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Roanoke council hears plan for Williamson Road safety pilot, staff to launch fall demonstration
Summary
City staff and consultants outlined a community-driven plan to reconfigure lanes, add protected bike lanes and other safety measures on Williamson Road and run a six-month pilot starting with a fall repaving cycle, with data collection to measure crashes, speeds and multimodal access.
City staff and a transportation consultant told Roanoke City Council on May 19 that a community-led plan to reconfigure Williamson Road will move into a pilot stage this fall, aligning with the city's repaving schedule.
The pilot responds to a two‑year Envision Williamson Road process. Christopher Fornash, senior transportation planner with Nelson ygaard, said the corridor has “Some nearly 300 crashes in the 5 year period ending in 2023 in the 2 mile core section of Williamson Road.” He said Williamson Road also accounted for the largest share of pedestrian fatalities in the city during that period: “49 people died in traffic over that 5 year period in the city of Roanoke including 18 killed while walking and Williamson Road had not the majority but the largest number of any segment of street in the city. 9 of those fatalities were on Williamson between Orange and Airport. 6 of those 9 were people walking.”
The plan presented to council bundles federally endorsed safety countermeasures into two main alternatives: keep four moving lanes and make intersection and signal upgrades, or reallocate the street (a “4-to-3” conversion) to two through lanes, a center two-way left-turn lane and protected bike lanes and buffers. Steering‑committee members favored the lane‑reconfiguration option that can be installed within the existing curbline (the so‑called B1 option), a choice Fornash said could be installed as a relatively low‑cost demonstration using striping and temporary separators.
City staff described a staged rollout: a demonstration deployment tied to the next paving cycle (targeted for the fall), a six‑month demonstration period and data monitoring during and after the pilot. City Manager Turner said the pilot would “time it so that we can line up with our next paving cycle” and start in the September time frame, with the demonstration running about six months and staff collecting before‑and‑during data.
Council members stressed the need for clear public notification and evaluation metrics. The steering committee asked staff to track crash counts, vehicle speeds, pedestrian activity and multimodal access as part of the pilot’s evaluation. Fornash said the pilot’s measures of success would include “fewer crashes, lower speeds in school zones, increased walking” and other quantifiable changes.
Staff and the consultant also described smaller, complementary investments funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation Thriving Communities technical assistance, including facade grants for businesses along Williamson Road to help show visible change while the longer redesign is developed.
No ordinance or vote was taken; council discussion focused on authorizing staff to finalize the demonstration details and data collection, identify traffic‑calming measures for adjacent neighborhoods, and coordinate enforcement, education and outreach during the pilot. A final design and evaluation will return to council after the demonstration period for further decisions.
