Eleven people on foot died in crashes in Fairfax County in 2015. That continues a rising trend since 2012, when the number was just four. What’s going on?

NBC4 reporter Adam Tuss talked to some people about what’s going on. A leading hypothesis in the story is that more people are walking around. That seems likely, but one element is missing: how poorly Fairfax’s roads are designed for walking.

A number of people in the story talk about newcomers. One driver says, “I definitely worry about people who aren’t from here,” who try to cross when they don’t have the light or not at a crosswalk. The subtext sure sounded like, “… people aren’t familiar with the way we haven’t designed roads for pedestrians in Fairfax County.”

Just look at this intersection where Tuss is standing, the corner of Gallows Road and Route 29. It’s about 0.6 miles from the Dunn Loring Metro station. And it’s huge.

Image from Tuss’ report.

That Target is part of the Mosaic District, which was designed to be walkable and transit-oriented. The interior is beautiful, but to get there from Metro requires walking along a not-very-hospitable sidewalk on 6- to 8-lane wide Gallows, and then crossing this monstrosity, 9 lanes on both Gallows and 29.

VDOT widened both roads in 2011 in a project billed to “increase safety, reduce congestion and enhance bicycle and pedestrian access,” but which prioritized car throughput over other considerations. (This recent article from Joe Cortright effectively summarizes the mindset that would let VDOT think this would “increase safety.”)

At least there are sidewalks, though, and you can legally walk directly along the road. That’s not always true elsewhere in the county, like at Tysons Corner. Some sides of many intersections there were never designed for people to cross on foot. Only a lot of people are, now that Metro goes there.

Tysons Corner. Photo by Ken Archer.

Lucy Caldwell of Fairfax Police told Tuss, “We have situations that have occurred near Metro [stations], where people sometimes don’t want to take that extra few minutes, and they cross where they shouldn’t be crossing.” If someone has to walk a few minutes farther to cross a road, most of all near a Metro station, you haven’t designed it right.

To its credit, Fairfax officials are trying to gradually fix these spots, but there’s a long way to go.