Henrico officials gauge citizen transportation concerns at 'Arrive Alive Henrico' event

By Matthew Hafdelin, Special to the Citizen

At a June 3 community meeting at Belmont Recreation Center, Henrico County Public Works officials gave citizens the space to discuss their road-safety concerns, including a lack of law enforcement and high vehicle volumes, as a part of the county’s new Arrive Alive Henrico program. The plan – funded by the U.S. Safe Streets for All program – aims to find such concerns and create plans to address them in the future.

Officials from the Henrico Public Works ’s Transportation Development division set up three stations at the meeting:

• one offering statistics about transportation in the county and detailing the “four 'Es” of transportation that need to be improved in the county (engineering, education, enforcement and emergency response);
• one at which community members could submit specific concerns;
• and a call-to-action area at which participants made pledges to improve their driving habits.

Around each station was a representative from the Transformation Development division with whom participants could speak to explain how they believe road safety can be improved.

“With this information, we can identify areas of concern,” assistant division director of the department Kristen Burton said. “We can then use these concerns to make a plan of action.”

Since officials are still in the development stage, Burton said that the funding for the implementation of the program’s ultimate plans is not yet set in stone. Instead, officials will use suggestions gathered at the meeting and developed during the coming months to apply for federal, state and regional grants specific to citizen concerns.

At the meeting, community members raised multiple issues with transportation systems in the county.

The number of vehicles on the road, driving speeds and transportation-related fatalities are life-long Henrico resident Tricia Bahen’s main concerns.

“I live near a busy intersection, and just today there was a crash,” Bahen said.

She explained that she has been worried about road safety in the area for years, especially having raised her children in Henrico.

Community member Gale Abell voiced similar concerns. Drivers running red lights and using their phones is something that she has noticed more frequently in the past few years.

“There needs to be better enforcement on the roads,” Abell said. “We need to hold people accountable when they are breaking laws.”

She also suggested public service announcements that would remind drivers of those laws.

Using information collected at the meeting and from a survey that is open through July 1, officials from the Transformation Development division plan to establish the community’s road-safety priorities, create strategies to address these priorities and eventually put a plan into action.

They plan to hold another community meeting this fall to present tentative plans and again address community concerns.