Charlottesville still taking input on temporary changes to East High / Meade Avenue intersection

As part of the local implementation of the federal Safe Streets 4 All initiative, the City of Charlottesville and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are planning on trying out a new orientation for a key intersection in the central-east portion of the city.

“This is a temporary improvement that we are looking to make,” said Ben Chambers, the city’s transportation planning manager. “This is a safety problem that we’ve all known has been an issue but have all been curious about how to solve it and we want to test some different options of what we can do before we have to go with a more expensive kind of project.”

There are three proposals:

• Option 1 would eliminate the traffic signal at Meade Avenue and East High Street in favor and add another one at Meade Avenue at Stewart Street. Meade Avenue would be converted to one way traffic allowing vehicles to travel south for one block to a new four-way stop. A lane on Meade would be converted to a protected bike lane.
• Option 2 would see the same shift of traffic signals, but would keep Meade Avenue open to two-way traffic. The left-hand turn from East High Street to Meade Avenue would be eliminated. There would be no all-way stop at Stewart and Meade.
• Option 3 would also see the same shift of traffic signals, but Meade Avenue would be northbound only. There would be an all-way stop at Stewart and Meade.

A public meeting was held on February 25 at Burnley-Moran Elementary School for people to see the possibilities.

“The room was full and there was a lot of chatter,” said City Councilor Natalie Oschrin. “I think it helps for people to have someone to talk to.”

An online survey runs through March 7.

Oschrin noted a similarity between all three options.

“What all three of them did and what I really appreciated was at the top of Meade where it meets East High there is a big bump-out to decrease the space that a pedestrian would need to cross to walk there,” Oschrin said.

Chambers said Council will make a choice on which way to proceed in April and the temporary installation will be placed in the summer.

Before you go: This story originally went out as part of the March 4, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. The quotes come from the February 26, 2025 meeting of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board. This is the third story that came out of that meeting! There are so many stories and Town Crier Productions strives to tell as many as possible!