Beginning this Friday – the busiest shopping day of the year – the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will implement its annual holiday traffic signal-timing plan at a dozen major shopping centers in Northern Virginia to keep traffic and shoppers moving.

VDOT traffic engineers are re-timing about 170 signals to accommodate the annual spike in traffic volumes in and around the region’s shopping malls.

The special timing plans will be in effect at the following shopping centers through New Year’s Day:

• Tysons and Galleria Shopping Centers
• Reston Town Center
• Fair Lakes Shopping Center
• Fair Oaks Mall
• Potomac Mills Mall
• Manassas Mall
• Shopping centers on Route 234
• Springfield Mall
• Cascades Town Center
• Potomac Run Center
• Dulles Town Center

“Our team has developed customized signal timing plans for 170 intersections in close proximity to 12 major shopping centers throughout the northern region,” said Ling Li, regional traffic operations manager of VDOT’s Traffic Management Center. “Our goal is to accommodate the changing traffic patterns expected around the shopping centers as efficiently as possible.”

In addition, VDOT installed eight new closed-circuit television cameras in the Tysons area this year.

The cameras are not only used to monitor daily traffic conditions, but also will be utilized to monitor shopping entrances and exits during this holiday season.

VDOT has assisted area shopping centers by re-timing signals during the holidays since 1999.

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Page last modified: Nov. 28, 2007