As early as 4:30 a.m. on weekdays, John Lovegrove can spot the traffic backup building on Route 9 in Loudoun County, Virginia.
It usually lasts until around 9:30 a.m., but then at 2 p.m., it picks back up again and resumes until the evening rush is over, around 6:30 p.m., he said.
When a stretch of Route 9 was closed while traffic calming measures were put in place near Hillsboro, commuters discovered nearby north-south roads, including Cider Mill Road, where Lovegrove lives.
Rural roads like that house a lot of farming equipment, tractors and horses routinely, Lovegrove said. Now, drivers who are cutting through are driving 60 to 70 mph on a road less than 20 feet wide.
“It’s laid out in the 19th century for horses,” Lovegrove said. “It’s dangerous. It’s very dangerous. People are on their way to work. There’s just trains of cars going through here, and it’s just going to get worse.”
Community members who live along the roads that are being used to cut through are urging the county to help make the neighborhoods safer. The county is collecting feedback on possible changes and held an in-person meeting last week to discuss potential solutions.
“We have to avoid the roads that we usually use,” Lovegrove said. “It’s become a real crisis out here. I don’t know that anyone’s really paying much attention.”
Route 9 has become a major thoroughfare, Lovegrove said, even though he described it as a “two-lane rural road.” Drivers use it to commute to Chantilly or Leesburg.
Since an increasing number of workers have returned to the office, Lovegrove said the backups and cut-throughs have become “orders of magnitude worse than it was.”
The entrance between Cider Mill Road and Route 9 has become particularly problematic, Lovegrove said, suggesting there are about two crashes each week in the spot.
There’s an enforcement challenge, too, because Lovegrove said “the sheriff’s office just doesn’t have the manpower, and these roads are so narrow, there’s no place to stop drivers to enforce the laws. It’s dangerous for the deputies as well as the motorists to try and enforce the law.”
Residents, he said, have asked for speed management control, including creating spots where deputies can safely sit to check speeds.
Not allowing left or right turns at Cider Mill Road and Route 9 would “cut a lot of the cut-through traffic off,” Lovegrove said.
The county said it’s studying possible changes to Cider Mill Road from south of Route 9 to the intersection with Woodgrove Road; Stony Point Road from south of Route 9 to the intersection with Woodgrove Road; and Woodgrove Road from Cider Mills Road/Stony Point Road to the intersection at Evening Star Drive.
“This is not commuters versus residents,” Lovegrove said. “It’s something that all of us have to be willing to give a little bit to solve.”
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