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, reviewed a string of previous Prices Fork Road studies and the town’s immediate plans. Howard said the town has completed multiple safety and mobility studies (2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020) that led to changes such as revised signal timing for pedestrian crossings, removal of an at-grade pedestrian crossing at Webb Street, restricted left-out movements at Orchard Street tied to the Gilbert Place development, new sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and other signal-timing adjustments. “We authorized WRA to start this study last week,” Howard said, referring to a consultant-led speed-and-safety study the town contracted.

Howard described two concurrent efforts: a traffic signal timing study and a Prices Fork speed-and-safety study covering Old Glade (Old Blade in the transcript) to Toms Creek Road — a section not studied since before the pandemic. She told the council the town expects to finish collecting speed data in the spring of 2025 before students leave campus and to receive a WRA report with recommendations in summer 2025. Howard said the intent is to present results to council early enough to implement short-term changes before students return in August.

Howard also summarized the VDOT Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment (OIPI) corridor study that covers Main Street through the Prices Fork corridor to McCoy Road. She said VDOT’s first phase reviews prior work and alternatives; phase 2 includes public engagement through November 2025; and phase 3 would produce opinions of probable cost through August 2026 so potential projects can be budgeted. Howard urged the town to leverage the VDOT study for funding and “outside the box” ideas for multimodal improvements.

Council members and staff also discussed measures that public works will implement this summer unrelated to the WRA report, including extending a left-turn lane at West Campus Drive and shortening a left-turn lane into McBride to reduce congestion at that interchange. A council member noted a recently considered General Assembly bill that would have expanded the definition of school crossing zones to include institutions of higher education; that bill died in committee this year and council members said it could be added to the town’s legislative agenda for future consideration.

Howard answered a question about a pedestrian bridge concept that had appeared in the 2019 study, saying the bridge would be unlikely to be used because ramps needed for accessibility would make crossing at the nearby Toms Creek intersection more practical. “It would not be used because it would be shorter just to go to the inner intersection at Toms Creek Road because of all the ramping needed for accessibility,” she said.

The council did not take formal votes on new policies during this agenda item; staff said they would return to council with WRA’s recommendations this summer and with opportunities to implement short-term measures before the fall semester.