Entering the crossroads

Liberty installs new traffic lights near Wards road, improving flow

 

A new traffic light and pedestrian walk light has been installed on campus at the Wards Road intersection near the tunnel to help alleviate congestion of automotive and foot traffic.

 

Daniel Deter, vice president of major construction at Liberty University, said the push to put in a traffic light at the intersection began about eight months ago when they saw heavy traffic at the intersection was a problem for both pedestrians and drivers.

 

“Pedestrians are obviously less protected than vehicles, so we did a couple of things,” Deter said.

“We first looked at the Wards Road intersection and tried to get that retimed to get traffic to flow better.”

 

The light was installed to also be helpful to buses coming from South Campus.

 

Before the traffic light, buses often had to wait at the intersection for several minutes until it was clear for them to cross the intersection.

Minor tweaks are still being made to keep the traffic flowing through the intersection as smoothly as possible.

 

Cameras were installed on the light Wednesday, Aug. 23 to count the number of vehicles passing through the intersection.

 

Deter said they will continue collecting and analyzing the data to see if further adjustments are needed.

 

They need to get a morning and afternoon pattern for the light because most people are coming in the morning and leaving in the afternoon.

 

Deter said a right turn arrow was also added to the Wards Road traffic light, although it did not help as much as he hoped.

 

Deter said they hired a traffic engineer who counted cars at the intersection for a day and analyzed the results.

 

Some of the recommendations included a four-way stop sign or a roundabout.

 

However, Deter said the traffic light was the best solution for this intersection after the analysis was complete.

 

A four-way stop sign would have been too confusing because of the multiple lanes, and a roundabout may have caused other traffic issues.

 

“The whole world is in love with roundabouts,” Deter said.

 

“That is the new wave. The problem is with the way the grade drops down and what we forecasted happening is that people would fill the way going out, and they would block Regents Parkway. We understood that Wards Road stops, but we wanted to keep Regents (Parkway) flowing so we could keep the buses flowing through.”

 

Deter said the results have been encouraging following the implementation of the traffic light.

 

“We had a staff meeting last week, and we got a very positive reaction from the staff, so we think it’s being very well received,”
Deter said.

 

A few other projects are planned for the future to further relieve congestion coming in and out of the university, including a bypass off Route 460 and traffic circle on East Campus near David’s Place, and a bypass around the medical school.

 

The bypass is expected to be completed in spring or summer 2018.

 

Van tuyl is a news reporter.