ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
CUT-THROUGH STREETS that have drawn complaints are Hunting Hills Drive and Cresthill Drive.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board will vote Thursday on a policy that would make it easier for localities to control cars and trucks that use residential streets to travel from one main thoroughfare to another.
Essentially, the new policy would reaffirm the state's 7-year-old position on "cut-through" traffic. But it also would allow localities to negotiate how much nonlocal traffic has to pass through a residential area before steps can be taken to control it, state traffic engineer Lynwood Butner explained.
Under current Virginia Department of Transportation policy, at least 40 percent of the vehicles using a residential street, or a minimum of 150 an hour, must be nonlocal before measures can be taken to slow or discourage them, Butner said. Additionally, at least three-fourths of the households in a neighborhood must agree that the traffic is a problem.
The policy applies to streets and roads maintained by VDOT, rather than those maintained by cities and towns, which have their own rules.
Examples of cut-through streets in Roanoke County that have drawn complaints from residents and might be affected by the policy are Hunting Hills Drive and Cresthill Drive.
Control measures can include installing speed bumps, restricting turns onto a street, changing signal timings, making streets one-way and erecting stop signs, Butner said.
The policy, developed in 1989, sought a compromise between those who argued that any taxpayer had the right to use any street and subdivision residents - including some in Northern Virginia who were seeing 15,000 to 20,000 cut-through vehicles per day in their communities, Butner said.
The new policy would allow VDOT to negotiate a lower threshold than 150 cut-through vehicles per hour as long as the locality agrees to pick up part of the cost of needed controls, Butner said. For instance, new signs can cost $100 to $200 each, and speed bumps as much as $2,000, he said.
The proposal also would allow for controls on cut-through traffic on collector roads, which connect traffic from subdivisions with primary highways. The state would pay for any traffic studies needed on residential or collector roads.
Although the new policy will give the state a mechanism to begin dealing with the complaints of some residents, localities need to begin anticipating such traffic problems in their zoning and county ordinances, Butner said.
After being asked by the 1995 General Assembly to review state policy on cut-through traffic, VDOT held four hearings last fall on the issue. A hearing in Roanoke in October brought out 14 people, but more than 75 turned out for a similar meeting in Northern Virginia, the agency said.
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