The Fairfax County Department of Transportation described safety-light distribution and pedestrian and bicycle safety outreach in an announcement published November 13, 2026, as shorter daylight hours darken evening commutes.

Outreach along trails, roads and transit routes

According to the county, its Active Transportation team is distributing safety lights and sharing safety tips through community pop-ups at busy walking and bicycling locations, including areas along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail and Richmond Highway.

Fairfax Connector also joined the outreach, visiting transit centers to share safety lights with bus riders. The county says that effort focused on visibility while passengers wait at bus stops and walk to and from transit centers, especially in early morning and evening hours.

What road users can do

The county directs its guidance to drivers as well as people walking and biking:

  • Allow extra travel time, put away phones and watch for other road users, particularly near intersections and crosswalks.
  • Pay attention to your surroundings whether walking, biking or driving.
  • Use designated crosswalks whenever possible, look both ways before entering the road and take extra care to be visible in low light.

The outreach supports Fairfax County’s Pedestrian Safety: Take a Moment campaign. The county frames road and trail safety as a shared responsibility, rather than something pedestrians and cyclists must manage alone.

Read the announcement before planning a pickup

November 13 is the announcement date, not a verified date for any individual pop-up. The release does not list upcoming distribution times, exact pickup sites or remaining supplies; readers should not treat this report as a schedule or a promise of light availability.

Source: Fairfax County’s November 13 announcement.

Archive context: W&OD Trail crossing at Gallows Road in Dunn Loring, Virginia; April 2019, not the outreach. Photo: Ser Amantio di Nicolao via Wikimedia Commons, “W&OD Trail crossing on Gallows Rd..jpg”. Cropped and resized; distant heads blurred for privacy; metadata removed. The adapted photograph is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. No endorsement implied.