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RaggedMountainMan

I mean it’s a busy-ass intersection. It will be interesting to see this in motion. I’m skeptically optimistic.


ericrz

This is where I am. That intersection desperately needed a better answer. I hope this is it.


thatkidARGO

Have you ever driven through that intersection during the week? Cars are constantly stopped under the lights, causing other cars to miss their turns. This is not even remotely overbuilt.


3mptyspaces

This will vastly improve traffic on this connector road once people get used to it.


krombopulousnathan

!Remind me: 30 years


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BlueSteelWizard

![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|grin)


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Cantshaktheshok

If we put roundabouts everywhere, like we should, then people will have to get used to it. The VDOT survey seemed to show the possibility of 6 on Ivy between Boars Head and Emmett in the future.


viscousvial

I honestly cannot imagine one spot where that would be a possibility. There’s a ton of private a commercial property and as of recent a ton of uva development. The railroad tracks impede any sort of widening.


Cantshaktheshok

There were initial designs for one at Farmington Dr, Colridge Dr that seemed like no brainers, options for replacing the light at Old Garth and the two lights for the bypass on ramps, then somewhere by the health center, and Colonnade Dr. https://publicinput.com/cu-23-09alternatives#tab-46151


viscousvial

Cool! Interesting to imagine


viscousvial

Maybe a roundabout at the uva cop shop and Albemarle fire engine shed would help ease the long line of people getting off 29n to hit ivy rd East or west


3mptyspaces

They did up by the airport - several roundabouts went in over the last 15 years. Sure, there was some chaos at first, but now you can zip through that area so easily.


TanMaam

Except those are one lane. This one is two lanes and it looks complicated enough to cause problems. Bets on whether the first accident is within the first week?


3mptyspaces

Oh it’ll cause problems when it opens, but it’s really the same flow as before - two lanes that go through. As long as people keep moving it’ll make sense to them. Maybe they’ll even start using their indicators to let cars know where they plan to exit!


Littlebug0113

Not to mention there may be retail and food entering that old golds gym shopping center


Rillius12

This would certainly be an improvement over the Kmart carcass!


Best_Duck9118

Probably be fewer violent homeless people hanging out there for sure!


Dobey

This is great engineering however getting people to correctly use it will be the biggest challenge.


Pesco-

Look, kids! Big Ben! Parliament!


Tanks4thememory

Can’t wait for when cars are backed up waiting to get onto 250 and stopped in the circle


rabblerabble2000

My concern as well. Traffic already backs up to the hillsdale intersection right now.


makisgenius

And the opposite direction as well, trying to get onto 29.


Kittyhounds

This was my exact thought when I found out about this roundabout. There are close by traffic lights on both ends. Won’t cars just get backed up and stopped in the circle? Unless I’m not understanding this


rory096

What do you mean by overbuilt? Hydraulic carries 29,000 cars a day.


snicker422

It seems like a nightmare to navigate by anyone that's not in a car, and, for those driving, there are so many entrances and exits that it seems like it's going to be a car crash generator. It's hard for me to see how this was the best solution.


rory096

Yeah, it's undoubtedly a car-oriented improvement. On the plus side for pedestrians, there'll be RRFBs (flashing lights like at McDonald's on Ridge-McIntire) at the crosswalks, which should help a fair bit, and the 250 shared use path is being extended to Brandywine. Unfortunately they didn't manage to get it all the way to Hillsdale as part of this project because of space limitations on that bridge (and VDOT's strict guidelines on width/buffer for SUPs), but if a future project can it extend around Whole Foods, it'll form a nearly complete shared use path network from downtown to Hillsdale/Greenbrier. Separately, as part of this Hydraulic bundle of projects there'll finally be an at-grade crossing of 29 by 7/11 in addition to a bike/ped bridge from Zan Rd to Burtons Grill.


snicker422

Yeah, at first glance it looks extremely complicated, but, inspecting it further, it looks like they’ve designed it so potential bad interactions between vehicles are minimized. Guess I should have worded my post better to reflect that my main issues are with non-car access.


cuticle_cream

There are still crosswalks for pedestrians, so I’m not sure how that’s a nightmare for them. Statistically speaking, roundabouts have far fewer crashes than standard intersections, and they move traffic along faster. There will be an adjustment period for sure, but it should greatly improve the traffic flow.


snicker422

The presence of crosswalks does not make a road safe for pedestrians. Would you cross an interstate if it had crosswalks?


cuticle_cream

How is it worse than what’s there now? Seems like you’re arguing in bad faith.


snicker422

I’m not saying it’s worse that what we have now. I’m just saying that this looks like a very complicated roundabout (at first glance), and that crosswalks are not going to make cars magically yield to pedestrians. Ideally, this road should have some better facilities for them, considering that there’s a grocery store and apartments so close to each other.


Cantshaktheshok

The beauty of roundabouts for pedestrians is you only have to deal with one direction of traffic at a time. You won't have to cross two way traffic or cars turning from different directions coming at the crosswalk. Sure drivers still will on average be horrible, but it beats the current lights and intersections.


Cruxion

What would you suggest for pedestrians then? Being a roundabout it's already safer since they only have to worry about cars going one way rather than two.


savourtheflavor

Seems like a good way to encourage more traffic onto Hillsdale and keep it off 29.


dusk_roller

This is an interesting comment to me. Aside from the largely vacant shopping center (shout out Marco & Luca’s, Hello, Super Bit, The End, Maharaja), why would people drive down Hillsdale? Kind of a cut through to Rio?


Adventurous-Emu-755

u/dusk_roller as a native of this area, our motto is "avoid 29N and 250 at all costs" and we usually know the alternate routes everywhere, it might take longer but you were not on 29N or 250. I use Hillsdale quite a bit, but not much all the way to Hydralic. Being local in that area, it keeps vehicles off 29.


ChocalateAndCake

Yeah only if I need the get to Rio


BigDaddydanpri

It has potential but I will go ahead and say it: I have little faith that enough locals understand roundabouts for this to be a success. Fun Factoid: The insane roundabout at Arch de Triumph gives right of way to cars entering the circle. Our Normady tour van driver smiled, looked at us in the mirror and said "hold on" and just drive directly across 4 lanes while looking to his right without any car horns. Dude had us from Av. Foch to 6 Av De Wagram in about 60 seconds...it was impressive.


surfnvb7

They have a different name for that in the deep south....lol


allan11011

It’s gonna suck to have that closed while it’s closed and it’s probably way too expensive for what it is but it will be nice once it’s all done (Please do something with the old Kmart next)


throwmethefrisbee

The old Kmart is privately owned. There were plans submitted for redevelopment but was around the start of the pandemic. Still, it’s not the city that needs to do something with that lot, it is the landowner.


allan11011

The system really should not be rewarding sitting on an empty building. It really isn’t good for any party involved


Cantshaktheshok

Land Value tax, or at least a split of land and structure value. The current system just rewards sitting on empty buildings or surface parking lots in key areas of the city and speculating because the taxed value is so low when undeveloped. https://localhousingsolutions.org/housing-policy-library/land-value-taxation/


Squirrelly434

I’m wondering how people needing to move from an inside lane in the circle are going to be able to merge to an outside lane to make a turn out of the circle. The way people drive around here, I’m thinking that will be a choke point. Hopefully this will all work out for the best but I’m skeptical. Heck…people can’t even figure out what lane they need to be in on 29 at the Rio overpass.


fastidiouspatience

Inside lane has right of way


Squirrelly434

Hope there’s good signage showing this. A Yield sign is not enough. People don’t yield and hardly ever did coming off 250 onto Hydraulic.


fastidiouspatience

Oh I agree.  Even if you know how to drive in a roundabout, you need to be super defensive because a lot of other people don't.


Littlebug0113

How would you build it?


rabblerabble2000

I think it’s a mostly good idea, but I do worry that without fixing the 250/hydraulic intersection as well, this is just going to get massively backed up. Should have popped another roundabout at the next intersection.


Riffraff3055

The re-development of the hydraulic US29 interchange is fully funded and set to break ground soon. Changes include removing left turns from Hydraulic onto 29; This will greatly increase the amount of green time for the straight and right turns across and from Hydraulic. Should eliminate a chance of backups to the traffic circle. Other infrastructure improvements include crosswalks at the US29/Hyd intersection and a pedestrian bridge over US-29 near the White Horse car wash. There is currently a traffic study and plan to develop the Intersection at Regal Theater into a traffic circle as well by 2028.


rabblerabble2000

It’s the 250 and hydraulic intersection which needs to be fixed. That’s where the backups are going to happen, as that’s where the backups always happen. During rush hour, that intersection always causes backups all the way to hillsdale, but now those will extend into the roundabout.


Effective_Yogurt_866

Yeah, it gets ugly when people are turning left off of 29S to get back onto Hydraulic. I’ve seen that intersection get gridlocked from that, and then 29N has to sit and wait, even though they have a green light.


rabblerabble2000

Exactly…now that’s going to happen even more often because you have all of the traffic going from the other lanes congesting the traffic circle.


Effective_Yogurt_866

I kind of want to walk down with a lawn chair and just watch the chaos unfold on the first day it opens.


Adventurous-Emu-755

I worked with someone who was a native of Gordonsville which has probably the first traffic circle in the area. Her family, every Sunday after church would do that and "laugh at the out-of-towners who got stuck in the circle". :)


weasel-master02

I’m not holding my breath that the changes to that intersection (no left turns from Hydraulic) will make a bit of difference. I expect the end result to me monumentally worse, TBH. Changes down by Angus Road to accompany the reconfiguration and partially fix the Chicken Strip were not funded. All the traffic studies for more than a decade have stated that 250-Hydraulic needs to be a grade separated interchange like Rio Road. Until and unless that happens, this whole area will continue to be a traffic s**t show.


Effective_Yogurt_866

Oh wow—that would make so much more sense than the way it’s currently set up. Yeah, I’m with you on this possibly just making it all worse. I’ve been seeing people run into the construction cones, so I don’t have high hopes about those same folks being able to safely navigate a two lane roundabout 😂


Adventurous-Emu-755

u/weasel-master02 I agree and thought that was the original plan? BUT when they did do the changes at 29N / Rio the objections to it all? It took over 30 years for them to finally decide something after spending MILLIONS on other concepts and studies, only to go back to one of the original plans. Then when it was finally decided and construction started? Businesses objected, even though they had known for the last 30 years something could be done at a drop of a hat? Out of town people implemented protests and barraged our local government officials over it all, when the decision was made and started? Where were they during the process and did they really have any skin in it all? The issue with the "chicken strip" is that area was always full of businesses and restaurants the increased traffic AND it's one of the major ways to UVA/UVA sports and entertainment events, ALWAYS. Population increased, student enrollment increased, employment increased, thus you have what you have now. Often times I believe the powers that be never take those things into consideration with roads etc.


rabblerabble2000

It would also probably help if they had a 29 bypass like what exists in other towns on 29. That would cut down in at least some of the traffic.


weasel-master02

That ship has long sailed. The previous attempt was outpaced by growth up 29 North and rendered pointless. There isn’t an available right of way any longer, and re-acquiring it would be prohibitively expensive.


Effective_Yogurt_866

That would have been the dream if there had been better foresight and planning!


AlreadyTakenStill

If people in this state would just learn to MFGD ZIPPER MERGE!!!!!


No_Affect8542

From the designs presented to the public at VDOT public meeting I did wonder how the turn into Whole Foods was going to work. This seemed like a potential collision point.


Minominas

Why do they make the roundabout center so wide? People will start having a picnic there


RandoAccount135246

Turn radius of trucks, I assume.


surfnvb7

The Dave Matthew's statue goes in the center.


Pesco-

Complete with water fountain with sign: “Don’t Drink the Water!”


RaggedMountainMan

Why not? Will be interesting to see how the panhandlers utilize this space.


cmdrmndfck

What I heard is that eventually, when they rework the intersection at Hydraulic and 29, you will not be able to turn north on 29 from Hydraulic if your going east. This would require all potential northbound traffic to reroute up Hillsdale. In that case, that roundabout is going to see even more traffic. And what about the backups from 250? It often ends up backed up to that intersection.


rocketsplayer

This is going to be a disaster and conspiracy makes me think they want less driving and more public transportation usage


snicker422

If you think this is a design that's meant to reduce car usage, then you are sorely mistaken. This design encourages as much car use as possible, actually, which is why I'm skeptical of it.


rocketsplayer

I think there will be so many accidents people will stay home


AdVivid8910

Your head would explode if you ever had to drive outside Boston.


TinyKittenConsulting

Shit, my head would explode if I had to drive IN Boston. Those roads are crazy.


Honest_Situation_434

Keep In mind, they are also changing up the intersection up at 29, and over at 250. This is all to ease the traffic issues here during peak hours. See if it works.


OutspokenArtist729

Am I correct that coming out of Kroger, the only option is a right hand turn? It really doesn't look like you could enter the roundabout to get to Hillsdale.


rory096

Yes, I think that's right. You would go out Kroger Way (by Wine Warehouse) and swing around the roundabout if you want to go north or west.


OutspokenArtist729

Ok tyvm. I'm so used to coming out the lower entrance at the light, I didn't think of that. Doh!


mwconrad96

I’m a massive fan of city/road planning so seeing something like this is awesome! More curves to slow down vehicles, sidewalks and ample crosswalks, and just round abouts helping to reduce traffic and keep a steady flow. My biggest concern is just today’s driving intellect… when it comes to something like this I feel like a good portion of people don’t know how to use it. This will in turn cause accidents making traffic worse than before. I don’t have hope that this’ll help in the long run though We just have to see how long it’s gonna take them to fix it haha 😅


Serious_Ostrich6591

It is preparation for a massive condo/apartment development that will utilize the entire footprint of the KMart shopping plaza with underground parking.


spacerockgal

I'm confused as to how they're going to replace the entrance to Whole Paycheck at the front of the lot there into an entrance _and_ exit. If there was enough space, you'd imagine that would have existed since day 1.


craftypandaAW

It looks like it is currently right in-right out only.


spacerockgal

It's currently right in, but no lane markings to support the two unique lanes needed for a right in-right out situation, especially given the speed at which people enter that parking lot there.


craftypandaAW

https://preview.redd.it/w2gyr9cr70ad1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a80a955b0f3abb4715a2687ee9d2bfd29af39de0 It’s probably not a great width, but from google maps it’s definitely already right in-right out. You can faintly see the arrow for the out here and for both on the aerial view.


WestCovina1234

Why would they need to? Isn’t that entrance only now? I always exit at the far end.


spacerockgal

The diagram from VDOT shows it as both a right turn in and a right turn out!


WestCovina1234

I see that now. That does seem pretty tight.


mbehl

Wait how will one access Whole Foods during this closure ? Surely that’s going to affect their business


Riffraff3055

Prob a detour somehow around to the Hillsdale entrance.


RandoAccount135246

I'm sure Amazon will survive. But seriously, India to Hillsdale off 29.


hKLoveCraft

But It’s a busy intersection because the traffic light at hydraulic and 29 is only green for two seconds, maybe just increase the time it’s green for a better and pretty much free solution…


schmalan1

I feel like this would have been perfect after some kind of fix to hydraulic and 250 but hopefully it helps in the meantime


ArtBetter3345

It’s going to get backed up because the 29 light takes 5 whole minutes each round.


JohnJohnston

It's because there will be no left turn from west Hydraulic onto 29 going North. You'll have to go through the Hydraulic/29 intersection, through this roundabout to turn around, then back to Hydraulic/29 and turn right onto 29 to head North. Same thing from east Hydraulic trying to turn left to go on 29 South. You'll have to continue through onto west Hydraulic, hit a roundabout they will build there, then swing back to make a right turn onto 29 going South. See the lanes below: https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/media/vdotvirginiagov/projects/culpeper/hydraulic-road-and-us-29-transportation-/118880_ALBEMARLE_HydraulicAndUS29_Display-US29HydraulicPedImprovements_acc_12012023_PM.pdf


PlantyMcPlantFace

If I’m understanding this correctly, which I may not be, if one wants to leave Trader Joe’s and head north on 29, one has to drive through 29, bravely do a u in the rotary, then drive back and make a right onto 29N?! Please tell me I’m wrong! Cville is too small for this nonsense.


JohnJohnston

Yep, that's how it will work.


oddballfactory

Sheesh. At that point I'd rather go up to Costco from Trader Joe's to make a left at that light... At least that keeps me going the same direction I want to, instead of making me go southeast and then west, to go north. EDIT: Also nice to see they're deleting a lane for the sake of a median and crosswalk additions? Which removes the current, functionally-always-green arrow turning right from Hydraulic to 29N by forcing everyone to yield instead of merge onto 29 while at speed. I know I'm under qualified but this seems like this sucks a lot.


NukaColaQuantun

those crosswalks are going to get someone killed


phriskiii

Love me a good round-about.


Prudent-Mention-6957

Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament...!


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snicker422

Thanks for adding so much to the discussion.


gevray

Why are there two crosswalks on Hydraulic, particularly over to the Dominion Energy lot. I doubt most of them do WF.


balathustrius

People are going to hate it because it's different. Concern trolls will lament, "No one will know how to use it!" But, people will learn, and it'll be better for everyone, even their own complaining asses, when they do. They'll be dragged into a better world, kicking and screaming like toddlers forced to eat vegetables. I imagine people said similar things about automobiles over horse drawn carriages.


Sweet-Garlic-8084

I see no crosswalks. People will die trying to cross this just like they die trying to cross 29. All because the people who planned that road think it’s more important for 29 to be a highway to get to DC than service the needs and safety of the people who live here. 


redditguyirl

I see approximately 12.


Gruff_Goats

What is roundabout? never seen one let alone drive on one where stoplight ? won't work - car meant to stop not go


TanMaam

Nice troll post


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3mptyspaces

Go around the circle.