Reader: Wait at Bluefin and Minnieville too long

By Staff

Published: June 22, 2008

Dear Lane Ranger: The light on the corner of Bluefin and Minnieville has as extremely long wait time both going left onto Minnieville from Bluefin and returning from Minnieville turning left onto Bluefin. We sit there for about 4 minutes with no traffic entering the intersection from the other direction. We are no longer allowed to turn left on red. This is a waste of time for us as well as a waste of gasoline. Lots of drivers simply ignore the red light and pass through anyway. Can you look into it?

S. Scholz

Dear S. Scholz: Virginia Department of Transportation's Mike Salmon answered the first part of your question.

Currently, this signal is running in coordination with 13 other signals on Minnieville Road to provide the optimal traffic throughput for the mainline, Salmon said.

During the morning rush hours, a 170-second cycle length is in use and a 180-second cycle length is in use for evening rush hours.

Regarding the second part of your question, Salmon got in touch with the VDOT's traffic engineers who determined that there is not enough traffic going through the intersection to warrant what they call a "permissive+protective left turn movement" which allows left turns on green lights as well as left-turn arrows.

Allowing left turns on a green arrow only is called a "protected left turn movement."

Changing from protected to permissive+protected conditions usually results in more crashes because motorists either do not recognize the change or tend to misjudge the speed of opposing traffic in high-speed suburban settings with more than two opposing lanes, according to the engineering department,

VDOT doesn't intend to allow a permissive+protective left turn movement at that intersection.

Dear Lane Ranger: There are two things that I have wondered about for a long time. First, when two lanes merge to one, how is it decided which lane will end?

There seems to be no consistency as to if we will merge left or right.

Second, if two lanes are turning left onto three lanes, how is it decided if we will be keeping to the far left or the far right?

Two good examples of this are when turning left from Country Club drive onto Va. 234, we keep to the lanes most left.

When turning left from Fortuna Center Plaza, the shopping center with Target, onto Va. 234, we keep to the lanes most right.

Thanks for your input.

Cindy

Dear Cindy: The Lane Ranger got in touch with 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn of the Prince William County Police Department and she said that one should stay in one's lane when making a turn even if an additional lane is available.

Chinn said that after completing a turn, drivers should check to see if it is safe to do so, then use their turn signals to change lanes.

VDOT spokesman Mike Salmon spoke to the engineering department to find out how they determine which way to have things merge.

The engineers told Salmon that the decision is very much "sites-specific" and based on road geometry, lane continuity and road type.

For instance it makes more sense to sign and mark for a right-lane merge in a location where a lane is added for a short distance on the right. Doing so provides more continuity and allows for heavier traffic volume in the left lanes.

Dear Lane Ranger:  Please research and publish the statistics on how much of the VRE operating budget is subsidized by taxpayers?  That is the real problem with VRE. Very expensive per person.  I think the subsidy is north of 50 percent.  We could take that money and make bus fares very inexpensive.

Online Reader

Dear Reader:  The Lane Ranger spoke with Virginia Railway Express spokesman Mark Roeber, who said that fares bring in about 67 percent of the rail company's operating budget of roughly $61 million. The remaining money comes out of the two-percent gas tax collected by local jurisdictions which in turn pay according to their ridership, Roeber said.

"The lion's share of the operating budget for this agency is coming from the people who are using it and it's not being heavily subsidized by those people on the outside who might question it benefit," Roeber said.

VRE carries roughly 17,000 commuters per day, so people should evaluate the cost to the taxpayer based on how much traffic would be on the road if not for the trains, Roeber said.

"When you take off a full lane of traffic during peak commuting times, that benefits everybody," Roeber said. "When you have that much less traffic, it's a benefit to an entire region."

Dear Lane Ranger: Road construction crews recently opened Springwoods Drive in Lake Ridge, once a dead end, into a new residential development however they stopped short of making it a true thoroughfare.  Currently there is a jersey wall with a metal cattle gate, and orange barrels alerting motorists that they cannot proceed.  Is there any future plan to remove the barrels, gate, and jersey wall to allow vehicle traffic in and out of the new development?

Dear Reader: According to people over at the county transportation department, the developer had 17 to 19 more houses to build in that area and expects to be finished in roughly two years. The plan is to leave that section of road closed until the houses are finished so that local traffic doesn't mix with construction traffic.

Following are a couple of online responses generated by the Potomac Mills mall decision to tow cars that are parked outside of the designated commuter parking area:

I cannot blame Potomac Mills because that is a private mall but I can say that the county supervisors are not doing what they said they would do.

Every election year, we, the commuters, have a host of candidates standing out at the lots shaking our hands and promising more parking.

Corey Stewart promised to expand the 234 lot and improve life at Horner.

What has happened?

The focus, immigration.

Now, the commuters and residents of Prince William are struggling to park because the board of supervisors has yet to act on those election promises.

The focus here should be on what Prince William government plans to do about parking and not on Potomac Mills.

This is not the mall's issue, it is the county and state's.

By the way, there is a lot at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Va. 123 (not the lot at Old Bridge and 123) that is hardly used and is serviced by OmniRide, so it's a bit disingenuous to say there is no parking left in the county.

Seems like Horner Road expansion is really the simple answer though. We should all be calling our representatives about that!

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:        .