Can this be safe for pedestrians?

Barbara Totschek said she would love to walk her son, Hayden, to the Pantops Shopping Center.

But she won’t risk crossing the intersection of South Pantops Boulevard and Riverbend Drive to get there. She lives less than a block away from the shopping center.

“I’m a pedestrian by nature, but I wouldn’t think of crossing the intersection with [my son],” Totschek, 38, said Thursday. “I usually walk up to the intersection and turn around and walk home. It would be nice to be able to go shopping without having to get in the car.”

The busy intersection, which has a marked crosswalk and a cross walking sign, is one of 14 areas in Albemarle County recently approved for pedestrian improvements.

But it could be a year before any work is done because each intersection must be studied and funding secured before construction begins, county Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said.

“These roads weren’t built for an urban setting and it’s going to take time to make these improvements,” Rooker said. “We’re becoming more of an urban area and we want our community to be safe for pedestrians and bicyclists, but it’s going to take time.”

The priority list approved June 4 includes portions of Rio and Hydraulic roads, Commonwealth, Riverbend, South Pantops and Greenbrier drives and U.S. 29. It was created by the Virginia Department of Transportation, members of the county’s planning department and the local chapter of the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation.

“We’re playing catch up for the last 30 years of growth,” said Leonard Schoppa, president of ACCT.

Each intersection could need both major and minor improvements, Rooker said. Improvements will range from repainting to new sidewalks and installing new sidewalks and countdown crosswalk signs.

“We’ve tried to put pedestrian facilities in where we widened the roads, but there are still areas that need to be addressed,” Rooker said.

Funding for the project list will come from a combination of local and state monies and possibly federal and state grants, Rooker said.

VDOT officials told the board last week about a series of improvements already in the works around the county. The work, which

includes upgrades and repairs to existing crosswalks, is slated to begin in the next year.

State officials also discussed major works at various intersections on Rio and Hydraulic roads, said Allan Sumpter, VDOT residency administrator in Charlottesville. Projects on these intersections are scheduled to begin during the summer and continue over the next year, he said.

“We want to move forward on some of these projects,” Sumpter said. “To do [the improvements] well, we have to make them ADA compliable.”

To make an intersection comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, crosswalks would have to be widened and sidewalks built at various intersections, Sumpter said.

The Board of Supervisors asked staff to develop the list in February after two people were injured while crossing the intersection of Rio Road and Berkmar Drive.

Since 2006, two people have died in 57 pedestrian-vehicle accidents in the county, Albemarle police Lt. Todd Hopwood said.

Totschek has written to VDOT and a state lawmaker to see if anything can be done to make changes at the busy intersection that separates her from the shopping center.

Totschek said she would like a longer time to cross the intersection and a sign warning motorists that a pedestrian intersection is ahead.

“With the gas prices going up, it would be nice to take a walk to where we need to go,” Totschek said. “We could help save the Earth while we’re at it.”