City to Re-time Nearly 300 Traffic Signals in Downtown Area

Work will begin on October 6 to retime 300 signalized intersections around the city’s downtown area.  The project is a part of an initiative that began in January and included the retiming of 71 intersections in the Southside and 17 in the Northside.  

The city is working on the project in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the Richmond Regional Planning Organization (RRTPO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). 

The retiming initiative began in January and is part of an upcoming comprehensive initiative to deploy low cost, systemic pedestrian safety improvements at signalized intersections through 2020. These improvements include: high visibility crosswalks, accessible ramps, pedestrian countdown signals and improved signal timings. These improvements will increase pedestrian safety on our major arterials citywide at more than 390 signalized intersections. 

The project is in alignment with Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s announcement last October of the city’s participation in the Vision Zero initiative, which aims to reduce crashes causing serious injuries and death for all transportation users through updated traffic signal timings. Additional benefits of new timing plans include improving pedestrian safety and multi-modal mobility, decreased wear on motor vehicles, as well as improved gas mileage by reducing the number of stops and starts. There also will be significant environmental benefits through the reduction of vehicle emissions such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds.  

The City is leveraging state and federal funding sources to implement this important timing project as part of an overall $3.5 million initiative to improve pedestrian safety through funding from the FHWA and VDOT's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), and $800,000 funded throughout the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program from RRTPO.
Due to the changes in some traffic signal operations, all transportation users are encouraged to be alert as they become accustomed to the new traffic patterns.  Each corridor takes several weeks to fine tune before the pattern is finalized. 

More information on Richmond’s Vision Zero Program and the Mayor’s Challenge can be found at:
http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/VisionZero.aspx  

If you have questions or concerns, please e-mail to Ask Public Works
(http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/index.aspx), or call the City’s Customer Care Center 3-1-1.