Manassas approves fund transfer for radar signs
Kipp Hanley/News & Messenger
A car travels down Grant Avenue on Tuesday where Manassas approved radar signs for the road in hopes of controlling motorists’ speed.
The Manassas City Council approved the transfer of $14,500 from the miscellaneous contingency fund Monday for the installation of four radar speed signs.
The signs would be placed on the residential end of Grant Avenue and on Sudley Road between Main Street and Portner Avenue and would replace the current speed limit signs.
Last week, many residents came to citizens' time and spoke about the need for the signs after city Public Works Director Moe Wadda gave his presentation on the subject.
Wadda explained that the signs would help calm traffic and record speed data that would ultimately benefit the police department in its efforts to curb what has become a haven for speeders.
The average speed on Grant Avenue was 32 miles per hour while the speed on Sudley Road was 36 eastbound and 39 westbound, Wadda said. Both roads have a speed limit of 25 mph.
"This will not necessarily solve all of the speeding issues but it's a step in the right direction," councilman Steven Randolph said Monday.
Because of the complaints, the police department increased their presence at random times in these areas in April, said police chief John J. Skinner. Skinner, who serves on a city transportation task force, said these areas would be well served by these signs and that the police could not enforce their way out of this problem without additional help.
One of the remaining issues is the precedence the city is setting by purchasing these signs, said councilman Harry J. "Hal" Parrish II. Parrish made the motion to approve the unanimously passed resolution but expressed some reservations in doing so.
"I was initially not for this," Parrish said. "... I remained concerned how you tell citizens within the city 'no' when they ask for the same thing."
Wadda said putting these signs up in other communities in the city is a possibility. However, a traffic study and subsequent transportation committee meetings would need to occur in order for the city to spend money on additional radar signs.
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.
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Reader Reactions
maybe now they’ll catch all the cops that think they can speed around town when they’re not on an emergency call- just trying to get to 7-11 for their donut & coffee.
I like how the police pick and choose what laws to enforce or when to enforce them. They realize how unworkable the 25 speed limit is. Who are these people complaining? How is the average speed 39 if everyone is worried about going over 25? At that average speed there must be people losing control of their vehicles and getting in accidents, right? I also second Bobnot on the light timing. At least I now understand why I sit at so many lights when there isn’t any traffic in the green direction. I should have figured that out myself, but I didn’t realize a community would put up with this type of government. Yes, I’m new to the area.
Exactly, instead of this ridiculousness they need to focus on getting traffic to flow more smoothly. One place to start would be with synchronizing traffic lights. Instead of timing them to stop traffic at every light, like some definitely are, time them to keep traffic moving smoothly. More times than not the traffic on main roads is being stopped at lights for no reason, there are no vehicles on the cross streets. The lights are simply cycling, causing stop and start traffic when at our current gas crisis that’s the last thing that should be happening. They’re probably set that way to “slow traffic down”, instead, they’re causing clusters and back ups. SPEED IS NOT THE PROBLEM on our roads!!! If safety is the concern more emphasis needs to be put on getting people to pay attention. 25 mph speed zones on some of the roads that are posted as such is just plain asinine. Manassas isn’t the small, quaint, one horse town it used to be, the lure of increased tax money fixed that, lets get with the 21st century.
Doesn’t the city have more important issues?
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