NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Traffic engineers are hitting the streets – mapping out the most dangerous intersections in Hampton Roads. Now, they’re asking for the public to take the wheel to make the region a safer place to live.
Fortunately, no one was injured in a two-car crash at Colley Avenue and 26th Street in Norfolk October 2021. The driver of an ambulance also walked away unscathed when they crashed at 39th Street and Roanoke Avenue in Newport News.
Keith Nichols is a transportation engineer for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. His team has spent months studying more than 1,000 intersections and their crash rates.
Now, with the help of the localities that make up Hampton Roads, they’ve narrowed them down to 16 crash-prone intersections that Nichols and his team will work to improve through a safety study.
“We’ve gone out in the field, tried to look at the view from the driver to try to determine anything (that) is why crashes are happening,” Nichols said. “Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes it’s less obvious when you’re out there.”
The less obvious is why Nichols said his team needs the public’s help to fuel solutions. They’ve created an online safety survey. Through the survey, the drivers can tell HRPDC what their most pressing safety concerns are and what solutions they’d like to see implemented.
“We want to find out from the public what they think some of the biggest safety concerns in our region are,” Nichols said. “People can provide us their opinions, let us know what they see when they drive through these locations every day and maybe share ideas with us that we hadn’t thought of.”
The survey also features a map of the following intersections, which are included in the safety study:
- Chesapeake: Battlefield Boulevard at Woodlake Drive/Debaun Avenue
- Franklin: Armory Drive at College Drive
- Gloucester County: Route 198 at Route 606 (Harcum Road)
- Hampton: N. Armistead Avenue at LaSalle Avenue
- Isle of Wight County: Route 17 (Carrollton Boulevard) at Smiths Neck Road
- James City County: Route 199 at Quarterpath Road/Mounts Bay Road
- Newport News: 39th Street at Roanoke Avenue
- Norfolk: Colley Avenue at 26th Street and 27th Street
- Poquoson: Wythe Creek Road at Victory Boulevard/Little Florida Road
- Portsmouth: High Street at Peninsula Avenue
- Southampton County: Route 58 at Route 308 (Three Creeks Road)
- Suffolk: Portsmouth Boulevard at Nansemond Parkway/E. Washington Street
- Surry County: Route 10 at Hog Island Road/Mount Ray Drive
- Virginia Beach: Rosemont Road at Holland Road
- Williamsburg: Route 132 (Henry Street) at Route 132Y/Visitor Center Drive
- York County: Hampton Highway at Yorktown Road/Theater Road
Nichols said his team has already heard from more than 500 drivers – and they want to hear from you, too. Take the survey here.