University of Virginia Library

Three Solutions Cited
For University Traffic

By John Casteen

Managing University traffic -
automotive and pedestrian - is no
easy job. On any given weekday,
approximately 10000 persons and
at least 5000 cars move through
and around a mile-square area.
Street designs are antiquated and
no doubt hard to change. Parking is
scarce, and planners have found it
hard to secure funds for needed
parking facilities. And traffic tends
to move along certain
thoroughfares to and from three or
four congested centers (such as
Cabell Hall and the intersections
behind the Alderman Building).

Since the job is so immense, one
hesitates to suggest that the Traffic
Committee investigate new ways of
doing things. Committee members
devote many hours, much thought,
and great skill to their duties, and
they do a reasonably good job. But
there are problem areas that have
existed for many years, and we
think that the Committee should
take action to eliminate them.

The street crossing between the
Monroe Hill stairs and the sidewalk
to the first-year dormitories has
been a danger spot for years. Large
numbers of students must cross
Emmet Street - a busy federal
highway as well as a heavily
traveled local thoroughfare - at
peak traffic hours each day as they
walk from Newcomb Hall or the
Library to their dormitories. Parked
cars make it hard for passing drivers
to see students, and the absence of
a crossing signal makes it hard for
pedestrians to gain right of way.
Students have been protesting this
dangerous situation for at least ten
years.

We think that the University
should build a footbridge across
Emmet Street. An adequate bridge
would cost relatively little (perhaps
no more than the $25,000 wasted
on the wrong grass for the Lawn
last year). It could connect with the
stairs about half-way up, and with
the sidewalk at the other end. It
could be made of steel (like a
similar footbridge at Morgan State
College in Baltimore) or of concrete
(like the McCormick Road overpass
or the footbridge at Washington
and Lee). It would fit into its
surroundings at least as well as does
University Hall. And it might well
save the lives of more than a few
students on dark nights or busy
mornings.

The intersections of McCormick
Road, Rugby Road, and University
Avenue (behind the Alderman
Building) present a more
complicated problem. University
and Charlottesville officials have
attempted several solutions; none
has worked. The current solution
has cars traveling west on
University Avenue make left turns
below the traffic light onto a
connecting road. Marking signs are
confusing. It is unclear, for
example, whether a driver going
from Rugby Road to McCormick
Road, which war more or less
continuous, is allowed to drive
directly through the light - most
drivers seem to believe that they
must turn right on University
Avenue.

Our proposed solution to this
problem is less simple than we
would like. The best idea seems to
us to be prohibit all left turns and
block off the connecting road at its
intersection with University
Avenue, but this scheme would
probably draw heavy fire from
persons who would have to change
their customary routes into and out
of the University.

Failing to attain this solution,
however, we think that the
connecting road should be made a
one-way street moving south, into
the University, with no incoming
left turns allowed at its intersection
with University Avenue and with
no outgoing left turns allowed at its
intersection with McCormick Road;
we would also prohibit left turns at
the lower intersection of Newcomb
Road and University Avenue Then
we would like to see separate
left-turn lights installed for all
directions at the existing traffic
light. This plan would prevent
cross-flows of traffic at points of
maximum danger without
eliminating any existing routes of
flow except the very dangerous
movement of west-bound cars from
University Avenue into Newcomb
Road.

This plan's only serious flaw, as
we see it, is that it will require
drivers turning left from
McCormick Road onto University
Avenue to execute a very tight turn
at the traffic light. But the turn is
perfectly possible (as we proved to
ourselves early Monday morning),
and it would be far less dangerous
than the present turn from the
connecting road onto University
Avenue, especially after a special
left-turn is installed.

One might list many other areas
in which traffic problems exist, but
we don't want to. Both the
Emmet Street crossing and the
Rugby-McCormick-University
Avenue intersection pose serious
threats to life and property right
now; both spots have caused
accidents in the past. We call on the
University administration to take
action immediately.