After a yearlong collaboration, Arlington County and Prince George’s County, MD are excited to announce the release of our Traffic Gardens “How to” Guide! Traffic gardens are locations in the community where children can safely learn to navigate road hazards by practicing safe walking, attention to road signs, and cycling in parks that are designed and scaled appropriately. This guide offers communities throughout the region instructions on planning, implementing, and maintaining their own traffic gardens.

This traffic garden guide was funded through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (MWCOG) Regional Roadway Safety Program in December 2021. The Vision Zero teams in Arlington and in Prince George’s County worked with an expert consultant team to create this guide that can be used to implement permanent and temporary traffic gardens scaled to meet available resources.

The MWCOG  Newsroom recently featured a collaboration between Arlington County and Prince George’s County on Traffic Gardens in their Regional Roadway Safety Spotlight. You can also visit the Arlington County website for more information on the program.

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April was a busy month full of Vision Zero engagement. From the Open House to several advertised and surprise pop-up events, the Vision Zero team heard from community members across the county about transportation safety issues.

DES hosted the Annual Vision Zero Open House on Wednesday, April 26 from 4-7pm at the Arlington Mill Community Center. Over 25 members of the community attended the event.

Staff across several departments and bureaus offered updates to the community on the Vision Zero program including: Year 2 progress (as detailed in the 2022 Annual Vision Zero Report), before/after safety studies that reviewed how past safety projects have impacted crash rates, and the newly released transportation safety equity analysis.

We also gathered feedback on the initiative and input on additional safety needs as we enter Year 3 of our Vision Zero program. The event included a recording station where community members could share their own personal public safety messaging, which we will integrate into a short video for the Vision Zero website.

In addition to the Open House, over 1,050 individuals participated in the year 2 Vision Zero Annual Safety Feedback Form and members of the Vision Zero team spent time in the following locations and events to continue gathering feedback about our transportation initiatives.

• Crystal House Apartments
• Washington and Liberty High School
• Bozman Government Center Open House
• Langston Blvd Alliance Earth Day
• Arlington Festival of the Arts
• Arlington Food Assistance Center
• Columbia Pike Farmers Market

Thanks to everyone who attended the Open House and these engagement events. We value all your time and feedback and look forward to another year of progress!

One of the highlights of the 2022 Annual Report is Arlington’s newly updated 2023 Vision Zero High Injury Network. This Vision Zero High-Injury Network (HIN) identifies streets within the county that have a relatively high number of serious injury and fatal crashes. The Vision Zero approach is focused on reducing our most severe crashes first and foremost, and the HIN allows us to focus analysis and resources on these corridors. In the Vision Zero Action Plan, we made a commitment to update the HIN every three (3) years. Our 2023 HIN identification methodology applied includes fatal, severe, and visible injury crashes.

The County's current HIN uses data from 2018-2022. The network covers 52% of all fatal, severe, or injury crashes in Arlington and 6.8% of all roadways.

Multidisciplinary staff conduct safety audits on Arlington’s High-Injury Network (HIN) corridors. The purpose of the audits is to visit each HIN corridor to identify: (1) small scale or quick-build projects that we can implement quickly to improve safety, (2) existing/upcoming projects occurring on the corridor and how they will help address safety, and (3) other opportunities or needs to enhance safety for consideration for future capital projects or plans. This list identifies the timeline we intend to complete each audit.

Visit the High-Injury Network Corridor Safety Audits page to learn more about HIN audits.