
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995                   TAG: 9501110051
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

FLASHING LIGHTS WOULD BE AIMED AT SLOWING TRAFFIC NEAR CHRISTIANSBURG HIGH

Speeders on North Franklin Street near the high school should beware: Parents and administrators have had it with lead-footed drivers. Radar-equipped police officers could become a common sight near the school.

That's what parents and administrators, worried about their children and students, heard from town and highway officials at a meeting at the school Tuesday. Also in store are flashing yellow lights on North Franklin Street, a traffic study to determine if the speed limit on that street could be lowered, and a flashing red light on Independence Boulevard.

But parents and administrators wanted a traffic light. They say too many drivers disregard the 45 mph limit on North Franklin Street. Adding to the danger is a hill on the street that makes it easy for speeders to ambush drivers turning from or onto Independence Boulevard, the road that leads to the high school and Vista Via subdivision.

Officials from the town and the Virginia Department of Transportation say there aren't enough vehicles on the road or enough accidents there to merit a traffic light.

Two traffic studies in the past year at the intersection showed that only when school is beginning and ending does traffic volume - close to 300 vehicles per hour at those times and as little as 50 per hour during the rest of the day - reach the threshold for a light. The two accidents there in the past year also weren't enough to qualify.

"If there were a dead person there, I think we'd see a traffic light," said Betty Ashbrook, whose son is a junior at the school. "We're looking for prevention - not waiting and hoping nothing happens."

Dan Brugh, VDOT's resident engineer, said new traffic lights are governed by federal rules which have been written into Virginia law. That means there's little room for flexibility or appeal.

And, Brugh said, a traffic light could create a bottleneck and increase danger.

"I assure you if we set a traffic light up and someone was in an accident, we may just as well open our checkbook up and say, 'How much do you want?'"

The best solution, the officials said, is more police than those who currently direct traffic at the intersection when school is beginning and ending.

"Enforcement is what slows people down," said Town Manager John Lemley.

"I know when [police] are over there, it pays great dividends. They catch people left and right," said school Superintendent Herman Bartlett.

by CNB