New signal program should provide relief on Dale Blvd.

Lane Ranger
Published: May 26, 2008

There is a new signal program for the turn lanes headed toward Benita Fitzgerald Drive from Dale Boule-vard.

A number of drivers have said the Virginia Department of Transportation should do more to facilitate the flow of traffic from Dale onto Benita Fitzgerald.

VDOT has come through.

Turn lanes could be in the works for the future, but until then, one VDOT engineer said they've made some recent changes to signal timing in response to driver concerns.

Check out what Nhan Vu, systems operations manager, has to say about turning left onto Benita Fitzgerald from Dale.

"We developed a special program to serve this left turn twice within one cycle. This solution was imple-mented in the field on Wednesday. This method should help with the congestion since the left turn storage bay is short and traffic can not get into the bay due to the blockage of the through traffic on Dale Boulevard. Due to this condition, more green time is wasted. With the [second left-turn arrow during one light cycle] we can add 10 sec-onds more green time for this left turn."

Great news for drivers in that area. They are encouraged to write in so we can see if this helps. And don't hesitate to thank the folks over at VDOT.

Please send questions or comments on roads, rail and transit to: Lane Ranger, c/o Potomac News, P.O. Box 2470, Woodbridge, VA 22195; e-mail: .