The recently adopted Safe Streets Arlington Comprehensive Safety Action Plan outlines more than 40 proposed actions over the short-term and long-term to make Arlington safer for all roadway users.

Arlington covers nearly 100 square miles, but 70% of all fatal and severe crashes happening here occur on just 6% of the vast roadway network. Fatal and severe crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians are even more concentrated, with half occurring on just 1.5% of the City’s roadway network. This does not include state-controlled intersections or highways and interstates in the city.

By emphasizing safer driver, bicyclist, and pedestrian behaviors and making strategic improvements to street infrastructure, in addition to education and engagement, Arlington worked with residents over a year to develop a transportation safety action plan that aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 5% annually.

Through a data-driven and comprehensive approach, the plan’s ultimate goal is to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050. Arlington City Council adopted the plan in December 2024.

"Every day, hundreds of thousands of people travel to and through our community as they head to their homes, schools, work, or other destinations. And every day, what is most important to us as a city is that everyone arrives to those destinations safely,” Mayor Jim Ross said. “Through the Safe Streets Arlington initiative, we are collaborating with our residents to implement data-driven strategies and infrastructure improvements that will help us reach zero serious injuries and fatalities on our streets and make our community safer for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

The Safe Streets Arlington Plan development was led by the City’s Transportation Department, with assistance from Police, Public Works and other city departments, and a committee of external stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds. Plan development was supported by a planning grant from the Safe Streets and Roads for All program in 2023.

Click here to read the Safe Street Arlington Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

Click here to see the High Injury Network Map and the Interactive Crash Data Map.

The 44 actions outlined in the plan are proposed to be implemented over the next seven years.

Proposed traffic safety countermeasures and strategies to improve safety for all roadway users include:

• Bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements such as pedestrian refuge islands, buffered bike lanes, extending pedestrian crossing time and pedestrian hybrid beacons.
• Intersection and roadway improvements such as roundabouts, raised medians or raised crosswalks, or painting speed limit numbers on the pavement at neighborhood entrances.
• Improving traffic and pedestrian safety around school campuses and directing traffic enforcement to areas of safety concern to ensure rules of the road are being followed.
• Making fatal and serious injury crash reductions part of prioritization criteria for all transportation projects in the City budget.
• Incorporating safety considerations and multimodal amenities in new development plans.
• Developing a traffic calming policy and toolkit.
• Updating existing City documents to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements.