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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994                   TAG: 9403150008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A MIDDLE- OF-THE-ROAD SOLUTION

Q: There have been a lot of accidents on Webber Highway in Roanoke, especially between Elm Avenue and Tanglewood Mall. In most cases, they're the result of cars crossing the median. It would seem a fairly simple and inexpensive solution to put a concrete median there. Has it been considered? N.N., Roanoke

A: If $4 million is inexpensive, yes, it's being considered.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board on April 13 will hear about a proposal to widen the highway to three lanes in each direction, with a raised concrete barrier in the middle.

If approved, the proposal would go into the six-year plan for funding roads and would compete for money with primary and interstate roads in 12 counties.

This stretch of road, with its pair of sweeping curves, has had eight fatalities in three years. Two times, cars went airborne. Alcohol was a factor in some of the deaths.

It's fair to say that Roanoke Valley legislators' concern figured into the General Assembly's passing tougher drunken-driving laws, including an immediate seven-day license suspension on arrest.

People can express their wishes on widening Webber Highway to the transportation board at a public hearing April 13 in Salem. Call (703) 387-5320 for information.

New ways of typing

Q: I use a typing keyboard every day, and a question just occurred to me: who put the letters in this order, and why? I've heard that there's a faster design available, and that computers make it practical. M.C., Roanoke

A: It's a common theory that the conventional keyboard puts the most-used letters close to the strongest fingers. Wrong.

We type at the convenience of an 1870s machinist/inventor named Christopher Sholes.

The first keyboard was in alphabetical order, but the type rods inside those manual machines jammed when people typed fast. Sholes moved common letter combinations like "TH" to rods on opposite sides of the type "basket" so they wouldn't collide.

Rather than reworking the entire rod arrangement in his machine shop, Sholes simply changed the letter order on the keyboard. It stuck - in our psyche, anyhow.

Competing keyboard arrangements haven't overcome people's reluctance to change.

Another necessity is rising, though. Carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis are serious pains in the hands of some people who type six to 10 hours a day.

Other keyboards have been tried - some at great expense. Perhaps the most commonly mentioned alternative is the Dvorak.

Dvorak keyboards have all the vowels on the home row and under the left hand. The most common consonants are at the right hand. A rhythmic alternation of left and right strokes results.

The home-row letters of a Dvorak do 70 percent of the work; on the standard keyboard, they do only 32 percent.

Some folks say this reduces movement and speeds up typing.

Before all the keyboard users of Western Virginia deliberately spill coffee on this page, it's only fair to say that people who can comfortably type on a QWERTY keyboard at high speed might not improve with a Dvorak board, although it should prove less tiring.

Got a question about something that may affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.

by CNB