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with trucking firms just because 4.4 miles have been improved.” And Mr. Beatty maintained that as a twolane, Rt. 211 isn’t safe at speeds over 45 miles per hour, “except maybe at two in the morning.”
That contention is borne out by VDOT’s design report which states “the existing two lanes are inadequate for today’s standards and only provide a design speed of approximately 35 miles per hour in some areas of the project. The existing pavement width is approximately 18 feet with very narrow shoulders and ditches. This provides for a very unsafe situation for the traveling public using the road.”
Planning Comissioner John Clark Jr. noted that part of the 4.4 mile section slated to be four-laned is the single area in the county designated for future commercial development. Already, the section ihcludes one private school, Rappahannock’s largest retail business, and two public schools that put 1,000 students on the road in the morning and afternoon, Mr. Clark said, adding that the heavy usage of the two-lane raod creates “a potential for disaster.” As the mail carrier for the Washington post office, Mr. Clark said that he drives Rt. 211 regularly. Pulling onto the highway “sometimes gets pretty hectic . . . There are no patient drivers. They all want to go by.”
In 1974, Rt. 211 carried sufficient traffic to meet state and federal standards for dual-laning, he continued. “The traffic has increased since then, and it will increase some more in the future.” Should an accident occur between a tractor-trailer and a school bus, “some of the responsibility will rest on your shoulders if you deny this project,” Mr. Clark told the VDOT officials.
Guy Foster reported that he was recently behind a “legal, licensed farm vehicle” which was traveling Rt. 211 at 19 miles per hour. “When he stopped to let the traffic go by, there were 23 cars backed up behind him” and two impatient drivers had already pulled around at the “no passing” zone in front of the high school, Mr. Foster said. Farm vehicles are regular users of the 4.4-mile section, he said, and with the existing two lanes, traffic has no option other than to pass illegally or stack up behind a slow-moving tractor.
Likewise, a driver on the two
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