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Southern George Washington Memorial Parkway Safety Study
George Washington Memorial Parkway » Southern George Washington Memorial Parkway Safety Study » Document List
The National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Highway Administration are studying the safety at intersections on the southern section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The study will look at potential ways to improve safety on the George Washington Memorial Parkway between the City of Alexandria and Mount Vernon.
The NPS is pursuing options that include new efforts to:
- Educate parkway visitors about safe travel through the parkway's historic landscape by hosting educational events.
- Enforce speed limits and address distracted driving through focused policing.
- Engineer improvements including new traffic patterns and additional lighting.
The recommendations directly reflect input from the public, transportation stakeholders, community associations and elected officials.
All of the solutions NPS presents will both make the road safer and protect the parkway's historic character. Some could be implemented with existing funds and others would require NPS to allocate funds to support the work. You can learn more about the study and see a map at go.nps.gov/GWMPSafety.
Traffic can create challenges for park users and pedestrians who need to cross the parkway to access neighborhoods, recreational facilities, bus stops and the Mount Vernon Trail.
The southern section of the GWMP opened as the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in 1932. The road's completion was planned to coincide with the nationwide celebration of the bicentennial of George Washington's birth in that year.
The parkway's designers pioneered principles of modern roadway construction by building an attractive and efficient limited access road. Besides serving as a link in the national capital region's transportation network, the parkway preserves natural scenery, links sites associated with George Washington's life and provides recreational opportunities along the Potomac River shoreline. Today, this section of the GWMP serves over 17,000 vehicles daily and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The NPS is pursuing options that include new efforts to:
- Educate parkway visitors about safe travel through the parkway's historic landscape by hosting educational events.
- Enforce speed limits and address distracted driving through focused policing.
- Engineer improvements including new traffic patterns and additional lighting.
The recommendations directly reflect input from the public, transportation stakeholders, community associations and elected officials.
All of the solutions NPS presents will both make the road safer and protect the parkway's historic character. Some could be implemented with existing funds and others would require NPS to allocate funds to support the work. You can learn more about the study and see a map at go.nps.gov/GWMPSafety.
Traffic can create challenges for park users and pedestrians who need to cross the parkway to access neighborhoods, recreational facilities, bus stops and the Mount Vernon Trail.
The southern section of the GWMP opened as the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in 1932. The road's completion was planned to coincide with the nationwide celebration of the bicentennial of George Washington's birth in that year.
The parkway's designers pioneered principles of modern roadway construction by building an attractive and efficient limited access road. Besides serving as a link in the national capital region's transportation network, the parkway preserves natural scenery, links sites associated with George Washington's life and provides recreational opportunities along the Potomac River shoreline. Today, this section of the GWMP serves over 17,000 vehicles daily and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.