No more gridlock, no more dysfunction
Friday Column Reprise
Note from Dan: While I’m on vacation I’m treating you to oldie-but-goodie columns from the past. This one orginally appeared Nov. 20, 2o11, and it was follow-up to a May 5, 2009 effort.Meanwhile, the first traffic circle in Roanoke (it’s in the Southeast quadrant, where Riverland Avenue meets Bennington Street and Mount Pleasant Boulevard) should be open next year.
More than two years ago in this space, there was a column headlined, “Meet me at the corner of gridlock and dysfunction.”
It was about one of the most (at that time) head-scratching and maddening intersections in Roanoke: Aviation Drive at Towne Square Boulevard, near the entrance to Roanoke Regional Airport.
Today, that crossroads stands as a jewel of common-sense and appropriate traffic engineering. A new signal and a new egress from Towne Square Boulevard has made all the difference in the world.
Monday, Mayor David Bowers will hold a news conference and dedication there. Normally a news conference for a new traffic light would be a stretch, even for him.
But not in this case. This may be the most significant Roanoke street improvement in the past two decades.
Allow me to take you back to just a couple of months ago, when Towne Square Boulevard was a one-way exit off Aviation Drive.
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.
December 28, 2012 - 6:00 AM
I used to have to drive that horrible intersection to work on Thirlane. Imagine my surprise after not going that way for several years to come across that terrific intersection. I love it! But whoever thought a circle at an intersection must be delusional. The one circle in Roanoke County is a mass confusion. I no longer travel that road because I can never figure out where I want to go without getting on the wrong road at least once. Happened just on Christmas Day when I was out hunting brown sugar. Ended up somewhere called Stonehenge. Next time, I’ll go the long way around.
I’ve used this intersection every weekday for the past 3 1/2 years, coming down Thirlane. It is much better than it was before. I wish they would finish the overhead signage though, so people would know which lane goes which direction. Also, there is still a double yellow line along the part of Thirlane that is now one-way, and sometimes I encounter a car coming the wrong way. I guess they start going the right way, then turn around. Maybe people would realize it’s a one-way road if the pavement was marked differently.
Wow, whend did I become double dobbs? Gotta love the Android.
I, too, am so glad they “fixed” that intersection. I actually go to Towne Square more than once a year now!
As for the roundabouts, maybe it’s residue from that year I spent in England, but I love them. I hope the proposal to build a big one at the Lee Highway/220/exit 150 conjunction dysfunction comes to pass, though I don’t look forward to the mess that will ensue when the work begins (whatever they end up deciding to do there).
Where is Thirlane “one way” at Dobbs? I don’t go out there very often (obviously) but I did not know that.
I’m not familiar with this intersection as I do not live in the area. However, is there a spelling error in the title of this thread? Just asking…
Thanks for the catch Ron. Fixed!
I see that yet another atheist billboard has been defaced. Way to go Christians!!
I see that yet another atheist billboard has been defaced. Way to go Christians!!
Was this one in atheist obama territory as the one on 419/Lynchburg Tpke was?
Hi Sandi,
Thirlane is one-way going from Hershberger to Aviation Drive. As a matter of fact, in the map above, all that part of Thirlane is one-way, going toward Aviation. They re-designed the end of Thirlane (at Aviation) to make it nearly impossible to go up the wrong way, which is why I think people must be going part of the way, then turning around. Looks to them like a two-way street, since it has the double yellow lines. I did see three motorcycles enter via what appears to be a bike lane, and head up Thirlane the wrong way. Sure hope that worked out for them. I stay on the right of the lines, just in case. I go that way, in the right direction, to go home from work. Yep, I’m another one of those tax paying liberals with a job.
“Was this one in atheist obama territory as the one on 419/Lynchburg Tpke was?”
Why, suzie, African-Americans are in fact MARKEDLY more religious than Americans in general. So if you’re referring to African American areas as atheist, then you have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.
how do you know they are more religious g? where’s the link buddy, always asking me that question….where’s your proof ?
For the information and fact deprived @12, who evidently cannot look up their own FACTS:
“While the U.S. is generally considered a highly religious nation, African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole, including level of affiliation with a religion, attendance at religious services, frequency of prayer and religion’s importance in life. Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation, with fully 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Latinos also report affiliating with a religion at a similarly high rate of 85%; among the public overall, 83% are affiliated with a religion.”
http://www.pewforum.org/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans.aspx
You know, pammala, I’m so glad you asked. I knew somebody like you would fall right into it — that’s why I didn’t post it to start with. To sucker somebody like you in. If you hadn’t stepped in it, suzie would have. Hillary has already posted the primary link for this, but there are others.
Odds of pammalala actually clicking on Hillary’s link and reading = 0%
Well, it was fun silencing suzie AND pammala in the same thread.
Why, suzie, African-Americans are in fact MARKEDLY more religious than Americans in general.
Once again, Gdad brings in race where none was discussed.
African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole, including level of affiliation with a religion, attendance at religious services, frequency of prayer and religion’s importance in life.
Disproportionate percentages of crime, abortions, out-of-wedlock births, and rampant promiscuity. Not sure what brand of “Christianity” is being practiced here.
I don’t believe you can be today’s far-left Democrat and a Christian both. God isn’t a fan of ideologies that choke off personal liberty and destroy little human beings.
Suzie:
“God isn’t a fan of ideologies that choke off personal liberty”
Then God would not approve of the Republicans either.
“God isn’t a fan of ideologies…”
He sure blew it on you.
Thanks Dobbs, good to know!
“Once again, Gdad brings in race where none was discussed.”
Nope, that would be you, suzie. You started it by bringing up Lanstown and what you call Obama precincts, which you’ve told us time and time again are heavily African American.
Man, you are SOOO easy.
Lanstown
And this guy was making fun of my earlier typo. LOL.
Nah, suzie, I just make fun of your misspellings. And when I mentioned your misspelling, I also brought facts to my post. I note that have have no reply to my pointing out the you’re the one who brought race into it. All you have is pointing out a typo.
Where the heck did that pammala person disappear after that severe hurtin’ Hillary out on her?