps installed on the busy Annandale street to address safety concerns in the community.

The speed humps, the task force argues, would deter residents from speeding on Old Columbia Pike and endangering other motorists, as well as pedestrians who walk along the road.

The current speed limit on Old Columbia Pike is 25 miles per hour.

The task force will host a community meeting on Thursday about the proposed traffic calming measures to gather feedback and provide additional information to residents. This will be the second community meeting about the speed humps. An initial meeting was held back in July.

Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross confirmed that the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) has developed a proposal that would install several speed humps on Old Columbia Pike. Based on guidelines that were adopted in 2009, Gross said the majority of the residents within the "ballot area" have to vote in favor of the proposal before it can be approved.

Residents who live in the Pinecrest community have recently raised concerns about the proposal because the community was not asked to participate in the process of deciding on an appropriate traffic calming measure and will not be allowed to vote on FCDOT's proposal. The reason the community can't vote on the proposal, Gross said, is that the community lies outside of the ballot area. The current ballot area includes more than 100 Annandale homes.

A Pinecrest resident, who asked not to be identified, said many homeowners in the Pinecrest community feel that they're being excluded from the conversation.

"We didn't even know about the first meeting. We use the road too and we feel that we should have a say," the resident said.

Thursday's community meeting about the proposal is open to the public. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Mason District Governmental Center in the main conference room.