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Post office works with town on traffic issues
After years of resistance to Town of Herndon demands, post office officials are now negotiating with the town to alter the traffic flow in and out of the Herndon Post Office on Grove Street.In a July 6 letter to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th), the town wrote that "the Postal Service seems unwilling to adjust the on-site traffic circulation pattern [at the Herndon Post Office] in a complementary manner."
However, at the Herndon Town Council's Nov. 20 work session, community development director Lisa Gilleran told the council that post office officials are now working with town staff, discussing the requested traffic flow changes.
Upcoming improvements to Van Buren Street will include elimination of the current left-turn access from southbound Van Buren Street into the post office.
“The town has had a plan for several years to add raised medians to this portion of Van Buren Street,” Gilleran said.
Currently there is only a painted median on Van Buren. “A painted median is an advisory only, and people ignore it,” said Herndon Police Capt. Larry Presgrave at last week's work session.
The existing one-way entrance to the post office is on Van Buren Street, while the exit is on Grove Street. The town would like to see that traffic flow reversed, so that elimination of the left turn will not cause northbound traffic on Van Buren to back up as vehicles wait to enter the post office.
Gilleran said that negotiations between town staff and post office officials have been going well but that the federal agency, which is exempt from Herndon zoning ordinances, had a few of its own demands.
“The post office indicated that they would wish to coordinate any directional flow changes in their parking lot with the construction of a raised median on Van Buren to protect from dangerous left turns out of the post office onto southbound Van Buren, which would also block the exit for extended periods as vehicles waited to turn left, and from inappropriate left turns from Van Buren into what would become the exit and not the entrance,” Gilleran said in an e-mail to The Times.
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