Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Communities fight for traffic calming measures
Residents throughout the county are trying various measures to slow neighborhood traffic, including stop signs, narrowed roads, “children at play” signs and greater police presence. Some feel that nothing is working, while others believe they are making headway.
Ongoing process
Residents of The Commons at South Village say they are fed up with a two-year process to slow traffic in their community, especially since Elk Lick Road was rerouted through their neighborhood.
“We have been bounced around between the county, the Board of Supervisors, Fire and Rescue, Chuck Acker and VDOT, trying to find a solution to fit the community,” said three-year resident Missy Walker Jovel. “We are living in fear of the lives of our children, and the county is slow to move and not doing much.”
Studies done last spring show that traffic counts are hitting close to 4,000 trips a day on Elk Lick Road. The average speed is 30 mph. Most of the speeders are construction vehicles and South Riding residents, according to the Sheriff's Office.
By the end of 2005, stop, reduced-speed, “Children at Play,” “No Thru Trucks” and “No Construction Traffic” signs were installed; traffic counts and speed studies were done, and deputies were out ticketing. But, Jovel said, none of the measures have slowed traffic.
“They have done things but not something that would be effective,” said Commons resident Beth Choi. “The problem is you can't build roads with so much volume, with homes so close to the roads. I blame the county and [community developer] Winchester for letting this happen.”
E-mails from the two-year process show that other options were tossed around, such as entrance features to narrow roads, road closures, islands and gates.
Last fall the county decided to move forward by installing chokers, or temporary pylons, to narrow Elk Lick Road. The chokers were installed last week.
Commons resident Ed Ridgway called the experience “frustrating,” saying the speeding problem is so bad that “none of us will let our children play out front.”
Commons residents are asking that more measures be installed to slow speeders.
Just down the road from the Commons, residents at The Retreat at South Village recently were out during rush hour, urging drivers to slow down. They are working with the county and developer to install traffic-calming measures, including multi-way-stop intersections and crosswalks.
It has taken almost two years to get where they are – a phased testing system – and no permanent solution has been found.
Making headway
Cascades residents have gone a different route to try and stop speeders in their neighborhoods. Cascades General Manager Martha Kaczmarskji sent a letter to Sheriff Steve Simpson, granting permission to Sheriff's deputies to enforce all traffic laws on the community's private streets.
“We have stop signs on the streets, but that doesn't mean anything because the police couldn't enforce it,” said resident Ed Levine, who printed up postcards with the approved agreement between the community and police. The postcards are handed out to residents so they can show deputies that they have permission to ticket offenders.
“Things are coming around,” said Levine. “We are making progress.”
Cliff Keirce, Broadlands Homeowner Association president, said speed is also a problem on his community's streets.
“Speeding is always a problem that is brought up at a lot of meetings, but it is mostly the people that live here,” Keirce said.
Stop signs took care of the problem on one street, he said, and several other streets are being looked at for additional stop signs.
The village of Waterford, after many years of studies and meetings, has made strides in slowing traffic through its streets. VDOT has agreed to recommend a 20-mph speed limit throughout the village, as well as transition zones with 35-mph limits on three main arteries into town.
The village is also planning future stop signs, speed tables, decreased radius of turns and realignment of a portion of Main Street to allow for a pedestrian crosswalk.
The solution
Chuck Acker, transportation operations engineer with Loudoun's Office of Transportation Services, said the county works with developers to make sure roads acquired into the VDOT system meet VDOT requirements before they are accepted. They must undergo a testing process to make sure they will work.
“We are new at this process so we don't have a lot of data,” Acker said. “We don't want to put something in that in the end VDOT won't accept.
“We want to put devices out there that don't need enforcement, ones that work [by] themselves,” Acker added.
Supervisor Steve Snow (R-Dulles) said the county is taking a “prudent approach so safety is not compromised.” He wonders how many restrictions residents will be willing to accept.
Cooperation is the key to slowing traffic on community roads, Snow said.
“Citizens have to help by not speeding,” he said. “No one is belittling anyone's concerns. We just need to find a prudent measure.”
Mark Denicore, co-chair of the traffic calming committee with Waterford Citizens Association, has spoken with other communities to discuss issues and form some sort of group “to have a greater voice in the county to solve some of these problems.”
“We are all struggling with the same problem,” Denicore said. “Coming together might be a better way to get funding and make this a higher priority in the county.”
Contact the reporter at lwolstenholme@timespapers.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.