Council candidates Kristin Szakos and Mayor Dave Norris unveil their bike and pedestrian safety platform.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Remember the short-lived yellow bike program in 2002, when the city backed free bikes that disappeared in short order?

Despite such innovative ideas, for a progressive city, Charlottesville gets below-average ratings nationally in its accommodations of bicycle and pedestrian traffic, say the two Democratic City Council candidates.

Mayor Dave Norris and Kristin Szakos unveiled their bike and pedestrian platform at a September 24 press conference, and called for painting the bike lanes green, adding showers at the Transit Center (more)

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Chief John Miller extols the virtues of photo-red cameras to the Albemarle Supervisors.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors unanimously approved installation of photo-red cameras in three of the county’s heaviest traveled intersections at its August 5 meeting.

“It’s just like having an officer sitting there,” Albemarle police Chief John Miller told the Supes.

Police tracked red-light runners at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Rio Road, one of the proposed photo-red spots, on June 29. In a 12-hour period, 121 drivers ran red lights, said Miller. U.S. 29 and Hydraulic, and Richmond and Stony Point roads are the other intersections destined for cameras.

Violators will receive three photos of their traffic transgressions, said Miller, and the cameras start clicking .5 seconds after the light turns red. A videotape of the violation (more)

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The public can weigh in on photo-red stoplight enforcement before the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors votes on installing cameras at three intersections– U.S. 29 and Rio Road, U.S. 29 and Hydraulic, and Richmond and Stony Point roads– at its Wednesday, August 5, meeting. Proponents say the cameras deter red-light running; critics claim the devices increase rear-end crashes. The public hearing portion starts 10:15am, and photo red, or “traffic light signal violation monitoring systems,” as it’s dubbed on the agenda, is the last item.

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“This is a sad day for me,” says Keith Ford, about the impending public opening of the Patricia Ann Byrom Forest Preserve.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

“My mother said one of the saddest days of her life was when they loaded them out of here,” says Keith Ford, referring to the many mountain families who were forced off their land in the 1930s to make way for Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park. Now, Ford perceives another threat to the way of life out on in his neck of the woods: hikers, bikers, and horseback riders.

The northernmost parts of Albemarle County are worlds away from the urban ring. And while county officials talk glowingly about a new 600-acre wonderland of nature and recreation, some of those who will live near the new Patricia Ann Byrom Forest Preserve feel invaded.

“We have lived here in harmony our whole life,” says Keith Ford. “Are we going to wake up in the morning and find people peeking over our fence?”

When you live 13 miles past Crozet, up Route 810 between Brown’s Cove and Boonesville, residents expect a little privacy along with the lack of cell phone coverage. They say that (more)

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This new concrete speed bump at Second Street NW has been gouged from passing vehicles.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

No one questions whether drivers should go slowly as they cross the Downtown Mall. But the speed bumps installed earlier this month as part of the pedestrian area’s rebricking are doing more than just slowing drivers down– they may be damaging the vehicles that cross and are becoming damaged themselves in the process.

“Even when you drive forward slowly, you still drag,” says J.R. Graves, who delivers prescription drugs for CVS pharmacy and drives across the Mall several times a day in either his Toyota Corolla or a Chevy sedan.

Graves says he isn’t driving fast over the bumps, and indeed, on Wednesday afternoon, May 20, a Hook reporter on the Mall handing out free CDs heard dozens of cars scrape one of the raised concrete devices.

There is visible evidence of the dragging. Less than a month after installation, gouges and black marks mar the surface of the concrete bumps at both the Second Street NW and Fourth Street SE crossings.

“It’s two inches too high,” says Sam Rochester, chef at the Downtown Grille, who says (more)

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