By Julie Carey, NBC Washington Published December 6, 2024 The teen’s death becomes the 20th pedestrian or cyclist fatality in Fairfax County so far this year, double the number killed last year. “The numbers are going in the wrong direction,” said Chris French from Fairfax Families for Safe Streets. Pedestrian- and bicyclist-involved crashes steadily increased in the county each year from 2020, French said. There have been 211 pedestrian-involved crashes leading to injury in Fairfax County this year, French said. That’s down from last year’s count of 237 and up from 134 in 2020. Watch the full story: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/girl-14-struck-and-killed-by-car-in-fairfax-county/3786120

NoVA FSS participated in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ recent Street Smart pedestrian’s street safety promotional campaign where the utility of our Near Miss crowd sourced dashboard was referenced in the NBC news story. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transit-safety-campaign-implements-new-immersive-way-to-gauge-drivers-attention/3753593

By The Fairfax Machine Published October 15, 2024 In two September weeks in Fairfax County, six drivers fatally struck six pedestrians from Hybla Valley to Centreville. The string of incidents made last month the county’s deadliest of the year for pedestrians — and it made Chris French, once again, reflect. “I think people have sort of numbed themselves to it: ‘Oh, it’s a shame that person got hit, but they were walking across the street,’” French, president of the Fairfax chapter of Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets, said late last week. “Almost as if they were asking for it, when these are people just trying

Author: Matthew Torres Published: 6:26 PM EDT September 30, 2024 Updated: 6:26 PM EDT September 30, 2024 ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A new report by a regional advocacy group found traffic near-miss incidents at the same location are happening more frequently in parts of northern Virginia. In its inaugural “Near Miss/Dangerous Location” summary report, Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS) said out of the 2,500 reports from January 2023 to June 2024, 82% had recurring dangerous events. “Whatever that location is, whatever the danger is, they see it all the time,” NoVA FSS Founder Mike Doyle said. “It’s gotten worse from two years ago.” The group began collecting data

By Angela Woolsey Published September 27, 2024 at 9:00AM If you nearly get swiped by a turning car while walking across a street in Fairfax County, there’s a good chance that you or another community member has had a similar experience in that same spot before, newly released survey data indicates. The inaugural “Near Miss/Dangerous Location” summary report from the Fairfax chapter of Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NOVA FSS) found that 90% of the incidents recorded by pedestrians and cyclists since 2020 were recurring events — a higher rate than in Arlington (82%) or Alexandria (74%), the two other jurisdictions analyzed by the volunteer-run nonprofit. The amount of incidents flagged

Fairfax Families for Safe Streets joined 17 partner partner organizations of the Fairfax Healthy Communities Network (https://www.fairfaxhealthy.org/), in the submission of budget comments on Fairfax County’s FY25 advertised budget. The complete package of budget comments is linked below, however, highlights of the Sustainable Transportation comments include: Comments also included a “thank you” to the Board’s proposed investments in transit, including the proposed additional $10 million for WMATA operating funding and the proposed increase of $2.15 million for Fairfax Connector bus service. Read the full set of comments: FHC-FY25-Fairfax-County-Budget-Comments.pdf Would you like to receive our newsletter in your inbox each month? Just sign up! Follow Us