Liz Kirchner
communitynews@ourvalley.org
Worried about the speed and volume of traffic on their residential street, members of the newly built Villas at Fiddler’s Green Home Owner’s Association spoke to the Blacksburg Town Council last week asking for help, but the police department’s traffic committee was already responding.
“It is very dangerous for our residents trying to exit their driveways onto Willard. There are also children in our community and a collision with cars, bicycle riders or pedestrians is an accident waiting to happen,” Rebekah Paulson said.
Paulson is the HOA president of the Villas at Fiddler’s Green, the neighborhood that lines Willard Road.
Mark Mathena, owner of one of the first houses built on Willard four years ago, was surprised how traffic has worsened.
He points out there are no stop signs on Willard Drive between Clay Street and Graves Avenue, suggesting four intersections—at Eheart Street, Prospect Street, Hemlock Drive and Upland Road—as good places to put stop signs and suggesting that traffic will only get worse as the old middle school property gets developed and there are more people.
“I don’t think we’ll ever minimize the traffic,” he said, “but what I’d like to see is to give them an incentive to slow down. With stop signs, at least they won’t be able to get up a big head of steam to cause problems,” he said. “There hasn’t been one yet, but there’s going to be an accident.”
While the group doesn’t have data on the number of cars on Willard travelling above the 25 mph speed limit, the Blacksburg Police Department has begun collecting traffic count and speed data on Willard Drive in response to a previous request to the traffic committee.
“There’s a lot more to speed and traffic calming than people realize,” Lt. John Goad, communications officer of the Blacksburg Police Department said.
“The traffic committee involves a whole plethora of people: planning, engineering, lights, police…it really involves the entire town,” he said.
Authorities explain that traffic may seem fast to people standing by the street, but when speed data is actually collected, the speed is not excessive.
Engineers seem to reject all traffic calming measures like stop signs and speed bumps. People reportedly merely go faster to make up time between them.
“What we’re finding is that, putting speed bumps in, is that people go over the speed bump, then increase their speed to make up for the pause,” Goad said. “It’s hard to change people. They’re going from A to B. We don’t stop and smell the roses. Everything in between is an obstacle,” he said. “If speeds are higher, the answer to that is enforcement, but Willard has always been heavily traveled.”
But human nature may be both the problem and the solution to traffic problem in Blacksburg neighborhood.
Underscoring the interconnection of the seemingly disconnected aspects that the traffic committee tries to tackle, many have suggested that planning should emphasize greater walkability in the town, simply reducing the need for cars. Goad points out that the root of the car problem may have origins elsewhere.
The Fiddlers Green board met in December and agreed to present a memo titled “High volume, speeding and unsafe traffic on Willard Drive between Clay Street and Graves” to the Blacksburg Town Council on Jan. 9, and seven members attended and four spoke.
Paulson recommends homeowners communicate directly with town council members.
“I suggest that folks contact the police department and the traffic committee if they have traffic issues in their neighborhood. If they are in a community with an HOA, I suggest they attend the HOA meetings, get involved and get to know their neighbors,” she said.
