Renovated Safeway at Seven Corners dismisses pedestrians

Pedestrians

Renovated Safeway at Seven Corners dismisses pedestrians

by Steve Offutt • March 11, 2011 1:27 pm

The Safeway in the Willston Center near Seven Corners in Fairfax County recently underwent a major renovation. This renovation provides no access for pedestrians along the sidewalk in front of the store, forcing pedestrians to walk in the parking lot.

Photo by the author.

The new renovation is a vast improvement over the old Safeway store that was here. It's bigger, newer, cleaner and includes a Starbucks. Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to how the front of the store interacts with the parking lot and the sidewalk.

This Safeway is not a stand-alone store. It is in a strip that contains a dozen other establishments. It is also adjacent to and very near a large number of apartment buildings, and a significant number of users (myself included) can and do walk to this strip. So it is not a suburban, car-only type of place, even though it has a large parking lot in front.

Although many users come to the Safeway, many also come to the other establishments, and if they wish to visit any that require them to pass by the Safeway (which is in the middle), they must walk into the parking lot to pass in front of the store.

This is, in fact, a dangerous situation. Pedestrians are forced out not into a parking area, but into the moving traffic along the front of the store. The large columns are visual obstacles for both the pedestrians and the drivers. It is likely that at some point in time—probably at night or in other lower visibility conditions—someone will be struck.

Here are some photos:

The BB&T Bank is to the west (left) of the Safeway. To walk past the Safeway to stores on the right, one must walk out into the parking lot.

This narrow section of sidewalk is navigable without going into the parking lot, but there's not a lot of room.

The point where the trash can is located is the place where there is no sidewalk option available. All pedestrians must walk out into the parking lot in order to pass this section. Depending on where the cart storage is, pedestrians may also be forced out at the left of the photo where the leaning sign is located.

This is just past the trash can. The sidewalk is about 12 inches wide, but there is also a sign in the way.

Here's a look from the opposite angle. The sign and trash can are visible on the left side of the photo.

This photo is also taken from the east. The trash can is visible. The BB&T Bank is beyond the Safeway.

Fairfax County's zoning ordinance is hundreds and hundreds of pages. A search through the sections that deal with commercial retail properties like this shopping center resulted in virtually no mentions whatsoever of sidewalks or other pedestrian amenities.

The designers of this Safeway were therefore not required to give any consideration to pedestrians, which is obvious from the outcome. Only those who drive cars were considered in their design choices. Even those who drive here and may also want to go to the bank or to the dollar store nearby are forced to step out into the parking lot traffic in order to do so.

To his credit, when this problem was pointed out to the manager, he was surprised and concerned and expressed his opinion that this design would provide a disservice to his customers. Too bad they didn't ask him before they started.

29 comments

Tags: bad streets, Fairfax, pedestrians, Seven Corners, Virginia

Are people using the Seven Corners pedestrian bridge? (Jun 30, 2009)
Seven Corners pedestrian overpass opens tomorrow (May 19, 2009)
Tenleytown Safeway plan shows no signs of improving (Dec 16, 2009)
From Social Safeway to Sidewalk Safeway (Jun 16, 2008)
The Seven Corners pedestrian bridge: one year later (Jun 18, 2010)

Steve Offutt has been working at the confluence of business and environment for almost 20 years, with experience in climate change solutions, green building, business-government partnerships, transportation demand management, and more. He lives in Arlington with his wife and two children and is a cyclist, pedestrian, transit rider and driver.

Comments
Add a comment »

This is my normal Safeway, I'm surprised I didn't notice this. Maybe because the only walking I do is to and from the parking lot and my car. There isn't much else to walk to here (I don't frequent the other shops).

by Michael Perkins on Mar 11, 2011 1:35 pm

I actually noticed this last week as well. Your last phrase is backwards by the way. Not Too bad they didn't ask him before they started. but Too bad he didn't ask them before they started

by Jasper on Mar 11, 2011 1:36 pm

The fact that customers drive between the safeway and the other stores in the shopping complex just shows how prosperous America is! Facilities that would allow walking between establishments would just be a throwback to and era of lower living standards!

/Lance

by JustMe on Mar 11, 2011 1:46 pm

Stuff like this frustrates the heck out of me. I wonder if there are parking lot designers out there? One of the great failures is that site plans (and approvals) fail to take into account that even if it is a suburban strip, drivers are also pedestrians, and parking lots are by definition where people transition from one mode to another, but the design usually only considers one mode.

I have also seen Ffx Cty zoning and urban design guidelines where there are detailed guidelines for landscaping, sidewalks, trails, edge treatments etc. *around* parking lots, but very little rules for what happens within parking lots. Even the placement of stop signs and the alignments of crosswalks and vehicle lanes isn't held up to any basic standard as if it were an actual public street.

by spookiness on Mar 11, 2011 1:54 pm

GGW...making suburban supermakers safe for pedestrians since 2008.

by charlie on Mar 11, 2011 1:58 pm

Social engineering at its finest.

by BeyondDC on Mar 11, 2011 2:23 pm

@ Perkins: There isn't much else to walk to here (I don't frequent the other shops).

Actually, around the corner is a pretty good Chinese place. XOTaste. That's where I was coming from.

by Jasper on Mar 11, 2011 2:32 pm

charlie can snark all he wants, but blogs were instrumental in getting the Giant in Columbia Heights to remove the driveway in front of the store and return the sidewalk completely to pedestrians. No reason that a sidewalk couldn't be added to the front of this store. There's a lot of blacktop there, and taking away 6 feet of it for people could easily be done.

by Geoffrey Hatchard on Mar 11, 2011 2:37 pm

Sidewalk issues aside, that new Safeway facade is hideously ugly. I can't tell from the photo, but I hope there are some windows (apart from the tower) to let in natural light.

The new Lyon Village Giant looks nice and is generally pedestrian friendly, but it is slightly annoying that the sidewalk ends at it's entrance lobby, so you have to walk into the store to walk past it.

by JP on Mar 11, 2011 3:05 pm

I also did not notice this because I arrive by car when I shop at this Safeway. However, there are quite a few pedestrians from the nearby apartments who come by foot to shop at this and the other nearby stores.

I though the other comment above really was from Lance - LOL!

by Fred on Mar 11, 2011 3:16 pm

Steve, Excellent article. I really enjoy walking during the 9 months per year where that is possible here in NoVA and I attend my local Planning & Zoning meetings, advocating for pedestrian accessibility features. For me and my family, the more walkable an area is (including the groceries) the more enjoyable it is and the more business we send that way. For the many NoVA residents that are mobility & vision impaired, these pedestrian-unfriendly environments are a nightmare.

by Matt on Mar 11, 2011 3:26 pm

I frequent this safeway, and I'd be willing to be that the sidewalk was considered during the design phase, but that the need for parking overrode concerns about pedestrians. The parking lot is relatively narrow..from the storefront trafficway to the trafficway on the other side is about 7 cars.

by Joe M. on Mar 11, 2011 4:16 pm

That center is just poorly designed overall. Have you ever tried to drive from the entrance at Patrick Henry (near the Safeway), across the Plaza to Target or Petsmart? The new layout virtually requires cars to drive along the store fronts, slowing traffic and endangering pedestrians (who have no sidewalk, and no cross walk stop signs - just "slow" signs). The designers should have kept the old "street" running through the center of the parking lot, diverting traffic away from the storefronts, and added additional crosswalks and stops signs on that main through-way.

This article is right on - a huge number of people walk to the center (even though it looks suburban). The poor design results in an annoying and fairly dangerous situation.

by Rob on Mar 11, 2011 5:28 pm

The Safeway in the Belle View shopping center (just south of the Beltway in FFX Cty. Alexandria) has a similar problem.

by mvmike on Mar 11, 2011 5:54 pm

This isn't a renovation, it's entirely new construction. The old store was torn down, and a larger one was built by taking over a few inline spaces to the east of the old one. I don't think I've ever previously seen where a store in the middle of a strip mall was torn down and reconstructed like this. The section to the west that contains the BB&T was part of the original center and left standing while the Safeway was reconstructed. The remainder of the strip mall got an extensive facade makeover to match the Safeway -- though, oddly, Willston Center I, across Patrick Henry Drive to the west (the one with the Safeway is officially known as Willston Center II), has not been upgraded despite having the same ownership (Regency Centers) and the same shingled facade design as Willston II pre-renovation.

Also of note is that one component of Willston II's renovation was the installation of LED fixtures in the parking lot as part of a DOE demonstration project, which has gained Regency some notice.

By the way, this center isn't too far from the Ravenwood Park rezoning controversy.

by Terry K. on Mar 11, 2011 8:35 pm

Willston Shopping Center as a whole is so poorly designed. The sidewalk along Rte. 50 goes several blocks into Arlington, but pedestrians have to walk across the crazy-busy parking lot to get to any store. This could have been easily remedied by including a sidewalk on the ramp that goes up to Target. Anyone taking the westbound 4 Metrobus and getting off near Target has to deal with cars coming from five directions just to cross the service road. Drivers routinely ignore the stop signs on the part of the service road near Target to fly onto Rte. 50. And cross Patrick Henry Drive at your own risk.

by MJ on Mar 11, 2011 9:37 pm

I forwarded this post to a bicycle pedestrian planner for VDOT's NoVA area. I received this reply:

Regarding the Safeway location, while VDOT can not influence what is done within a property, the photos are very interesting. I can offer you (or the writer) a suggestion. Since they have already gone through the zoning laws, they may want to pursue it under ADA. See http://www.ada.gov/enforce.htm. Any one of the monthly reports has a phone number inside it where an advisor will tell them if ADA would apply in their situation. Since it also says the Justice Department must first pursue arbitration before suing anyone, it appears that most of these are settled with “agreements” once the owners are made aware of the problems. After all most people just don’t realize they have a design problem and just want to “do the right thing”.

I hadn't thought of the ADA angle. I'm not lawyer, but my common sense tells me that this would not meet ADA requirements.

by Steve O on Mar 11, 2011 9:45 pm

Our community, Rosslyn, has a small, problematic Safeway. It is ultra convenient to our mostly pedestrian community, but once you go inside you hesitate to return.

There are lots of negative reviews of this Safeway on YELP. Here are my two YELP reviews, one of March 2010 and the other of March 2011:

*********************************
Posted on YELP March 2010

It has been about a year since I last reviewed this Safeway, and it is still the same grungy, but so convenient dive. Safeway hasn't invested a nickel into improving this store. So here is where our household spent our $4,864.07 on groceries over the last 12 months:
Giant on Washington Ave and Spout Run $3,208.21
Trader Joe's in Alexandria $601.06
Whole Foods in Clarendon $436.24
Wegman's way out west $343.92
Safeway in Rosslyn $274.64

Since we live in walking distance of this Safeway, we'd spend most of our money at this Safeway if it were on par with the nearby Giant stores.

Maybe someday Safeway management will wake up and improve this dive. They don't seem to understand that business isn't lost, it just moves elsewhere.....

Review posted 3/27/2010:

Oh my is this place bad. Most of the produce belongs in the dumpster. I've seen rotten, out of date meat more than once on display. You never know if basics like milk and eggs will be in stock or not. This is just one pathetic, dirty, run down excuse for a grocery store. They cater to the lunch crowd from the offices in Rosslyn and have totally forgotten how many residents live in this area that need a grocery store.

I actually tacked down the regional manager of Safeway and pleaded with him to improve this place when half the freezer units were broken during the middle of the summer.

But I still go there when I just HAVE to because I live a short walk away and it is oh so convenient. Maybe someday somebody will wake up and realize how many thousands of people live in Rosslyn and put in a nice urban grocery store to harvest the money spent by this neighborhood at this Safeway along with all the $$$ spent at the Whole Foods and Giant in Clarendon and Ballston. A Trader Joe's could make a fortune in Rosslyn!

by Paul D on Mar 12, 2011 7:29 am

Another disappointment - this Safeway's small checkout lanes make reusable bags awkward to use. What's the point of remodeling if you're not accommodating modern needs?

by TheGreenMiles on Mar 12, 2011 9:29 am

@ TheGreenMiles: small checkout lanes make reusable bags awkward to use

I find this the case with most self check-out lanes, especially the small stations that require to put your items immediately in a bag. The configuration is designed for "free" plastic bags, not for recycled bags.

by Jasper on Mar 12, 2011 11:48 am

The Shoppers Food Warehouse a few blocks away from that (along Route 7) has a similar situation. There is a short section west of the store entrance on the way to the other shops in that strip where the building comes all the way out to the driving lane and so there is no room for a sidewalk.

by rextrex on Mar 12, 2011 3:16 pm

There is a reason the Rosslyn Safeway is known as the Emergency Safeway. You only go there if you really, really have to.

by ksu499 on Mar 12, 2011 6:15 pm

This looks EXACTLY like the stores plopped down in California (where they're known as Vons).

It's simply a corporate cookie cutter blueprint. The giant columns block visibility wherever safeway exists, regardless of local conditions (snow, fog, whatever, theyre all the same).

Luckily, when leaving the store, you're pushing a cart so you can dent a nice car or two.

by JJJJJ on Mar 12, 2011 10:14 pm

And here you go, an extremely similar model in California.

Entrance 1
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=vons&aq=&sll=36.864669,-119.756953&sspn=0.00388,0.008529&ie=UTF8&rq=1&ev=zi&split=1&radius=0.28&hq=vons&hnear=&ll=36.865236,-119.75809&spn=0.00388,0.008529&z=17&layer=c&cbll=36.865239,-119.758088&panoid=EFaVtMEfu-xKJOnSc28mlw&cbp=12,205.33,,1,2.6

Entrance 2
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=vons&aq=&sll=36.864669,-119.756953&sspn=0.00388,0.008529&ie=UTF8&rq=1&ev=zi&split=1&radius=0.28&hq=vons&hnear=&ll=36.864704,-119.758101&spn=0.00388,0.008529&z=17&layer=c&cbll=36.864592,-119.758101&panoid=Wzrqy7Y2nNYFJNo7w25yvw&cbp=12,336.49,,0,11.15

by JJJJJ on Mar 12, 2011 10:20 pm

When this store first re-opened, I filed a written complaint about the poor bicycle parking accommodations provided. I doubt that my complaint has yet been addressed.

by Allen Muchnick on Mar 13, 2011 11:13 pm

Who is the architect/planner for this disaster? I think a name and shame is in order.

by PeakVT on Mar 14, 2011 12:00 pm

Looks like this Safeway was designed with the same thoughtful planning that gave us an intersection with "7 corners".

The most absurd part of the Rosslyn Safeway is that as disgusting and dirty as it is, the checkout register lines are a dozen people long at busy times. More than once, I've loaded up my cart with groceries only to abandon it and walk out the door when I saw the checkout line.

by Falls Church on Mar 14, 2011 1:25 pm

I second whomever says the Willston Center (and the 50-Patrick Henry intersection in general) is a hot mess. There ARE a lot of pedestrians, and the flow to Target is so bad that if you were going to go to both, you'd drive so you wouldn't get run over. I go to the Bailey's Safeway just to avoid the stress.

And yet it is somehow less awful than the McDonald's on Patrick Henry and 50. THAT is possibly the single worst entry/exit for a drive-through I've ever seen.

by 7 Corners Resident on Mar 14, 2011 2:53 pm

There is another sidewalk problem in Fairfax county, more precisely on public sidewalks on Columbia Pike (Mason District). Brand new sidewalks crossing Columbia Pike at Braddock are unsafe for pedestrians. It seems that pedestrian safety was not even taken into account during the design! One one side (north) there is a "sidewalk to nowhere" - a small patch of sidewalk that does not connect to the access road. On the other side (south), pedestrians walking along Braddock Road who seek to cross must walk right into the busy road intersection to reach the crosswalk.

I signaled this to the county supervisor (Penny Gross) while the construction was taking place a year ago but no response.

by John S on Jan 29, 2012 1:23 pm