Category Archives: traffic

Higher Speeding Fines For W. Cary Street

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City Council passed a measure on Monday that places higher fines on speeders on West Cary Street between Addison and Cherry streets near VCU – an additional $200 fine for speeding.

From an earlier article on WRIC:

The speed limit in that residential stretch is supposed to be only 25 miles per hour, yet neighbors say they saw drivers appear to be going much faster.

Mark Brandon with the uptown association has been working with the city for nearly 20 years to find a solution.

“An accident in this intersection could go right up into people’s houses,” he says. “Being a city, our houses are close to the curbs.”

City Councilman Parker Agelasto has proposed a solution: a $200 additional fine on top of a speeding ticket. Many neighbors like the idea.

Agelasto says that 85 percent of drivers on that street go at least 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. According a city ordinance, the street is eligible for the fine increase, which is actually one of the most inexpensive ways to calm traffic in the area.

“For now, it could be very helpful. Cary St gets a lot of traffic, downtown, at high speeds, mostly in the morning.”

‘Tredegar Green’ Yesterday Afternoon

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While City Council was busy figuring out how to give away Richmond’s oldest PUBLIC park, I was doing some walking down at the riverfront. I was disgusted by what I saw:

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Cars are parked right next to the historic Kanawha Canal. Trash everywhere. Venture Richmond, the property holder, has allowed this very important historical site to become a trashy parking lot! Will there be any repercussions this time?
It is outrageous that the City government wants to give them tax exemptions on the land and let them build an unneeded amphitheater.

This is what happens when you have a corporate government that is not accountable to the public.

Traffic Impact Briefing for Collegiate Races May 2-4

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From Councilperson Parker Agelasto:

Dear all,

I am passing along information about the 2014 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championship occurring May 2 – 4. There will be road closings affecting the northeastern portion of the 5th District. Please note that the provisions that have been recommended to accommodate for ingress and egress from neighborhoods. Oregon Hill will be most affected and will gain access by the temporary conversion of 2nd Street to two-way.

Please feel free to distribute this information to your civic association members as I am certain they will want to know.

Many thanks,
Parker C. Agelasto
Richmond City Council, 5th District

Click here for full Power Point file- 4.8.14 Traffic Impact Presser_v2

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OHNA Against The Shockoe Stadium Proposal

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The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA), at its February meeting, voted to oppose the Shockoe stadium proposal, due to the questionable finances and the possible destruction of important Richmond history.

OHNA meets again tomorrow evening at 7 pm at the William Byrd Community House. At 8 pm the meeting will focus on planning for the Idlewood roundabout project.

Idlewood Avenue History

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Neighbor Todd Woodson continues to help with the Idlewood traffic project.

He recently sent this to the committee members:

While we are awaiting design updates from our friends at Kimley – Horn, I thought i’d share some of the background of the area we are working to improve. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, i’ll simply start with a grid map from the 1924 Sanborn map (thanks, C Pool!). As you can see, the downtown expressway destroyed the northern portion of grid seen here. Harrison and Idlewood (also known as Beverly street) remain as they were laid out. The pink highlighter is a rough approximation of the exit ramp and Grayland redux surrounded by Harrison and Idlewood as they exist today. The second shot is a 1976 photograph of the downtown expressway right before it opened (looking east from where the toll booths would be today). This amenity truly fractured the Randolph and Oregon Hill neighborhoods and splintered our communities. We lost a total of 700 residences and experienced 150 business relocations from the expressway…

(RRHA owns the pie shaped parcel bordered by Harrison, Idlewood and Grayland.)

map of roundabout area
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Hero Performs CPR At Motorcycle Wreck On Belvidere

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Yesterday afternoon there was a severe collision between a car and motorcycle at Belvidere and Spring Streets.

From the NBC12 article:

“A woman was driving north on Belvidere when she hit the motorcycle around 3 p.m. while attempting to turn left onto Spring Street, officers said.”

The motorcyclist is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but according to reports he is still alive in part due to a good samaritan who stopped and gave the man CPR until paramedics arrived.

Community Discussions On Monroe Park and Idlewood Traffic Tomorrow Evening

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If you didn’t catch Friday’s Open Source RVA on 97.3 FM and http://wrir.org/, check out the podcast! Oregon Hill neighbor Charles Woodson of the Monroe Park Advisory Council talks about a controversial lease agreement that would give Richmond’s oldest park over to a private conservancy.

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This should be required listening prior to attending the “Community Conversation” happening tomorrow evening at 6 pm at the Nile.

Join us as we collaborate with Richmond Magazine, TMI Consulting Inc., the Future of Richmond’s Past and local restaurants to offer our next series of “Community Conversations.” Each month we will discuss a locale in the city spanning from Shockoe Bottom to the Boulevard. Attendees will participate in a discussion with Harry Kollatz, Jr., senior writer with Richmond Magazine and author of two books on Richmond history: Richmond Ragtime and True Richmond Stories, who will facilitate a conversation on the significant events and changes that have occured in Monroe Park over time. By the end of the evening attendees will have a comprehensive view of the history of Monroe Park and how it has become the locality that we see today.

I know some neighbors will be missing this due to a conflicting meeting about the Idlewood roundabout project at the Randolph Community Center.

From Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s newsletter:

At 7:30 pm, the City’s Traffic Engineer, Tom Flynn, along with consultants from Kimley-Horn and Associates will meet with a task force of Randolph and Oregon Hill residents to discuss the problems and solutions in crafting a design for the a proposed roundabout along Idlewood Avenue.

The proposed roundabout has been a recommendation of the City Traffic Engineer with the City for about 10 years and was codified in the long-range Richmond Connects Multimodal Transportation Plan. In 2012, this had a series of public work sessions to make recommendations and included several modifications in March 2013 before being finalized in July 2013. The complete document is available at www.yesrichmondva.com/sites/default/files/documents/RichmondConnects.pdf.

The roundabout project was spearheaded by a coalition from Oregon Hill, William Byrd Community House, Byrd House Market, St. Andrew’s School, St. Andrew’s Church, and VCU. Due to the nature of the Downtown Expressway exit ramp and the traffic intersection at S. Cherry Street, this section of Idlewood Avenue is dangerous and poses a safety concern. VCU offered to contribute half of the cost of the project if the City contributed the remainder. These funds are currently in the budget and the City leveraged its share to receive matching funds from the State (meaning the City’s cost is only 1/4 of the entire project). That said, the concept is fully funded and a consultant has been hired to begin the design process with public input.

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The Possibility Of Parking Permits

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Special thanks to Mr. Bergin for answering questions about parking decal regulations at last night’s Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting.

He sent this message this morning:

Hello all,

Attached as a PDF is the city code, Criteria for establishment of a
residential restricted parking district. I want to make a few points on
what we discussed:

1. You should have a minimum of 10 contiguous block faces, and as I
stated legal explained to me that if not contiguous, the separation of
blocks should be reasonable. Also, remember it is not blocks but block
faces.
2. Fewer than 60% of the properties within the proposed district are
owner-occupied. The calculation is based on the proposed district, not
an individual block face, and it is the property not the number of
households at a property.
3. There is nothing to prevent you from having different hourly and
time-restricted regulations in your district.

Please read section 102-301 which thoroughly discusses the process of
establishing the district.

Let me know when or if I can be of assistance.

Good luck and thanks,

Steven D. Bergin
Department of Public Works
Parking Division

Residentail Restricted Parking District

Traffic Concerns Grow

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The past few evenings have seen a LOT of traffic on S. Cherry Street. Neighbors attribute these gridlock conditions to a variety of reasons- VCU students coming back from winter break, VCU basketball schedule, audience attending Jersey Boys show at the Landmark, lane closures on Belvidere Street, construction on a water main at Cumberland and S. Harrison, etc. At one point it took over 20 minutes to drive in a car from the 600 block of S. Cherry Street to Cumberland.

Folks are also interested in knowing the status of the Idlewood roundabout project, and how Venture Richmond’s amphitheater plans (to be considered next at City’s Planning Commission on Jan. 21st) will impact neighborhood traffic.