Near Death Experience

xianghua71, thank you. I was not personally attaching anyone. I was raising an issue with how our HOA is representing us. Based on the responses from G.CYR and VACLIFF, I now realize that this is not permitted. From now on, I will take into account that we all can only post "happy thoughts" just like good little Stepford men/women should.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

I believe there is line in the law giving the HOA's the power to do what they do stating that if the HOA has a website it must have a forum. My boss is the website guy for his HOA and he had to do it last year. It may be a new reg.

Broadlands North is beautiful. No doubt about it. I do like the new commercial too. I just wish that more attention was paid to the homeowners by minimzing contrustion noise and making every effort possible to keep the trees that are their. Saul clear cut that lot and now the lights have nothing to stop them from the Engle town houses. If they plant trees fine but if they don't it's going to be an eyesore for those folks how live right across from it.

That's great! I am neutral on this issue. All I wanted to see is what the community actually wants as a whole. If you get a majority of homeowners to agree with the HOA then 'nuff said. If not the HOA got some 'splaining to do.

 

Just b/c you don't care who knows where you live doesn't make you special. I don't care either but I have to answer to my family for all the trouble I bring down on them.

 

I've never, eveer seen a four way stop on a four lane intersection. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That intersection will be a nightmare. It would be better to do nothing at all until the light goes in then do that. I doubt it will increase safety at all. How does right of way work when you have 8 lanes involved? Claiborne is the major road and should have the right of way. Most of the trouble comes from speeding and people turning right from broadlands unto claiborne without yielding. So b/c of some bad drivers we all have to suffer now? Who do we call to stop this? Does Loudoun have a traffic engineer?

 

Homer, I feel your frustration and agree. However, it is actually MUCH worse than just 8 lanes of traffic. In addition to the 8 main lanes of traffic, there are also turning lanes. So, I cannot see how it will be possible to make sense of stop signs at the intersection. I suspect that we will need a dedicated traffic cop to direct traffic at peak hours.

 

Paper on how multiway stop signs DO NOT control speeding.

http://www.ci.troy.mi.us/TrafficEngineering/Multiway.htm

Tidbits:


1. Multi-way stops do not control speeds. Twenty-two papers were cited for these findings. ( Reference 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 39, 45, 46, 51, 55, 62, 63, 64, 66 and 70).

2. Stop compliance is poor at unwarranted multi-way stop signs. Unwarranted stop signs means they do not meet the warrants of the MUTCD. This is based on the drivers feeling that the signs have no traffic control purpose. There is little reason to yield the right-of -way because there are usually no vehicles on the minor street. Nineteen references found this to be their finding. ( Reference 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 39, 45, 46, 51, 55, 61, 62, 63 and 64 ).

4. Unwarranted multi-way stops increased speed some distance from intersections. The studies hypothesizing that motorists are making up the time they lost at the "unnecessary" stop sign. Fifteen references found this to be their finding.( Reference 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20,39, 45,46, 51, 55, 70 and 71).

6. Safety of pedestrians is decreased at unwarranted multi-way stops, especially small children. It seems that pedestrians expect vehicles to stop at the stop signs but many vehicles have gotten in the habit of running the "unnecessary" stop sign. Thirteen references found this to be their finding. (References 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 45, 51, 55 and 63).

25. Other possible solutions to residential speed. Most speeding is by residents - Neighborhood Speed Watch Programs may work. This program works by using the principle of 'peer' pressure. Cited by seven references. (Reference 2, 30, 31, 36, 42, 48 and 53).

 

As Loudoun County is apparently not able to install traffic lights in the time frame we all</u> want, can't we at least agree (and adequately acknowledge) that a four-way stop is at least better than the current situation? Let's try to look at this somewhat positively, and not let up on the pressure to get traffic signals installed ASAP.

I also don't think that the stop signs versus stop lights issue affects the speeding issue ... people will just race to beat the yellow and red lights. But at least stop signs (until we get lights) will bring traffic on all sides to a full stop and allow cross traffic to pass with a little more safety. As I said in a prior post ... the glass is half full, now we just need to finish the job!

 

Killer Bee-
Regarding your latest comment that I don't understand...
" I was raising an issue with how our HOA is representing us. Based on the responses from G.CYR and VACLIFF, I now realize that this is not permitted"
Where have I said, or given ANY indication you cannot raise an issue?
Sorry, but I just don't agree with a number of your comments. Am I not allowed to respond? Have I ever said that you cannot respond?
Or is your point that you would not make the comments that you do if you could not make them anonymously?
If you have concerns about how your HOA is representing you, I would encourage you, or others who feel that way, to address the HOA Board with your issues. One thing I can guarantee you is that the HOA will not respond to anonymous issues raised on a forum where there is no
verification that a person is even a Broadlands resident.

Homer-
I agree with you. I think a 4-way stop at these intersections would be worse than just waiting for the lights. However, I believe we are in the minority opinion here. I have discussed these concerns with Terrabrook.
Cliff

 

I agree that a four-way stop at that intersection will be a nightmare! That's 24 total lanes of traffic through the intersection! vacliff, you gotta stop that thing. Who has the right-of-way with a potential of 16 cars stopped at one time at a stop sign? That's crazy! We just need the light put on a super-fast track!

 

4 way stops at both of these intersections?
That is rediculous. Come have a look at that at 8am weekday mornings at Broadlands and Claiborne.
It won't work with so many lanes and that early in the morning no one is going to remember who
arrived at the stop first. This is a joke right?

 

Could you imagine how confusing it would be having a four-way stop with 4 lanes on each side??...You pull up to the intersection and have to potentially have to keep track of *fifteen* different cars before you go. No thanks!!!!

If they do put four-way stop signs at Broadlands/Claiborne, they will temporarily get rid of the turning lanes on Claiborne and Broadlands blvd(probably with paint) and reduce the number of lanes at the intersection to 2 in each direction.

Can we put more pressure on the county to get a traffic light to avoid this? Cliff - whats the number that we should call?

 

I'm not sure which entity is pursuing the 4-way stops--Terrabrook or the County. I know some members of Terrabrook that I spoke to also do not like this idea. The biggest fear I have is that there will be people that do not realize these intersections are now 4-way stops and cause some serious accidents.
I will find out what I can and report back.
Cliff

 

If I may....

I am an Ashburn Farm resident. We have a website, and there is no "law" requiring a forum. We have purposely not added a forum for the reasons you are debating. We might change this in the future, but the Broadland's forum has tempered our enthusiasm for an online forum.

The tones of numerous posts in this online forum are ugly. The recent posts on this topic are a perfect example.

As an outsider, it does not bode well for the image of Broadlands. If I was considering buying in your community, after reviewing the website, I'd think twice about the neighbors I might have. Think about it. Would you like to live next to someone like killer bee? Not to pick on him/her but just using it as an example. Killer bee may not even live in Broadlands, even though stated as a resident. Hard to know the truth.

Beyond censoring comments or eliminating the forums, the only throttle on bad taste would be removing the anonymity. I would suggest having people put their name on posts.

This is not a first amendment issue. The first amendment doesn't say anything about free "anonymous" speech. Stand up for your strongly felt views and put your name on it.

Newspaper editorials require it. I am not sure what the problem would be in using the same practice here.

Obviously you can do what you want, but you should consider the image (and property value) effects on the community and the personality portrayed in this venue.

 

I really doubt this forum affects property values. This area is hot and if one person decides not to live here I bet four or five more would be willing to buy. The property values are driven by tangible things like amenities, square footage, future Metro stop. If property values go down in Broadlands it will be because of Loudoun's mismanagement of traffic, lack of police, loss of area jobs.

This forum is typical to most forums on the net and net saavy people will know that. You can't regulate bad taste, that does not work.

 

I am glad you live in Ashburn Farm then. I like that we can air what we need to in our forum. It shows we are intelligent and a diverse group of people. There is a little trouble with staying on topic but I would not want to move to a community that would not let me put my two cents in. We are a very active community and if people don't like it they can move to Ashburn Farm and people who do like it will move here. I personally am not worried about our property values and expect them to increase by quite a bit.

Now back to the topic at hand, I also agree a four way stop sign would be a nightmare. I hope we can be successful at stoping that from happening. I am all for a set of light there, but agree that it will be very confusing and I already hate going through the four way stop by home depot -- it is always backed up with a few cars -- no one knows who should go and such.

 

I usually don't have any problems at the 4-way stop by Home Depot but that's at 6:30 am. I do agree the proposed 4-way stops will be a nightmare even if it is only short-term.

ps. I also agree with speckhard and am glad that afgm lives in Ashburn Farms. :/

 

okay.... we can be nice.
We can let people say what they believe and respect that.
Ashburn Farm is a great neighborhod and I don't know why you peeps don't have a forum over there but that is no
big deal. This whole anonymity thing... who cares. You can email me if you want to figure out who I am.
I like my forum name. Let's not bicker about eachother. Killer Bee is probably a nice person and is just blowing off steam. I can think of far worse things in neighbors..... These forums are interesting and a nice excuse to
forget to do things I should be doing. You know you are allowed to ignore comments that you don't like.
It's so easy, you just ignore them!
This forum is extremely tame compared to many others I have come across.
Oh yeah, the lights.... Yes, we need the lights, like, yesterday.

 

On here, it seems I am in the minority about wanting a 4way stop as an interim solution, which I don't mind. It might be confusing to people who can't keep track of who got there first, but I am tired of having to 'gun it' to get across Waxpool in the morning from Southern Walk because the cars on Waxpool are speeding right along (and usually well above the posted speed limit).

As for the Forums, I do think we should all be concerned about the public/community image created by some of our posters. But rather than shutting down the Forums, clearly there must be a way to limit viewing and participation to only Broadlands residents? Just like we all apply for a pool pass, each household could request a certain number of User IDs and passwords to access the Forums. That way we could all bicker and argue with each other within the community without our internal dirty laundry aired for all others to see.

Just a suggestion ...

 

I'm guessing that if the hospital issue were to go away tomorrow, the disparaging comments would go away too. That has really been the only divisive issue discussed at any lenth on these forums.

 

That is an excellent idea in my opinion. I hope that the HOA will be able to consider it.

One question, though. What about the person who recently posted a question asking about how people liked living the Broadlands? Maybe some forums could be open to the public, but the forums about community issues could be private. Any thoughts?