County Board Adds $200 Fine For Speeding On Residential Streets

ARLINGTON, VA -- Beware, if you speed through a residential neighborhood in Arlington County, you're going to face steeper fines, thanks to an ordinance change the County Board unanimously approved at its Jan. 28 meeting. The Board established a $200 additional speeding fine zone in residential neighborhoods based on citizen complaints over speeding and pedestrian safety.

“Arlington is serious about pedestrian safety and serious about enforcing speeding laws,” Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey said, in a statement. “The Board is taking this action to help deter drivers from speeding down residential streets, endangering people who are walking, cycling and using scooters to get around.”

The ordinance change bolsters Arlington's Vision Zero traffic safety strategy, which the Board adopted in July 2019, with the goal of reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero.

The Transportation Division of the County’s Department of Environmental Services will use speeding complaints and traffic data to determine which neighborhood streets qualify for the additional fine. Qualifying streets must meet the following criteria:

• The street must be in a residential area.
• The street must be considered a neighborhood principal, minor arterial or major arterial on the County's road classification map.
• There must be a documented speeding issue.

To determine whether a street has a documented speeding issue, the County must have speed data supporting that designation. That data must have been collected five years from when the "$200 Additional Speeding Fine Zone” evaluation took place showing there was speeding on the road segment, or a recorded traffic evaluation was produced in the same time period. That evaluation must include speeding as one of its issues and it must include written confirmation from Arlington County Police observing speeding on the road segment in question.

Once a road has been determined to be a speeding zone, "$200 Additional Speeding Fine Zone"signs will be placed on speed limit signs along to road to notify drivers of the additional fines. The current fine for speeding in a residential neighborhood is $6 for every mile-per-hour above the 25 miles-per-hour speed limit, in addition to the state-mandated $66 in court fees. The $200 fine will be added on top of the current speeding fines for residential areas.