There’s been more than 160 pedestrian fatalities and over 1,800 pedestrian-related crashes in Richmond since 2016. But the city and Virginia Commonwealth University are hoping to turn that tide with a new pilot program aimed at reducing speeds on city streets.
Left-turn hardening involves the construction of what looks like a speed bump, or flexible posts, parallel to your lane that extends out into a crosswalk.
“It’s both a bump you would have to go over, and then just vertically, if you're driving, you wouldn’t want to go over those flexible posts," Andy Boenau with Richmond’s Department of Public Works told Radio IQ. "Even though it's not going to do permanent damage, nobody’s comfortable doing that.”
The idea is to force drivers to slow down when making left turns. Boenau says every bit of speed reduction counts.
“If we can get you driving slower, you see everything and you’re much less likely to get into a collision and then when you do, in those rare instances when you do get in a crash, everybody's walking away from it, which is great,” he said.
The city has 1,700 locations where it's already doing something to improve safety. It’s part of Richmond’s Vision Zero citywide plan to reduce traffic fatalities to zero. The four pilot locations unveiled this week are at high-pedestrian traffic zones on VCU’s two city campuses.
Clarence Hunter is chief of VCU Police. He said drivers unfamiliar with turn hardening should be extra observant as they’re traversing the city.
“It’s marked with black and yellow stripes; it's in the center of the roadway," Chief Hunter said. "When they see that, just to make sure they do not run over it and they make that turn at the 90-degree angle because that’s what the device is designed to do.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
