Blacksburg resident urges faster safety fixes as town outlines Prices Fork Road studies

A Blacksburg resident urged the Town Council to speed safety improvements after the March 29 death of a student, and the town’s engineering director described recent and upcoming studies of Prices Fork Road that town staff say could produce short-term changes by this summer and longer-term projects tied to a Virginia Department of Transportation planning study.

Aditya Khanna, a resident and graduate teaching assistant, said Franklin Zhang — a student in Khanna’s class who died in a vehicle accident on March 29 while standing at a bus stop — underscored the urgency of faster pedestrian and traffic-safety measures near campus. “Franklin…was one of the best students I’ve ever had,” Khanna said. He told council that international students are less likely to have cars and more likely to wait at bus stops, and he asked council to “enact their new plans for road and traffic safety with utmost urgency and priority.”

Carolyn Howard, the town’s engineering and GIS director,…