The Bane of Bradshaw

The Bane of Bradshaw

Narrow Fast Dicey Edge Road

Route 311

When you come to Roanoke and want a great road cycling ride, the Bradshaw Road route is one of the first to come to mind. Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge says, “The Bradshaw Road route is one of the most popular rides for local biking enthusiasts in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.” 

It is 47 miles of rolling hills, gentle climbs, and fast descents. If you’re riding with a group there’s a nice climb to a red mailbox that is also perfect for a sprint. I’d recommend it to anyone coming to Roanoke who wants a great road ride. Except, they have to be okay with a dangerous and scary stretch on Route 311.

On Route 311 there is a roughly 2 mile stretch that is fast and narrow in the worst ways. It is a 55 MPH road. It has areas that might be shoulders that are less than 4 feet wide. There are drop offs and pinch points that place people biking directly in the way of semi trucks, large pickups, and other traffic with that traffic expecting to move at 55 MPH. A 2001 Roanoke Times article, updated in 2019, about the Bradshaw route described this section of 311 as “a dicey road” and said “that anybody, no matter how experienced on a bike, is a fool to try to ride on U.S. 311 at any time other than early on a weekend morning.”

If you are comfortable taking the lane and slowing down traffic or riding in a group that can slow traffic, and ride at an appropriate time, then the Bradshaw route is a great ride and I heartily recommend it. If you are not comfortable mixing with 55 MPH traffic then I can’t recommend it.

311 is a fast road. Cyclists can go 20 mph consistently and groups may go even faster.  But even at 30 mph there is still a 25 mph speed differential, creating tension with people who want to go faster.

The 2 mile stretch of 311 between the Hanging Rock Battlefield and Bradshaw Road is the bane of the Bradshaw cycling route. It is the place where a cyclist feels closest to death. You may not be hit, or passed closely, or lose control off the side of the road, but you are almost guaranteed to be exposed to 55 MPH traffic for some period of time. It is remarkably fortunate that no cyclist has been killed on this section of 311 (at least in VDOT data since 2014), although one person was killed in a vehicle at the turn for Bradshaw Road. For some people, the experience of this section means they will not be able to experience the Bradshaw route, or they might be scared off from cycling by the experience.

Fixing the bane of Bradshaw would be a great boon for the cycling community in Roanoke. It is an awful experience in the midst of a great one. More people new to biking might give Bradshaw a try and like it. More people might feel comfortable biking Bradshaw more often. It is a very approachable longer ride, and fixing this stretch is the key to making it even more approachable.

So, what are some solutions? How can we make the Bradshaw route an approachable ride for more people? 

Here are a few ideas:

Lower the speed limit

  • I feel like 40 mph is appropriate for this road. Likely to have minimal travel time impacts. Tourist traffic to McAffee’s Knob isn’t too time sensitive. Swap out signs. Add feedback signs. Maybe do enforcement. People will probably adjust. I bet the speed limit wasn’t initially based on a traffic study.

Add shoulders and rumble strips

  • This is the most obvious solution. The difficulty is the solution’s expense. It may require acquiring right of way, but there’s also a lot of potential for driveway and drainage improvements for adjacent homeowners. Rumble strips would need an appropriate skip pattern so that bicyclists are not trapped by them. Rumble stripes, where the rumble pattern is made on the striped edge line, might be good due to limited space. Not sure of the actual expense.

Provide a waiting area for left turns

  • At the turn to Bradshaw Road it would be nice to have a small waiting area on the right side of 311. This would allow cyclists to pull over and wait for traffic to clear before turning onto Bradshaw instead of holding up traffic waiting for a gap. This might improve safety as it would allow cyclists to move out of traffic and have more time to find a gap they are comfortable with.

Trail?

  • The 2018 Greenway Plan has a project called the Mason’s Cove Greenway. It’s described on page 56: “4.2.30. Masons Cove Greenway, Map #30, Category 4 The Masons Cove Greenway would connect Mason Creek Greenway to Catawba Greenway utilizing an old railroad bed. Bicyclists could use this route to get up the mountain and connect to Rt. 311 to reach U. S. Bicycle Route 76.” The plan makes it appear to be a theoretical possibility, but there is little information on status other than that the railroad bed exists. Could be worth exploring, but this is likely more expensive than improved shoulders.

Road reconnection?

  • No, there’s a short unconnected road that connects to the Hanging Rock Battlefield, but it’s too short to do much to improve this stretch of road. It could be a cool connection for Just the Right Gear to provide access to the Hinkey Trail, but that would still require a significant reworking of the shoulders and striping along a shorter section of 311.

Restriping?

  • No, pretty confident that the road is actually narrow in places and does not have sufficient width to provide at least 5 foot shoulders through restriping.

Rumble strips only?

  • No, rumble strips only would make what little shoulder exists unrideable. Cyclists would be forced into the travel lane and this stretch of 311 would be even more of a barrier for people not comfortable slowing down traffic or being passed by 55 MPH traffic.