The goal of the Fairfax County Residential Traffic Administration Program (RTAP) is to work directly with communities to decrease the impacts of traffic and enhance neighborhood pedestrian safety. These measures take the form of traffic calming measures, better signage, and reduction of neighborhood cut-through traffic.

However, if you want to use RTAP in your neighborhood, you’ll find that this is a challenging process. That’s why Fairfax FSS  developed the RTAP Resource Guide.  

We wrote this and the other resource materials provided below, based on the input of community members who have been through the RTAP process – both successfully and unsuccessfully.

The guide includes sections on Building Your Team, Starting the Process, The Traffic Study and Calming Plan, and information about the approvals process.

Download the RTAP Resource Guide

We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any feedback that would improve this guide! Comments or questions can be sent to chris@novafss.org

RTAP Resources

General Information

1) How FCDOT defines who is eligible for voting for a traffic calming project: “The ballot area comprises residences and businesses on the street identified for traffic calming and residences and businesses on other streets whose sole or primary access is the street identified for traffic calming, and who would be considerably inconvenienced if they chose an alternate route.”

2) FAQs explaining in plain language to your community the RTAP process, how to vote, the value of traffic calming and more: https://fairwaydrive.org/faq

3) Traffic calming benefits and equity impacts: Traffic calming benefits and property values.pdf

An academic study that found “Potential benefits include road safety, increased comfort and mobility for non-motorized travel, reduced environmental impacts, increased neighborhood interaction, and increased property values.”

Traffic Calming Device Options

The RTAP program provides a limited number of “traffic calming devices” including: speed humps, speed lumps/cushions, speed tables, raised medians, and chokers.

Examples of Materials from Other RTAP Traffic Calming Projects

The following resources are materials provided by FCDOT, or developed by the Fairway Drive task force. These may help you better understand different aspects of the process.

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