Reply to #JustinsTrafficJam

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone summarize this for me?  I don't live on Seminary but am an Alexandrian [/quote]

Seminary is road that way back in the 19th century was cut through the property of Virginia Theological Seminary, for which the road and neighborhood are named.

In the 1960s it was widened to four lanes, making access across it from Seminary properties on each side difficult.

It was  a very fast road, which is a problem for anyone wanting to walk by it, bike on it, cross it, and a QOL for people who live on it and also for people who wanted to turn cars onto it, if they lived off unsignalized intersections.

The City has policies to make streets useable by all modes, as well as to encourage more walking, biking, and transit usage.

Speed limit was lowered a couple of years ago from 35MPH but people drove much faster )to 25MPH.  That slowed traffic some,  but not that much. There are also inherent safety issues with a four lane road. Note well, some people never liked the speed limit going down.

The road was up for repaving.  That is the time when the City looks at Complete Streets options, Various alternatives were discussed.  Some people in the City wanted a  4 to 3 lane road diet, the standard FHWA treatment for a road like this.  Some wanted to keep it four lanes.

This created great controversies. There was support for each side.

The Council voted, 4 to 3, for the road diet.

The repaving and restriping has happened in the last few weeks, and some of it is just barely painted now.

Some drivers have taken time to get used to new patterns.  Initially the traffic sensors did not work, due to the repaving.  There may need to be some tweaking signal phase time.

Despite this, added congestion has been confined essentially to two hours of the day - one  hour of AM rush WB, and one hour of PM rush EB (Monday to Thursday).  There has been congestion at those times in the past, so it will take some number crunching by T&ES to determine real increase in delay.

During off peak hours the street now functions much better with less speeding.

The opponents are trying to stir things up NOW, before things get any better and before any real data is presented.  This is their chance to set the discourse.

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