As most residents of Great Falls have noticed, the closure of the parking lots at Great Falls National Park has not stopped would-be visitors from trying to get to the park’s paths, which remain open for use. Closing the lots has simply caused people to search for on-street parking as close as they can find to the park entrances. The result is vehicles being left along the sides of Georgetown Pike and Old Dominion Drive, or parked on narrow residential roads, sometimes illegally, and usually triggering local traffic slowdowns. This in turn has caused potentially dangerous conditions because of narrowed roadways and pedestrians walking in the driving lanes, since many of these roads have no shoulders, sidewalks, or paths.
Police have done their best on the crowded weekends but can only ticket the vehicles that are parked illegally. Police issued over 100 citations this past weekend. This has not been enough to deter parkers or resolve the safety problem, especially along Georgetown Pike. VDOT is hesitant to make more parts of the road no-parking zones, and relies on drivers to be guided by both the rules-of-the-road and their own common sense when searching for safe places to leave their cars. The only element that appears to be discouraging drivers from parking in an unsafe location is the risk of having to pay to have their vehicles towed out of the deep mud traps the sides of the road have been turned into by park visitors.
Until a decision is made to reopen parking lots serving the parks – regardless of whether other park facilities are open – the only options for local residents appear to be to avoid driving past the areas near park entrances or accept that those roads will be slowed by constricted driving lanes and more pedestrians than usual, and exercise caution while driving through the congestion. Residents who are troubled by the illegal or dangerous parking they may see along Georgetown Pike or other roads may call the Fairfax County Police Department’s non-emergency line if they wish. That number is (703) 691-2131 / TTY 711.
