At Tuesday's Town Council meeting, two safety items were on the agenda.
Moped regulations were adopted and will become effective January 1, requiring helmets and eye protection. This aligns with relevant State Code as well as rules enforced in neighboring Blacksburg. A 60-day phase in period is being allowed, where violators will be educated via a warning instead of a ticket. The town is to conduct an awareness blitz via media.
The downtown street project finished along West Main this year was also meant to provide some traffic calming via the design. This hasn't been very effective as it is still common to see people making U-turns from parking spaces and blasting through at speeds obviously above the posted 25 MPH limit. And pedestrians -- well, they need to be very cautious as drivers typically don't yeild to them as per state law, whether in a crosswalk or not.
To assist in building awareness that pedestrians do in fact have the right of way before cars, two additional crosswalk signs will be installed this March. One will be placed in front of Old Town Mall and another at the crosswalk between the Baptist and Presbyterian churches at Hickok Street.
They will be in the center of the road from March through December, and are similar to what is seen in Radford or Blacksburg. In Christiansburg, these will be removed during the winter months because of concerns snow crews won't be able to miss them.
Both of these actions help build alternative transportation awareness while assisting in addressing related safety concerns for those who choose to travel by means other than cars or trucks.