Now the geniuses have decided to build a roundabout on Hunter Mill Road by the Oakton Community Park. What a numbnuts idea! Take a super busy road (Hunter Mill) and fuck traffic up even more. The stupid roundabout isn't even at a busy intersection, just a sleepy Mayberry type intersection that sees maybe 50 cars a day coming in and out of the side streets. They aren't finished with the construction yet, so every day they have to stop traffic on Hunter Mill Road several times, causing huge backups both ways. What colossal denthead came up with such an ingenious plan?

+1

I'm guessing some wealthy people on Mystic Meadow Way somehow got that bullshit roundabout approved.

They couldn't turn left on Hunter Mill Road, so they got the county to spend $200k on that piece of crap.

Sorry, I underestimated the cost. It's actually $1,86 million! And how does this project calm traffic?


More than a decade after it first was envisioned, construction has begun on the Fairfax County Department of Transportation’s (FCDOT) long-awaited roundabout at Hunter Mill Road and Mystic Meadow Way in Oakton.

The nearly $1.86 million project was the brainchild of the Hunter Mill Traffic-Calming Task Force, which began meeting before Supervisor Linda Smyth (D-Providence) first was elected to office in 2003.

“It goes back long enough that a lot of people don’t know the origin,” Smyth said. “It was a citizen initiative done to calm traffic in a residential neighborhood.”

Getting in and out of Mystic Meadow will be interesting. Just waiting for the wrecks.

People in charge of the project claim it is for traffic calming but the real, underhanded reason is to help prevent Hunter Mill from being widened to four lanes.

Fairfax and Virginia had always planned to widen the road. The right-of-way has already been built for four lanes all the way between Chain Bridge Road and the Toll Road overpass.

The local residents got the road designated as a "Virginia Byway" to prevent the project from taking place.

I also believe this is the reason VDOT replaced the bridge between Cedar Pond Drive and Hunter Station Road with a temporary (20-year) bridge. It will be cheaper to replace that temporary bridge when the four-lane road is inevitably built.

So that's why the traffic circle was built.

It's good to have a light traffic area where all the snowflakes can learn how to fuck up a roundabout. They are scared to death of a traffic circle.

Those Mystic Meadow a-holes better learn the rules of the roundabout quickly - They have to yield to those already in the roundabout. I already nearly hit one of them who tried to pull into the circle when I was in it.

It's also not even going to calm traffic. All the north-south drivers will be so pissed off going through the roundabout that they will accelerate quickly once through it.

If it ever actually gets built, people will get used to it in due time.

Much ado about nothing Wrote:
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> If it ever actually gets built, people will get
> used to it in due time.

It's built.

Sounds good to me. Now we'll see if Virginia drivers can get intelligent enough to figure out how to operate a vehicle through a roundabout without destroying anything.

Others can figure it out, even Europeans and Asians across the oceans, but this will be a tough situation for Virginians to navigate. If they can't learn, just replace it with a stop sign and a cop with a thick ticket book.

Done deal....... Wrote:
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> It's built.

Could be I suppose, but it still shows up as "Planned" in the VDOT roundabout inventory. So does the one at Crowell Road.

Much ado about nothing Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Done deal....... Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It's built.
>
> Could be I suppose, but it still shows up as
> "Planned" in the VDOT roundabout inventory. So
> does the one at Crowell Road.


Could be? No.

It IS up and almost running. They are just finalizing the pavement installation. Trust me. I have been sitting in the traffic jams.

Leave the roads to us please. We do not need your comments or input of any kind. Just keep paying those taxes bitches. Keep driving those SUVs because we get more revenue when you get lower gas mileage.

^^^ Worst VDOT impression ever. Why are you all so inept?

They're planning one of these things in Annandale on Ravensworth -- a major two lane road -- at Jayhawk. The folks cutting through from Backlick have a hard time making the left hand turn onto Ravensworth with that small hill blocking the sight lines.

The newsletter from Supervisor Penny Gross says VDOT determined it met the requirements for a light at that intersection. Put the light in not one of these fluster clucks...

You're trying to shoot yourself in the foot.

blanche Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They're planning one of these things in Annandale
> on Ravensworth -- a major two lane road -- at
> Jayhawk. The folks cutting through from Backlick
> have a hard time making the left hand turn onto
> Ravensworth with that small hill blocking the
> sight lines.
>
> The newsletter from Supervisor Penny Gross says
> VDOT determined it met the requirements for a
> light at that intersection. Put the light in not
> one of these fluster clucks...

A roundabout keeps traffic flowing, a light regularly requires everyone to stop completely for minutes at a time. A roundabout works fine in Dominion's regular power outages too. Other places and countries have figured out how to use a roundabout, why is this such an overwhelming competency challenge for Virginia drivers?

Can't use roundabout:Don't Drive Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> blanche Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > They're planning one of these things in
> Annandale
> > on Ravensworth -- a major two lane road -- at
> > Jayhawk. The folks cutting through from
> Backlick
> > have a hard time making the left hand turn onto
> > Ravensworth with that small hill blocking the
> > sight lines.
> >
> > The newsletter from Supervisor Penny Gross says
> > VDOT determined it met the requirements for a
> > light at that intersection. Put the light in
> not
> > one of these fluster clucks...
>
> A roundabout keeps traffic flowing, a light
> regularly requires everyone to stop completely for
> minutes at a time. A roundabout works fine in
> Dominion's regular power outages too. Other
> places and countries have figured out how to use a
> roundabout, why is this such an overwhelming
> competency challenge for Virginia drivers?

A light that is longer than a minute is a problem -- Its not a place I usually drive and will avoid...

lol... Wrote:
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> ^^^ Worst VDOT impression ever. Why are you all
> so inept?
Attachments:

Talk to us, VDOT Exec...

The number of cars that will enter the roundabout from Mystic Meadow Way and the Old School House parcel is minimal. What a total waste of taxpayer dollars.

By the way, the Old School House parcel is also a waste of taxpayer money. How much did this unused project cost? I have never, ever, seen a car there. And I drive by that piece of crap every day.

Look, retard, the School House project was paid for by Chevy Chase Bank.

Idiot.

STEWMAC Wrote:
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> Look, retard, the School House project was paid
> for by Chevy Chase Bank.
>
> Idiot.


Hey Jackass - Who maintains the property?

People using the road make mistakes (like running stop signs and red lights), always have and always will. Crashes will always be with us, but they need not result in fatalities or serious injury.

Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world - the intersection type with the lowest risk of fatal or serious injury crashes - (much more so than comparable signals). Modern roundabouts require a change in speed and alter the geometry of one of the most dangerous parts of the system - intersections. The reduction in speed and sideswipe geometry mean that, when a crash does happen at a modern roundabout, you usually need a tow truck, not an ambulance. Visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for modern roundabout FAQs and safety facts. Roundabouts are one of nine proven road safety features (FHWA).
The life saved may be your own.
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/provencountermeasures/roundabouts/
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/innovative/roundabouts/

Modern, slow and go, roundabout intersections have less daily delay than a stop light or stop sign, especially the other 20 hours a day people aren’t driving to or from work (it’s the #2 reason they’re built). Average daily delay at a signal is around 12 seconds per car. At a modern roundabout average daily delay is less than five seconds. Signals take an hour of demand and restrict it to a half hour, at best only half the traffic gets to go at any one time. 'At best' because traffic signals must have the yellow and all red portion (6+ seconds per cycle) for safety, and modern roundabouts do not. At a modern roundabout, drivers entering from different directions can all enter at the same time. Don’t try that with a signalized intersection.

Jim Rockford Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Hey Jackass - Who maintains the property?


The Hunter Mill Defense League does, you jellyfish.

So many people like to go round and round

All this safety and efficiency fact sharing about roundabouts is wasted on the snowflakes.

If you want to get the snowflakes on board, you have to convince them that the roundabouts are not scary. Everything is scary to a snowflake...it makes them feel unsafe...and we know how scary that is.

Roundabouts are the way to go and we are getting many more of them.

http://www.virginiadot.org/info/faq-roundabouts.asp

With all these FOX News people on the road ready to flip out into an anti-socialist rage at any moment, perhaps the calming effects of round-abouts will have a second purpose as well.

The bots have to be kept wound up in order to function properly. They'll need to plan more round-abouts than just one. Oh wait...

There's two basic reasons this roundabout was built:

1) Inevitable slow-downs and clogging will discourage through-travellers from taking Hunter Mill (why else is the bridge north of Crowell only one lane?)

2) Discourage large trucks/semis from using Hunter Mill as those curves will be pretty tight for them to manage. HMDL hasn't been able to get trucks banned from using the road - yet - so this will work in its place.

Another roundabout is planned for the intersection of Hunter Mill and Lawyers with a target for completion within 5 years. From the plans I've seen, it's designed for only 2-lane roads, not 4.

Hunter Mill being converted into a 4-lane road is almost never going to happen. The historic byway designation is part of that reason as is the zoning restrictions in the area keeping the area low density. Hunter Mill/Vale area is Great Falls-ish and learning from the masters how to plug things up. Why else was West Ox/Lawyers/Reston Parkway widened even though the County Parkway runs almost parallel to it? That side is more "Herndon/Sterling"...

tldnm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's two basic reasons this roundabout was
> built:
>
> 1) Inevitable slow-downs and clogging will
> discourage through-travellers from taking Hunter
> Mill (why else is the bridge north of Crowell only
> one lane?)
>
> 2) Discourage large trucks/semis from using Hunter
> Mill as those curves will be pretty tight for them
> to manage. HMDL hasn't been able to get trucks
> banned from using the road - yet - so this will
> work in its place.
>
> Another roundabout is planned for the intersection
> of Hunter Mill and Lawyers with a target for
> completion within 5 years. From the plans I've
> seen, it's designed for only 2-lane roads, not 4.
>
>
> Hunter Mill being converted into a 4-lane road is
> almost never going to happen. The historic byway
> designation is part of that reason as is the
> zoning restrictions in the area keeping the area
> low density. Hunter Mill/Vale area is Great
> Falls-ish and learning from the masters how to
> plug things up. Why else was West
> Ox/Lawyers/Reston Parkway widened even though the
> County Parkway runs almost parallel to it? That
> side is more "Herndon/Sterling"...


Damn, I thought all the one lane bridges had been replaced. And why are thru trucks still prohibited from going down Jermantown/Blake Lane from Rt. 123? Hell, they widened Blake Lane almost two decades ago.

Both Georgetown Pike and Hunter Mill Rd are designated as historic byways and thetefore cannot be expanded to 4 lanes. Its the law. All the rich lawyers and community activitists living in Oakton, Vienna, Mclea, and Great Falls made sure they would not have a 4 lane highway through their neighbirhoods. There are several roundabouts planned along Hunter Mill Rd so this is something we will have to get used to. Money talks.

Uuuuuujjjj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Both Georgetown Pike and Hunter Mill Rd are
> designated as historic byways and thetefore cannot
> be expanded to 4 lanes. Its the law. All the
> rich lawyers and community activitists living in
> Oakton, Vienna, Mclea, and Great Falls made sure
> they would not have a 4 lane highway through their
> neighbirhoods. There are several roundabouts
> planned along Hunter Mill Rd so this is something
> we will have to get used to. Money talks.


I fully expect the Hunter Mill Road byway to be condemned within 20 years and rebuilt to four lanes with the roundabouts removed.

The fact that VDOT replaced the bridge near Hunter Station Road with a temporary 20-year bridge indicates that they intend to rebuild the road to four lanes.

All of the right-of-way has already been obtained for a four-lane road as you can see from the utility poles and fences being set so far back from the existing and inadequate two-lane road.

Well the roundabout has been completed. It is doing a great job at creating lots of traffic on Hunter Mill. Way to go VDOT!

Roundabouts are great for highly skilled drivers say the top 25% of all drivers "It's intuitive, I could drive this with one finger on the steering wheel with my eyes closed". For the average driver (say 50% of all drivers) roundabouts are hated but somewhat manageable "I don't really like it but at least I am pretty sure that I won't wreck my shit". For the least skilled drivers(bottom 25% of all drivers) roundabouts are a terrifying nightmare waiting to happen "look out! Oh my God we're all gonna die!".

Driven To Distraction Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Take a super
> busy road (Hunter Mill) and fuck traffic up even
> more. The stupid roundabout isn't even at a busy
> intersection, just a sleepy Mayberry type
> intersection that sees maybe 50 cars a day coming
> in and out of the side streets.


A super busybroad that is a sleepy Mayberry type?

Fucking whiney retard

>
>
> A super busybroad that is a sleepy Mayberry type?
>
> Fucking whiney retard


Poster is talking about the 2 side streets that feed into the roundabout (Mystic Meadow and Oakton Park). There are barely any cars coming in from those two entrances.