Conversation on "Speed & Fatalities Increasing"

You start off your article about the fatal car crash last night on 460 but did not elaborate on this, so I will do so. Police believe that one of the vehicles may have been traveling west in the eastbound lanes when it struck two other vehicles. READ the roadsigns people!!! If the sign tells you WRONG WAY or ONE WAY...then abide by those warnings. They are there for a reason and not just a decoration that VDOT has provided to amuse drivers. The new 460 Bypass speed limit increase was needed. The road itself is by far in better "Interstate Quality" condition than I-81, minus a few dips and bumps near some bridges. There are tons of lights that line the Bypass that makes it more safe than I-81. Now for another rant... Ding Ding Ding...The speed limit has been raised!!! Read the signs and travel the posted speed limit of 65, not the old speed of 55. I can't tell everyone the number of times that I have been traveling 65 and run upon some people still stuck in the past traveling 55. This isn't even near the hills, this is in the flats! People, speed up and make it safe for all drivers, travel 65 MPH and we will have smooth sailing and no abrupt lane changes because you are traveling too slow and you are a traffic hazard on the road! And one more thing, when approaching the hills near the "Christiansburg Bypass" please keep in mind that heavy trucks will be going slow traveling UP the hills and be kind, think ahead, don't be distracted and run right upon the rear end of a truck, change lanes way before getting close to them!!! YIELD! Apparently some drivers need to read the drivers manual provided by DMV. Again, VDOT did not put up Yield signs as decorations or to amuse drivers also. Be courteous to other drivers when you have a Yield sign, don't pour on the gas without looking and expect drivers to move out of the way and blow your horn when you should have been obeying the law and doing what the Yield sign tells you to do, YIELD! My last rant and I will get off of my "soapbox". As far as the traffic backing up onto 460 Bypass at the NORTH Franklin/Cambria street exit...Place the blame on VDOT for such a poorly designed intersection at North Franklin & Cambria. There are 2 lanes on the 460 East Business side that can travel forward versus only ONE lane for traffic coming off of 460 Bypass. This needs to be redesigned and allow 2 lanes of Bypass traffic to travel forward and I believe this will help eliminate the traffic backup onto the Bypass during rush hours.

I don't speed along this road. No need to and not designed for "speed racer" types anyway. I do see a lot of people who are either very poor drivers or not familiar with the road and terrain. Many are not paying attention to the traffic signs or flow. The exit to downtown Chritiansburg has unclear signs and backs up. The town should never have approved what was first built there or the "patch" that is still a dangerous pain. Try to avoid this exit by going onto the business route and you run into the rec center traffic on Cambria and people blocking the intersection as they wait for this long light to cycle. Since that parking lot and the exit are not aligned, there is no additional signal. How cheap of the town to repeat this type of problem all over town just to avoid the cost of a traffic signal for itself or developers. Locals need to realize not all drivers are equal in ability and not all are familiar with the road system and calm down, expecting others to do something which appears stupid. Especially those of us who are familiar with the "quirks" designed and built.

While one wonders which junior engineer at VDOT was assigned to design the new interchanges for the bypass, it is too late to fix those abominations. One can do something about the speed limit, though -- 65 is too high, 60 might be more appropriate. There are still a number of drivers (even without a cell phone) who can't or won't drive 65, while there are others who drive at 70 or better. This speed differential is a major hazard. There are also problems with the section between Prices Fork Rd. and Southgate, with traffic entering eastbound headed to turn left at Southgate mixing with speeding through traffic. Add to this the uphill climb from the light at Southgate and people who don't pay attention to the big "65 MPH" signs. 65 may be good west of Prices Fork, but it isn't safe from there to I-81.

Having read the comments, but still unaware of all the changes in the last 30 years I've been in Montgomery County, I'm confident to say more speed in commuterville is just plain stupid. I'll also toss in my rwo cents that some of the highway engineering appears to have been designed by folks experimenting with hallucinogenics. The list is long and I would refer you to a map if anyone can find one that is fully updated.

All local governments (Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and VDOT need to partner immediately to add guardrails and/or the four foot high cement barriers in the center of the grass median that exist on many urban expressways across the country. This prevents 'crossover' from opposing directions, the speed limit should be lowered to 55 from 81 to North Main Street on the northern most entry to Blacksburg and the Southgate Drive OR the alternate proposed VT Corporate Research Center Interchange needs to be built immediately as well. I am wholly surprised there has not yet been a high volume rear end pileup at that stoplight with so much traffic roaring into the long lines of stopped traffic. This Can Not be 'deferred' any longer. Get busy and do it now.

I drive 60 mph. 65 feels too fast. 55 too slow.

I knew that once this accident occurred that somewhere someone would complain about the speed limit. This unfortunate accident was terribly unfortunate, I am not trying to minimize that. But it was because someone was driving on the wrong side of the road that caused this accident, not because people were speeding excessively. Make sure to keep that in mind when arguing about the speed limit. If anyone is not comfortable with driving at that speed limit you can skip the 460 BYPASS and take the actual 460. The only thing I could see improved is adding guardrails where there currently are none to prevent someone that has lost control to drive into the opposite lanes of traffic, and fix that awful ramp/intersection going from 460 west onto Franklin street.

I agree there is a need for more guard rails put up for a barrier between the E and W bound lanes.

While I can certainly understand some peoples' concerns over the increased speed limit on the bypass, I would like to point out that it is designed as a bypass and therefore by definition designed to allow faster speeds around urban centers. If you don't feel comfortable driving fast, there is the business 460 route that will allow you to travel at a slower pace. I don't think 65 is an unreasonable rate of speed for this roadway.

In the several comments to this article (all of which were good) the key point to remember is that this is a total VDOT project. Several years ago, I contact the Town of Cburg about an entire bank of lights on the bypass not working and was directed to VDOT (which was the proper place) and the problem was fixed. The lady in the town office was very nice and even gave me a contact number. The Towns have had to play the hand they were dealt by VDOT. There was I believe a comment about the Town being to cheap to install a stop light. This is another VDOT function as well and the Towns have virtually no say in this matter.

Most reckless drivers dont obey the speed limit anyway. Just like the driver who caused the fatal accident...rumor has it he was drunk, going the wrong way, and SPEEDING. I have found that if the posted speed limit is 55, alot of people (including myself) go upto 65. If it is 65, they go up to 75. The police usually dont enforce violations until after 10 mph over the limit so people go faster than the posted limit. That is why I think the limit in this area should be 55. Alot of people go upto 65 anyway which is way to fast for a populated area around Christiansburg. If the limit stays at 65 there will be more and more accidents in the future.