New Study Shows Vienna’s Most Dangerous Intersections

A new study of the Maple Avenue corridor shows Vienna’s most dangerous intersections and details extensive gaps in the town’s sidewalk network.

At an April 1 work session, the Vienna Town Council is scheduled to discuss the initial results of study by planning consulting firm Kimley-Horn.

The report also showed three major traffic crash hotspots calculated over three years: where Maple Avenue intersects with Nutley Street, Courthouse Road, and Park Street.

The study shows that while Maple Avenue has extensive sidewalk coverage, streets one block away like Windover Avenue and Glen Avenue on the west end or East Street and Mashie Drive at the east end of town are completely without sidewalks.

Church Street, another major street through the town, only has sidewalks on one side of the street between Park Street and Beulah Road.

In a finding that will surprise few Vienna residents, Maple Avenue is overcrowded. The report said daily traffic on the street topped 30,000 vehicles per day, on the high end of the study’s scale.

The street’s traffic density was worst between Nutley Street and Follin Lane, the main stretch through town.

Maple Avenue also sees high levels of bicycle traffic. It os ranked by the report at “level of traffic stress 4,” the highest category available, meaning that it is exceedingly uncomfortable and stressful for cyclists to use.

Nearly every major road feeding into the street, like Nutley Street and Park Street, as well as the aforementioned Church Street also saw high levels of car traffic and cyclist stress.