Sunday, April 19, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Let's snarl about traffic
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
dan.casey
@roanoke.com
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Dan Casey
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Read Dan's blog
Let's play a little game. With apologies to Meredith Vieira, we'll call it, "Who Wants to be a Traffic Engineer?"
Here in the Roanoke Valley we're blessed in many ways, and one of the most obvious to outsiders is the relative lack of traffic jams.
Compared with the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in Tidewater, or daily nightmares on Interstates 66 and 95 in Northern Virginia, or west of Richmond on sunny mornings along eastbound Interstate 64, we've got it easy.
But even drivers in Western Virginia occasionally roll into pockets of short-lived daily frustration. And I'll bet The Roanoke Times readers know where each and every one of them is.
Intimately. With steering-wheel-pounding, blood-pressure-soaring, horn-honking familiarity.
So consider this an unscientific poll, if you will.
The first questions are: Where's the worst minigridlock you experience? And why does it irritate you the most?
To kick off the conversation, here are a handful that I know about:
n Outside Patrick Henry High School in Southwest Roanoke, about 8:30 any morning school is in session. City police direct traffic there, thank goodness, but that mess is way more than even they can handle.
n Peppers Ferry Road in Christiansburg, as it approaches U.S. 460 Business during rush hour. Talk to anyone who drives often on that stretch and you'll hear horror stories about Marshall Drive and the exit from the New River Valley Mall.
n Where Interstate 81, Lee Highway and U.S. 220 come together in Daleville. Just look at the confluence of those roads on a map. It's got to be the ugliest-looking intersection in the area.
n Colonial Avenue in Roanoke, at the corner of Towers Shopping Center, near the 23rd Street and Wonju Street tie-ins. It's jammed up enough to make you feel sorry for any early-evening shoppers at Fresh Market.
n Burger & Taco Row in Salem, otherwise known as West Main Street. Has anybody ever seen such a concentration of fast-food joints within a short stretch?
Those are merely a few where I've had rotten experiences, or that I've heard others go on at length about. But there must be more. People can get really excited about traffic, you know.
Send me your answers, or call, and we'll shine a spotlight on the region's common minigridlocks. Please include your name and locality, (which I will publish in follow-ups) and your contact information (which I won't publish).
Don't respond with merely a place. Make sure you say why it's so bad. Outline your disgust at what you've seen other idiot drivers do there.
Finally, tell me what should be done about it. We're looking for solutions, too. (Don't say, "Blow it to smithereens." That would only make things worse.)
Maybe we'll even create a "to-do" list for the region's traffic engineers.
They don't have much money now -- thanks to an irresponsible General Assembly that hasn't raised the gas tax in 23 years.
But there's an election this year, you know. So there's always some hope.
n n n
If you haven't checked out my blog on roanoke.com, please do that. There's plenty of stuff there that never makes the column, and no shortage of outraged comments.
