Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Todd E. Hafner
Director of Planning and Development
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
5400 Ox Road
Fairfax Station, VA 22039-1022

Dear Mr. Hafner:

Thank you for faxing a copy of your October 25, 2001, letter regarding your request to experiment with pedestrian countdown signals at the intersection of Church Road (Route 625) and the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail in Sterling, Virginia. Your fax was received on December 21, 2001. Your original letter still has not been received due to mail quarantines here in Washington, DC. We have reviewed the material that was submitted in support of your request to experiment, and we concur with it, with the following exceptions:

• To be consistent with other experimentations in progress around the country, we will require that the countdown indication only be displayed during the flashing 4-245-ex-va-sDon’t Walk4-245-ex-va-s portion of the pedestrian phase, and not during the "Walk" interval.
• We understand that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has jurisdiction over the intersection in question, and that VDOT will operate and maintain the traffic signal, including the pedestrian countdown displays, after installation is completed and accepted by VDOT. On January 25, we received a faxed letter from VDOT conveying their concurrence with the experimentation on their roadway, and indicating that NVRPA will coordinate data collection and reporting. Please ensure that VDOT is kept in the loop on all activities associated with this experimentation.
• Your request indicated an experimentation time period of 4 years. We believe that a 2-year time period will provide sufficient time to collect enough data to evaluate the pedestrian countdown signals. Upon conclusion of the experimentation, it is found to be successful and a request is made (by NVRPA or other jurisdictions currently experimenting with this type of device) to change the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices to include it, the pedestrian countdown will be allowed to remain in place until an official rulemaking has occurred.

Your experimentation request is approved for a 2-year time period, subject to the three modifications outlined above. For future reference purposes, we have assigned the following official experimentation number and title to your request: 4-245(Ex)--"Pedestrian Countdown Signals-NVRPA." Please refer to this number in future correspondence.

We look forward to receiving notifications of implementation dates and your semiannual progress reports and final report. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright on 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations