NORFOLK, Va. — The Virginia Department of Transportation is asking Virginians to share their experiences and concerns about roadway safety as the agency updates its five-year Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
The plan provides direction for road safety efforts across the commonwealth, helping VDOT and its partners determine where to focus resources and which strategies could have the biggest impact.
“We want to see for the next five years where we need to prioritize our resources in order to improve the safety of the traveling public,” said Stephen Read, VDOT’s State Highway Safety Engineer.
The plan is overseen by a steering committee that includes VDOT, Virginia State Police, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Health and other state and local agencies and safety partners.
As part of the update, VDOT has launched a statewide survey asking residents about the safety issues they see on Virginia roads. The survey covers topics including speeding, impaired driving, occupant protection, bike lanes, sidewalks and more.
Read said pedestrian safety is one area VDOT is looking at, including ways to help people cross busy roads more safely.
“We’re looking at trying to get people across the street more safely with traffic signals, crosswalks, with mid-block crosswalks and so on,” Read said. “We’re trying to spread that across the network on the VDOT system and working with our localities for them to do the same.”
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and also gives residents the opportunity to submit recommendations directly to VDOT.
“We hope to have [the plan] is done by the end of the year, this is the last year of our existing plan, and then it will be launched and be starting to implement in early 2027,” Read said.
The updated Strategic Highway Safety Plan is expected to be released in early 2027.
The statewide survey will remain open through August 23, giving Virginians an opportunity to help shape the state’s road safety priorities for the next five years.
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