Virginia Administrative Code › Title 24 - TRANSPORTATION AND MOTOR VEHICLES › Agency 30 - DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION › Chapter 73 - ACCESS MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS: MINOR ARTERIALS, COLLECTORS, AND LOCAL STREETS › Section 24VAC30-73-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
"Access management" means the systematic control of the
				  location, spacing, design, and operation of entrances, median
				  openings/crossovers, traffic signals, and interchanges for the purpose of
				  providing vehicular access to land development in a manner that preserves the
				  safety and efficiency of the systems of state highways.
"Collectors" means the functional classification of highways
				  that provide land access service and traffic circulation within residential,
				  commercial, and industrial areas. The collector system distributes trips from
				  principal and minor arterials through the area to the ultimate destination.
				  Conversely, collectors also collect traffic and channel it into the arterial
				  system.
"Commissioner" means the individual who serves as the chief
				  executive officer of the Department of Transportation or his designee.
"Commonwealth" means the Commonwealth of Virginia.
"Crossover" means an opening in a nontraversable median (such
				  as a concrete barrier or raised island) that provides for crossing movements
				  and left turning movements.
"Design speed" means the selected speed used to determine the
				  geometric design features of the highway.
"District" means each of the nine areas in which VDOT is
				  divided to oversee the maintenance and construction on the state highways,
				  bridges, and tunnels within the boundaries of the area.
"District administrator" means the VDOT employee assigned to
				  supervise the district.
"District administrator's designee" means the VDOT employee
				  or employees designated by the district administrator.
"Entrance" means any driveway, street, or other means of
				  providing for movement of vehicles to or from the highway.
"Entrance, commercial" means any entrance serving land uses
				  that generate more than 50 vehicular trips per day or the trip generation
				  equivalent of more than five individual private residences or lots for
				  individual private residences using the methodology in the Institute of
				  Transportation Engineers Trip Generation, 8th Edition, 2008.
"Entrance, low volume commercial" means any entrance, other
				  than a private entrance, serving five or fewer individual residences or lots
				  for individual residences on a privately owned and maintained road or land uses
				  that generate 50 or fewer vehicular trips per day using the methodology in the
				  Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation 8th Edition, 2008.
"Entrance, private" means an entrance that serves up to two
				  private residences and is used for the exclusive benefit of the occupants or an
				  entrance that allows agricultural operations to obtain access to fields or an
				  entrance to civil and communication infrastructure facilities that generate 10
				  or fewer trips per day such as cell towers, pump stations, and stormwater
				  management basins.
"Frontage road" means a road that generally runs parallel to
				  a highway between the highway right-of-way and the front building setback line
				  of the abutting properties and provides access to the abutting properties for
				  the purpose of reducing the number of entrances to the highway and separating
				  the abutting property traffic from through traffic on the highway.
"Functional area" means the area of the physical highway
				  feature, such as an intersection, roundabout, railroad grade crossing, or
				  interchange, plus that portion of the highway that comprises the decision and
				  maneuver distance and required vehicle storage length to serve that highway
				  feature.
"Functional area of an intersection" means the physical area
				  of an at-grade intersection plus all required storage lengths for separate turn
				  lanes and for through traffic, including any maneuvering distance for separate
				  turn lanes.
"Functional classification" means the federal system of
				  classifying groups of highways according to the character of service they are
				  intended to provide and classifications made by the commissioner based on the
				  operational characteristics of a highway. Each highway is assigned a functional
				  classification based on the highway's intended purpose of providing priority to
				  through traffic movement or adjoining property access. The functional
				  classification system groups highways into three basic categories identified as
				  (i) arterial, with the function to provide through movement of traffic; (ii)
				  collector, with the function of supplying a combination of through movement and
				  access to property; and (iii) local, with the function of providing access to
				  property and to other streets.
"Highway," "street," or "road" means a public way for
				  purposes of vehicular travel, including the entire area within the
				  right-of-way, that is part of the systems of state highways.
"Intersection" means
(i) a crossing of two or more highways at
				grade,
(ii) a crossover, or
(iii) any at-grade connection with
				a highway such as a commercial entrance.
"Intersection sight distance" means the sight distance
				  required at an intersection to allow the driver of a stopped vehicle a
				  sufficient view of the intersecting highway to decide when to enter, or cross,
				  the intersecting highway.
"Legal speed limit" means the speed limit set forth on signs
				  lawfully posted on a highway or, in the absence of such signs, the speed limit
				  established by Article 8 (§ 46.2-870 et seq.) of Chapter 8 of Title 46.2
				  of the Code of Virginia.
"Level of service" means a qualitative measure describing the
				  operational conditions within a vehicular traffic stream, generally in terms of
				  such service measures as speed, travel time, freedom to maneuver, traffic
				  interruptions, and comfort and convenience. "Level-of-service" is defined and
				  procedures are presented for determining the level of service in the Highway
				  Capacity Manual, 2010 (Transportation Research Board).
"Limited access highway" means a highway especially designed
				  for through traffic over which abutting properties have no easement or right of
				  light, air, or access by reason of the fact that those properties abut upon the
				  limited access highway.
"Local streets" means the functional classification for
				  highways that comprise all facilities that are not collectors or arterials.
				  Local streets serve primarily to provide direct access to abutting land and to
				  other streets.
"Median" means the portion of a divided highway that
				  separates opposing traffic flows.
"Median opening" means a crossover or a directional opening
				  in a nontraversable median (such as a concrete barrier or raised island) that
				  physically restricts movements to specific turns such as left turns and
				  U-turns.
"Minor arterials" means the functional classification for
				  highways that interconnect with and augment the principal arterial system.
				  Minor arterials distribute traffic to smaller geographic areas providing
				  service between and within communities.
"Operating speed" means the speed at which drivers are
				  observed operating their vehicles during free-flow conditions with the 85th
				  percentile of the distribution of observed speeds being the most frequently
				  used measure of the operating speed of a particular location or geometric
				  feature.
"Permit" or "entrance permit" means a document that sets the
				  conditions under which VDOT allows a connection to a highway.
"Permit applicant" means the person or persons, firm,
				  corporation, government, or other entity that has applied for a permit.
"Permittee" means the person or persons, firm, corporation,
				  government, or other entity that has been issued a permit.
"Preliminary subdivision plat" means a plan of development as
				  set forth in § 15.2-2260 of the Code of Virginia.
"Principal arterials" means the functional classification for
				  major highways intended to serve through traffic where access is carefully
				  controlled, generally highways of regional importance, with moderate to high
				  volumes of traffic traveling relatively long distances and at higher
				  speeds.
"Professional engineer" means a person who is qualified to
				  practice engineering by reason of his special knowledge and use of
				  mathematical, physical and engineering sciences and the principles and methods
				  of engineering analysis and design acquired by engineering education and
				  experience, and whose competence has been attested by the Virginia Board for
				  Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior
				  Designers and Landscape Architects through licensure as a professional
				  engineer.
"Reverse frontage road" means a road that is located to the
				  rear of the properties fronting a highway and provides access to the abutting
				  properties for the purpose of reducing the number of entrances to the highway
				  and removing the abutting property traffic from through traffic on the
				  highway.
"Right-of-way" means that property within the systems of
				  state highways that is open or may be opened for public travel or use or both
				  in the Commonwealth. This definition includes those public rights-of-way in
				  which the Commonwealth has a prescriptive easement for maintenance and public
				  travel.
"Roundabout" means a circular intersection with yield control
				  of all entering traffic to traffic within the circular intersection and
				  channelized approaches and a central island that deflect entering traffic to
				  the right.
"Shared entrance" means a single entrance serving two or more
				  adjoining parcels.
"Sight distance" means the distance visible to the driver of
				  a vehicle when the view is unobstructed by traffic.
"Site plan" and "subdivision plat" mean a plan of development
				  approved in accordance with §§ 15.2-2286 and 15.2-2241 through
				  15.2-2245 of the Code of Virginia.
"Stopping sight distance" means the distance required by a
				  driver of a vehicle, traveling at a given speed, to bring the vehicle to a stop
				  after an object on the highway becomes visible, including the distance traveled
				  during the driver's perception and reaction times and the vehicle's braking
				  distance.
"Systems of state highways" means all highways, streets, and
				  roads under the ownership, the control, or the jurisdiction of VDOT, including
				  but not limited to, the primary, secondary, and interstate highways.
"Trip" means a single or one-directional vehicle movement
				  either entering or exiting a property; a vehicle leaving the property is one
				  trip and a vehicle returning to the property is one trip.
"Turn lane" means a separate lane for the purpose of enabling
				  a vehicle that is entering or leaving a highway to increase or decrease its
				  speed to a rate at which it can more safely merge or diverge with through
				  traffic; an acceleration or deceleration lane.
"VDOT" means the Virginia Department of Transportation, its
				  successor, the Commissioner of Highways, or his designees.
Statutory Authority: § 33.1-198.1 of the Code of
					 Virginia.