Stop-sign scofflaws are Church Hill's business

I saw a guy in a pickup truck barrel through the stop sign at 32nd Street, westbound on East Broad Street. It was last Sunday around 10:30am and I was headed to get breakfast at Union Market. This is a multiple-times-daily occurrence, and from the sidewalk, I made the universal “what the fuck, man?” gesture with my hands. The driver slowed down to a crawl and rolled down his window. Here is how I remember the exchange:

There was more cursing, but that’s basically it. We jawed back and forth another couple rounds, him slow-rolling down the block the whole time. After he finally drove off, he rolled through the stop sign at 31st Street, albeit slower. That qualifies as progress when you’re just some guy trying to stem the tide on Church Hill’s stop-sign scofflaws.

This neighborhood is unique in many ways, but this is a citywide problem. People run stop signs and stoplights in Richmond. It’s not a victimless crime: The Richmond Times-Dispatch recently reported that the city of Richmond has averaged 235 pedestrian “accidents” and 21 pedestrian deaths every year since 2016. Just a couple months ago, two kids—ages 11 and 13—were hit at S & North 33rd Streets by a driver who was “charged with disregarding a stop sign.” Thankfully, the kids lived in that instance, but I imagine they’ll be terrified to cross the street for the foreseeable future.

They should be. Hell, you should be. The scofflaw I saw this past Sunday was on his phone driving a two-ton pickup truck through stop signs around 10mph over the speed limit—on his phone, no less. If he hit you in your car, you’d probably walk away with a bunch of damage and/or injuries and trauma. If he hit you on your bike, or on foot, you might not walk away at all.

That interaction, and another 20 minutes later at M & 23rd Streets, where an entirely different jagoff driving a Ford Explorer illegally passed me then tore through that stop sign at around 40mph, got me wondering whose business it actually is to improve the safety of our streets here in Church Hill.

Judging by how rare it is to see a cop ticket stop-sign scofflaws at any of our high-volume intersections, I gather the Richmond Police don’t consider it to be their business. Does Dr. Cynthia Newbille, newly reelected to represent Richmond’s 7th District on City Council? Though she didn’t respond to The Lookout’s emailed request for comment, I’m encouraged to see that one of City Council’s three legislative priorities for the 2025 General Assembly session is (emphasis mine):

Other city councils in Virginia are going a step further, including stop-sign camera expansion in the legislative agendas they ask their state-level counterparts to champion in the General Assembly. Alas, ours is not.

Still, requesting an expansion on speed cameras qualifies as progress in a city with very few of them. And it’s important, too, because too many of our big beautiful state lawmakers in the General Assembly don’t seem to think improving street safety is their business. A bill introduced in late 2023 to expand local governments’ authority to expand installations of speed cameras beyond just school and work zones to any “high injury network area” has gone nowhere fast this year. As far as I know, nobody even gave a stop-sign camera bill a shot.

Running a stop sign is selfish, anti-social behavior. People who do it deserve to be hammered with tickets until they start abiding the rules or stop being able to afford a private vehicle, whichever comes first. I won’t hold my breath waiting for RPD to rein in this problem in Church Hill, nor the General Assembly legalizing speed and stop-sign cameras any time soon. I do expect Councilwoman Newbille to advance the issue with the tools at her disposal—calling for more speed tables and other traffic-calming measures, calling on RPD to do more than nothing, backing legislative agendas that include stop-sign camera deployments, etc.—and you should, too.

When drivers run stop signs on our streets, it makes our neighborhood less safe. If that’s not our business, whose is it?

🧐 What is The Church Hill Lookout?

Hey, it’s me, Dave Infante, your neighbor here in Church Hill. I live near Chimborazo Park. Nice to meet you!

I’m a longtime journalist who covers the beverage-alcohol industry nationally for a publication called VinePair, as well as my own newsletter about drinking in America, Fingers.

The Church Hill Lookout is an idea I’ve been kicking around for the past year and finally decided to take the plunge. We’re lucky to have excellent statehouse coverage from the Virginia Mercury, and I’m a big fan (and paying subscriber!) of The Richmonder’s local news coverage, but I felt like Church Hill was missing a proper neighborhood blog, and I occasionally have some ideas, man, so… here we are. I’m aiming for a hodgepodge of smart and silly coverage and commentary about living in the East End.

I’m going to experiment a bit with this over the next few months to see what sticks. Hope you enjoy. Tell your friends/neighbors to sign up, it;’s free:

Questions? Gossip? Ideas for recurring features? Bang my line anytime: [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you!

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

📸 A very CHill photo