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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994                   TAG: 9411280047
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

A LOT OF LEAVING TIME DISAPPEARED IN TRAFFIC

The shopping center planned to reroute traffic into a one-way pattern on the ring road around the mall. The idea was to have fewer lanes merging and fewer turns to make.

Parts of the new plan just did not work, said Michael Thornton, manager of Valley View.

The security staff had planned to barricade an intersection of the ring road near the Holdren's store at noon. Signs directing motorists were in place but covered with brown bags. Some of the covers were not removed and motorists got stuck in lanes that were closed.

"All I can say is that we have more people here than we did last time," said Thornton. "We had decided that we had a better way of handling the 5,000 people who come to the mall this day."

But by 5 p.m. some shoppers found themselves trapped in a traffic jam in the parking lot.

Roanoke police began to help direct the shopping center's traffic when motorists started driving through a city park to get out of the jam.

From 3 p.m. to about 5:30, five stranded motorists called police from car phones to ask what was happening, said Officer E.G. Legg. "One person asked if we had a helicopter to direct traffic. People get hungry in the evening after shopping and they just want to get home."