“We have gotten concerns about the speed,” said Thomas Ruff, a traffic engineer with Timmons Group, working with city officials to look at the one-way streets in neighborhoods right outside the business district.
The study intended to evaluate the feasibility and potential impacts of converting select one-way streets to two-way streets in a downtown area, as described in their description. Bike lanes, traffic calming measures intended to slow drivers, and proposed pedestrian improvements were part of the discussion.
Their traffic studies showed that 80 to 90 percent of the city drivers follow the 20 or 25 mph speed limits downtown, but that still leaves many drivers who don’t. This issue could be solved by moving away from the one-way configurations on Caroline, Princess Anne, William, and Amelia streets. This is the crux of their study, and on the surface, it sounds like a big change, but drilling down, the actual business blocks on Caroline remain unchanged. The two-way switch will be out of that busy area.
Other possible changes include going from signalized intersections to stop signs, implementing new bike lanes, and using more truck-loading zones. Now, the tucks stop in the travel lanes on Caroline, and cars just go around them.
“We’re all very excited about this,” said Camille Hill, who lives in the section of Caroline Street called Darbytown. The streets into Darbytown are currently one-way but could be switched for two-way traffic. She mentioned recent police counts in Darbytown. “There are 3000 cars a day,” she said.
Jay Harrison was born and raised in Fredericksburg and thought they should look in a different direction. “We need police downtown,” he said.
“Sight lines are a problem all over the city,” said another attendee. Others agreed, describing the problem when the drivers poke out into the traffic because they can’t see around parked cars. Having a bike lane could make the situation worse.
One of the mothers was walking her children recently and there was a near-miss so slower traffic and tighter lanes might be an answer. “We almost got ran over on Princess Anne,” she said.
In the lobby of the city’s new visitor’s center, where the meeting occurred, there were diagrams and post-its all around the room so people could comment on the corresponding diagram. Camille Hill posted a few. “It’s my area,” she said, pointing to the map.
Over on Fall Hill Avenue and Washington avenues, a similar plan was implemented with the input from the residents, and this worked, the engineers said. “Ideally, we’ll have considerations done by this spring,” said the city community planning engineer, Mike Craig.
Eliminating the one-way streets in downtown Fredericksburg was first looked at in 1981. With this latest attempt, they said there may be a few street changes in place by late 2025 or 2026.
