Students driving down Emmet Street to Barracks Road Shopping Center or those driving to the Downtown Mall probably have noticed the plague of heavy traffic that Charlottesville faces.
The population of Charlottesville has grown by 20,000 people in the past 10 years, and each year the traffic gets worse.
Areas around the University especially are jammed with traffic because of the huge student population.
Most of the roads around Grounds are one lane going in each direction, which contributes to the problem, said Justin Pfeiffer, a student member of the University Transportation and Parking Committee.
But the University does not have much influence over improving traffic, so the committee must work with the city.
Charlottesville City Council is working to alleviate the traffic problem through a series of programs aimed at encouraging drivers to use public transportation or even ride bikes to their destinations instead of clogging the roads with their cars.
Meadowcreek Parkway
One of the most controversial city plans is the Meadowcreek Parkway, a proposed road that would extend McIntire Road to improve access to downtown Charlottesville and provide an alternate route to Route 29.
VDOT proposed the Meadowcreek Parkway plan to the city in 1967 to improve traffic conditions in downtown Charlottesville.
Last fall, City Council finally approved beginning construction on a two-lane road by a 3-2 vote.
VDOT is bringing Council new design plans for the parkway, Council member David Toscano said.
Whether or not the parkway will alleviate traffic in Charlottesville has been debated heavily.
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Toscano, who supports building the road, said "a new road gives more options. It will relieve traffic congestion in parts of the city such as Park Street."
But Councillor and Architecture School Prof. Maurice Cox, who voted against the construction of the road, sees a completely different future with the parkway.
"I'm convinced it will make traffic worse," he said. The parkway "dumps traffic at U.S. 250. Our in-house study shows increased traffic for selected neighborhoods."
The next major hurdle for the Meadowcreek Parkway is approval from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Two-thirds of the parkway will be located in Albemarle, Cox said.
The trolley
Most of the city projects seek to provide alternative transportation for residents to get them out of their cars and decrease traffic. One of these is the free trolley service that Council began last September as an alternative way for students and city residents to get to the Downtown Mall.
"Bussing is practically the only way to reduce traffic" around the University, Pfeiffer said.
The trolley, which runs every 15 minutes from 6:38 a.m. to 11:53 p.m., allows students and city residents to travel easily from the University to the Downtown Mall and back.
So far, the city has received nothing but positive feedback regarding the trolleys, Council member Kevin Lynch said.
Lynch said merchants operating on the Corner were concerned about losing customers for lunch, but so far that has not been a problem.
Cox said he also thinks the trolleys are a great benefit for the city because he sees a great cross-section of the city population whenever he rides.
Despite its benefits, Lynch feels that the trolley service would improve if it included more routes.
A route he said he felt would be helpful would run from University Hospital to Seminole Square on Route 29. This would allow students to get a free ride to Barracks Road Shopping Center.
He added that he would like to see the current trolley service expanded so a trolley would come every 10 minutes.
Combining CTS and UTS
Besides the trolleys, Council has plans to improve the city's public transportation by fostering more cooperation between the Charlottesville Transit Service and the University Transit Service.
The two services "could interface much better," Cox said.
Council now is discussing plans to create a bigger station at Union Station on West Main Street, which would allow CTS and UTS to connect to each other. This would give students and local residents easier access to Greyhound and the AMTRAK train station.
Charlottesville has received about $3.7 million from federal and state funds to build the station, Toscano said.
Plans also call for retail stores and commercial sites in the station.
The city is working with the owner of the property, Gabe Silverman of the Union Station Partners, to work out the proposal. If the city is successful, the station should open in a couple of years, Toscano said.
Restricting student driving
If encouraging students to use public transportation doesn't work, the city may push the University to impose greater restrictions on student driving.
Last February, former Mayor Virginia Daugherty said in a panel discussion in Newcomb Hall that she would like to see the University move its restrictions on student driving from the first semester to a student's first two years. So far, the University has not been receptive to the idea.
"It is in the exploratory phase," Lynch said. "No proposal has been endorsed. We all see [changing driving restrictions] tied to giving students more alternatives."
By offering alternatives to students, student may become less dependent on their cars and the University would have less opposition to restricting student driving, he said.
Ultimately, Council "does not have any control over when students can drive," Toscano said.
Pfeiffer agreed and said the University may prohibit second-semester first years if the new basketball arena eliminates student parking spots but predicts the University will never restrict upper-classmen from having cars.
Traffic calming
Council also hopes to reduce traffic by slowing down all commuters as well as students in the city.
Traffic calming is utilizing a wide variety of techniques to slow down, or calm, traffic, Toscano said.
The first ambitious traffic-calming project was a recent venture on the congested Park Street, a road that runs north of the Downtown Mall.
"Park Street extended the sidewalk out four feet to narrow the distance the pedestrian has to cross the road," Cox said.
He said research shows that narrowing roads slows down drivers.
Drivers are able to drive so swiftly on roads is because of Virginia Department of Transportation policies, Lynch said.
VDOT designs roads so drivers can comfortably go 10 to 15 mph faster than the posted speed limit, a policy started in the 1950s and 1960s when road planners wanted to move all obstacles out of the way to make way for smooth driving, he said.
This design made it impractical to enforce speed limits, causing Council to prefer to narrow roads, Lynch said.
Other traffic calming projects in the city involve making pedestrian walkways more visible across the city and adding stop signs and lights, Toscano said.
More bike paths
Some Council members also hope to increase the number of city commuters who ride bicycles instead of driving cars.
The city also has a commitment to put lanes on Jefferson Park Avenue and all along Rugby Road, he said.
"We've got a pretty decent plan, but I would give it [the city] a 'C+' in terms of existing lanes," he added.
Lynch said he sees Davis, Calif., as a good example of how a city should use bike lanes.
"In Davis, you can get anywhere in bike lanes. Twenty-five percent of the people living there use bikes to get places," he said.
"We have a ways to go," he added.
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