ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Virginia Department of Transportation is experimenting with unique ways of slowing traffic in residential streets.
The department has taken some Northern Virginia streets and instituted physical changes called ``residential traffic calming'' that can make roads less agreeable to speeding drivers.
Some changes are as elementary as moving the white line on the edge of the road closer to the middle, making drivers think they have less room to maneuver.
Others are more involved, such as reconfiguring sidewalks to jut out into the roadway at alternating points on both sides, giving the illusion that the road snakes back and forth, even though the traffic lane remains straight.
``Here we get into the psychological aspects,'' said Elona Orban Kastenhofer, a senior VDOT traffic engineer. ``It visually reduces the width of the lane that seems to be available for travel. If you narrow a lane, speed drops.''
Slowing traffic is what Angela Campbell of Prince William County would like to see happen in her neighborhood. ``The way people fly up and down the street, it's busy. It's fast,'' Campbell said. ``We want anything that would help to slow people down. Do we need a corpse before something warrants it?''
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB