Congested traffic is an issue for anyone who lives in Charlottesville, but for those that stand to be affected by the development of Biscuit Run and the 30,000 increased vehicles per day it promises to deliver, the dilemma is one of invasion and threat to quality of life. To head off this expected infringement, a group of concerned city citizens who live on and off Old Lynchburg Road (OLR) have publicly and vociferously called for OLR to be closed at Azalea Park, near Fifth Street.
On February 4, City Council (www.charlottesville.org) took the proposal under review. While they pulled up short of closing off one of the city’s main collector roads, the Council did not take the idea off the table.
 Fry’s Spring neighbors clamored for the City to close Old Lynchburg Road at the county line at the February 5 City Council meeting, but staff pointed out that traffic would likely increase in front of the elementary school on Harris Road. |
City staff flatly rejected this option, as it would shift traffic from a collector road to local streets and increase traffic volumes immediately adjacent to an elementary school. Where would the cars likely go? A mile north of OLR, past Food Lion, onto Harris Road. It takes nearly the same amount of time to take it past Jackson-Via Elementary School, then through dense residential neighborhoods on Willard Drive and Cleveland Avenue.
Staff also concluded that eliminating a key connection would set a dangerous precedent of road closure as a viable transportation safety solution. Most damning, they found that current OLR traffic levels—5,300 vehicles a day—are not only adequately absorbed but could stand to be increased.
A mere quarter mile south of OLR is Sunset Avenue. Plans are to build a connection to Fontaine Avenue from Sunset, so help is on the way, albeit not for a few more years. Until then, staff recommends a series of improvements to OLR—construction of sidewalks, bike paths and road safety improvements. If funding cannot be secured for the Fontaine connector, City Council will be forced to take up the issue of OLR closure again, but only—as Mayor David E. Brown said at the City Council meeting—as “a measure of last resort.”
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