Traffic Lights?

Homer - I agree with you 100%. This is a residential area - when the speed limit was 35 - cars went 45-50....now that it's been raised - they'll be going even faster. I'm a walker and was tough trying to cross Broadlands Blvd. when the speed limit was 35. Also - this a.m. leaving for work and turning to get onto Claiborne - I saw FIVE construction trucks doing at least 55, this was at 7:35 a.m. This is not good. Plus there's no consistency within the other developments...Ashburn Farm is 40, Ashburn Village is 35 and Broadlands is 45. Cars in this area speed no matter what the speed limit it - it's the way people are today - always in a hurry to go nowhere. Slow down - enjoy life. [8D]

 

BTW - last I looked - there are two townhouse developments that face Clairborne.....

 

The townhouses may FACE Claiborne, but they are not ON Claiborne. There is a big difference.

I have no problem with 45 on this road. 45 is a lot closer to what most people have been driving on this road, and it "feels" OK to me. I would have a problem, however, with people driving 50-55 on this road. I don't buy the argument that, if 45 MPH is a safe speed for a road, the speed limit shouldn't be 45 because people will start driving 55 on it.

 

It's a bit of a stretch to say that people are automatically going to drive faster once the speed limit is raised. My first impresion when seeing the higher speed limit was that it is a more realistic speed limit, not that I could go faster. Claiborne is a divided road that goes directly to shopping centers. I don't feel it's going through a neighborhood, -- going down a road like Vestals Gap would be driving through a neighborhood. 40 mph seems about right to me, but I have no problem with a 45 mph limit.

Claiborne / Broadlands is not the type of intersection I'd normally cross by foot, although the new 4 way stops make it easier to do so. If I were a walker, I'd walk down by the school and use the tunnel.

 

I think we'll see a major change in the type of traffic and speeding, once Claiborne is extended to the new cloverleaf at Route 7. I would guess a significant amount of that traffic, hopefully for Broadlands, will exit onto the Greedway before it enters Broadlands.

The posted speed limit in Ashburn Farm is currently 40. I am not sure if there is a plan to increase that once the extension is complete. Got to check into that, thank you for prompting the thought.

 

It IS a Neighborhood. There are houses on claiborne on both sides. Just because the driveway doesn't enter the road doesn't make it not so. There is 50 ft between Shadywood Terrace and Claiborne. I see kids playing in that cul de sac all the time. It's really easy for a kid to walk 50 ft...

The stops signs have not helped that much as there is no crosswalk. There are still regular honking matches there and a pedestrian is a target b/c people are getting mad they have to wait.

Yesterday some idiot squeeled tires in an effort to go 0-70 in 1 sec from the stop sign. A 45 mile an hour speedlimit gives you a 10 mile buffer to the speeding ticket. Where in a 35, 60 is reckless. Now with 45, 70 is reckless. 10 mph is a big diff.

 

FYI - my wife was pulled over yesterday on Ashburn Village Blvd for doing 37 in a 35 zone. She escaped with a warning, but others might not be so lucky. Now if we could just get that kind of enforcement on Claiborne...

 

Lol, If a cop ever gave me a ticket for that I would say see you in court. The judge will most likely throw it out for wasting the courts time.

 

I don't think 45 IS a safe speed for the road. You may not have a problem b/c you know how to drive but you are a minority. Most people here could not drive there way out of a wet paper bag.

Another issue is road noise. The faster the traffic the more noise. The street needs to be calmed not open up.

 

Here's an interesting quote from the Loudoun Connection, extracted from an article on street cut through in Old Ashburn:

"During the debate over how to solve the safety issue, the board learned that the Sheriff’s Office no longer uses radar on that stretch of road. Captain David Domin said deputies generally do not issue tickets if someone is driving five or 10 miles over the speed limit. “It’s not practical for us to write a ticket for speed, because … the judges generally toss them out.”"

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=41280&paper=67&cat=104

Now that is comforting!

 

Thanks, AFGM. You see that I am not talking out of my you know what here. Speed enforcement in VA is lax. I grew up here. I know how the system works and is abused after having done so like the Dukes of Hazard (substitute Westmoreland fro Hazard).

Now that the speed limit is up, so is the cushion. If anything the speedlimit needs to be 35 in Broadlands. It is a neighborhood and not a highway in the middle of nowhere.

On a side note. People complain about all the cars, but this awful planning is just encouraging more cars. It is predestrian and bike unfriendly. It is dangerous crossing the street. There are no consistent sidewalks, no crosswalks. It should be easy to walk to saul shopping center. It isn't.

 

THANK YOU HOMER!!!! Some people just don't understand! I hate that the speed limit was raised....because as you said - people will now drive faster. You're right Broadlands is a neighborhood, now that the speed limit is 45....those kids that have motorized scooters better be more alert on the roads!!!! Drivers around this area not only speed, but they don't stop at stop signs or roll thru half the time, go thru red lights, don't use their turn signals, I could go on and on......everyone is in a hurry these days.

 

Yeah, and at that tonnage, their stopping distance is much greater than a car, even those oversized SUVs [8D]

As to the crossing, there is a pedestrian underpass near the school, but that doesn't help Broadlands NW folks trying to walk to the Safeway/restaurants without doubling the trip....

 

Lax speeding enforcement is not unique to Virginia. I've driven thousands of miles in several states and cops generally don't enforce unless you're going 10+ over the limit.

 

It would be one thing if there were sidewalks on both sides of claiborne. As it is you have really make a plan to avoid having to walk in the grass or the street. I'm hoping there will be crosswalks when the lights go in but they should have done it with the stops signs!

 

In some ways Broadlands has done so well in its neighborhood planning but in other ways I feel like sometimes the development has gone backward...I remain firm in my personal view that raising the speed limit to 45 is a backward move. Now we have the 4 way at Broadlands Blvd and Clairborne...then 45 MPH ... then down to 25 if school is in session .... and then another 4 way stop ... coupled with no crosswalks. This does not seem like the most practical or logical layout to me!

Broadland/Van Metre tout this area as living in harmony with nature but with the increased speeds and ultimately increased traffic coupled with the lack of crosswalks and unfinished walking paths does make one wonder how long this is going to last.

 

I'd be willing to bet anyone that if we do another speed survey on Claiborne, it will NOT show that people are driving faster because the speed limit was raised from 35 to 45. The vast majority of people do not look at the speed then make a conscious decision to drive a certain miles per hour over the posted speed. When I drive that stretch of road, I generally find myself at about 40 mph, give or take a few. This is the speed that I naturally tend to go on that road. The people that speed at 50 mph or more will continue to do so whether it is posted 25, 35, or 45 mph.
The speed survey that was done bears out that the majority travelled between 35-45 mph. I suspect this will remain the same.

Claiborne Parkway is a 4-lane divided highway, designed to carry a significant load of traffic. It is NOT a residential street. With the connection to Rte 7 in a few years to the north and the further extension into Brambleton to the south, it will become a heavily travelled north-south throughway. You may not like it, but that's the way it is.

 

How is Claiborne different from Ashburn Blvd? It is 35. There is a whole lot of four lane divided around here that are 35. Wether its conscious or not, there is now a 50 mph line where you can speed w/o getting a ticket.

I'm sure if Broadlands wants to it can flex some political muscle to get it lowered. It IS a residential road. There are houses on it. It is in no way different form Ashburn Blvd.

 

Cliff- What is the benefit of raising speed limits on a road where there are houses not less than 50-feet away from it? Like it or not, the majority of Broadlands is residential and it is almost all houses that border Claiborne-not commercial.