COLLEGIATETIMES Smart Road causes headaches
thursday october 30, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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UNIVERSITY SERVICE TO HONOR HIKES ON FRIDAY
BLACKSBURG TRANSIT WILL RUN BUSES TO POLLS The Blacksburg Transit will be providing transportation service to voting locations on Nov. 4, for the presidential election. The service will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to Blacksburg Middle School, Blacksburg Community Center, Gilbert Linkous Elementary, Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, Margaret Beeks Elementary, Slusser Chapel and St. Michaels Lutheran Church. More information on the transportation service can be found at www.montva.com or by calling 540-382-5741.
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he Virginia Tech Smart Road was supposed to directly connect Blacksburg to Interstate 81, but instead the 2.2-mile, twolane road managed by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute for research in the transportation arena has become a full-scale, stateof-the-art test bed for research purposes alone. The concept for the road was first conceived in the mid-1980s. Twenty years ago, transportation patterns in Blacksburg looked very different than they do now. Four-lane U.S. 460, also known in town as Main Street, acted as the primary connecting road between Interstate 81, Christiansburg and Blacksburg. As both the university and town populations increased, congestion on the slow speed thoroughfare became an issue with residents and visitors, and the Virginia Department of Transportation saw the need for greater access. “VDOT did some studies and saw problems with overcrowding on 460 Business,” said David Clarke, VDOT residency administrator. “We developed over 20 different alternate routes and focused on two: alternate 3A and alternate 6.” Alternate 3A is the 460-bypass highway that the majority of Blacksburg and Tech visitors use today to travel from the interstate. Clarke said that it had a short-term development plan and was finished for public use by the early 1990s, greatly altering
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ct news staff writer
the flow of traffic in the area and reducing congestion. Alternate 6 is currently what is seen today as the Smart Road. In its initial development stages, its intention was to act as a 5.7-mile-long connection route between Blacksburg and Roanoke, shaving off approximately 30 minutes from the drive between town and city. At the time, the Roanoke-Virginia Tech Advisory Council wanted “a better link between the Virginia Tech campus and the bigger business capital of the area, which was Roanoke,” Clarke said. However, the plan for this road was long term and the 460 bypass helped to alleviate traffic issues in the area. “VDOT and local governments do long-range transportation plans,” Clarke said, “i.e. have maps with lines denoting where we think we’ll need roads in the future. The Smart Road was a line on a map.” But unique ideas for the connecting project came in the late 1980s with suggestions by city and state officials, as well as the Virginia Congress, to develop the road in a way that it could be used for transportation research. Early visions included looking at ways the roads could aid in steering
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PROPOSED TO LINK BLACKSBURG AND I-81, THE SMART ROAD FALLS 3.5 MILES SHORT OF ITS GOAL, INSTEAD SERVING AS A TESTBED FOR VDOT AND CAR MANUFACTURERS
JOHN KA
Virginia Tech has planned a service of remembrance for Vice President for Student Affairs Zenobia Lawrence Hikes, who died on Oct. 27 following cardiac surgery complications. The service will take place in Burruss HIKES Auditorium at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31 (doors will open at 12:30 p.m,). Furthermore, the Commonwealth of Virginia flag located in front of Burruss will be flown at half-staff in honor of Hikes. Anyone who wishes to send letters of remembrance or condolence to Hikes’ family can e-mail zhikes@gmail.com. Her family has asked that donations be made to the Zenobia Lawrence Hikes Scholarship Fund to support undergraduate leaders who are underrepresented in higher education.
vehicles and detecting lateral movements. Officials and researchers “wanted to use what was then very new technology, such as cell phone and navigation systems, and look at putting computer technology, called Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, in cars,” Clarke said. “They couldn’t test on a road like Interstate 81 because it would be too dangerous. The idea was to look at an identified future corridor, build a portion early and use it to advance highway and safety technology.” The proposed Blacksburg-Roanoke connecting road’s proximity to what is now called the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, one of the state’s biggest transportation research centers, was an added incentive. “Virginia Tech and VTTI were partnered with
see SMART ROAD, page two
LUKE MASON/SPPS
The $17.4 million Smart Road Bridge is Virginia’s tallest, standing 175 feet above Wilson Creek. VDOT uses it as a proving ground.
weather SUNSHINE high 53, low 25
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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 97
Professor speaks on LGBT issues, election CANDACE SIPOS
ct politics editor Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College in New York City, will be speaking in Squires 342 today at 8 p.m. His speech, sponsored by Virginia Tech’s LGBTA, will be about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual issues as they pertain to the upcoming election. Sherrill has been a SHERRILL professor for 41 years and has written multiple books regarding the gay community and politics. He appeared as an expert witness in two Supreme Court cases. The testimony of one of these cases was transformed into his award-winning book, “Gays and the Military.” He sat down with the Collegiate Times to discuss the influence of LGBT issues on society and the election. Q: What’s the most important message that you want to get across to students who come to hear you speak? A: People who think of themselves of LGBT are much more likely to vote Democratic, have much more liberal positions on a whole range of political issues, are more active and involved citizens than the average American, and also have gone through a kind of
political and social transformation that occurs during coming-out years and appears to last a lifetime. It’s a form of identity that appears to transcend identity transmitted within the family, to transcend economic class. Q: What role do LGBT issues play in the upcoming presidential election? A: I think LGBT issues play a very small role in the presidential election. That’s because the candidates haven’t spoken about them. Nevertheless, LGBT voters know that there are very sharp differences between the parties. The overwhelming fact about LGBT voters is that they aren’t fools. They not only have a strong sense of self-interest but also a very strong sense of right and wrong that totally transcends traditionally gay issues. What we find is that on issue after issue LGBT voters are consistently to the left of the American public. This is a transformation that appears to occur during the coming out years. Q: Why do you think LGBT Americans are often to the left of other Americans on issues that have nothing to do with LGBT issues? A: When people are coming out, you think of how you’re raised with the unquestioned expectation that you’ll get married, have kids … be just like your parents. And then you realize that’s not going to happen. With the recognition of one’s difference comes a whole new frame of reference for evaluating everything that you
see and everything that’s around you. Contrary to stereotypes, this does not appear to be alienating. Rather, it galvanizes people to engage in concern, activism. In many ways our study finds that gay people are model citizens in the sense of being so much more likely to engage in their communities. Q: What are the most important issues to the LGBT community right now? A: There are two categories — one is ending discrimination or having protection against discrimination. Honestly, if I were to walk into a hotel with another man they could legally say we’re not going to let you have a room. The other thing is relationship recognition — marriage, adoption, a whole range of family issues, inheritance, being able to have a partner or a spouse who’s a foreign national coming to this country. Q: How do you think the rest of America feels about these issues in this election? Do you think they acknowledge the importance of these issues? A: No. This is a not a year in which people are paying attention to issues of this sort … These really aren’t controversial issues. Allies who are supporters are not as intense in their belief as are those people who are opponents. We’re in a situation in which an intense minority overwhelms an apathetic majority. It’s the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton worried about.
Lee works to develop stingy computer chip
MICHAEL SHROYER/SPPS
Fred Lee, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, poses in Whittemore Hall. Lee directs the Center for Power Electronic Systems.
ALEX SIEGEL
ct news staff writer In a world that depends on computers as much as Blacksburg depends on football, the demand for more efficient computer performance puts increasing pressure on industry personnel. Virginia Tech’s very own Fred Lee, who holds a distinguished professorship, directs the Center for Power Electronics Systems, an organization that is at the frontline of the global effort to enhance computer efficiency. In 1997, Intel, a multibillion-dollar company, came to Lee and CPES with a specific task: come up with a way to provide power to the Pentium processor. This chip was the fastest microprocessor to ever hit the market and required much more power to operate. Lee developed a way to distribute power among multiple sources. By 2000, Lee’s new model, known technically as a multi-phased voltage regulator module, was used in
every Intel processor. Although the momentum of CPES has been strong, this past year has been the first time CPES has had to operate without the funding of the National Science Foundation in nearly 10 years. For the past decade, the NSF had provided CPES with a $30 million sponsorship that expired this year. Since Lee’s revolutionary VRM development, Lee and CPES have continued to use Tech as a hub to conduct research. Although CPES has less money to draw on, Lee seems confident in the future of his organization. “Virginia Tech allows non-contract companies to be members of CPES,” Lee said. By becoming a member, Lee explained, “companies have direct access to our intellectual property. In other words, companies pay a $50,000 membership fee to have full access to the work of CPES.” Lee acknowledges that with this he loses the fame that comes with patenting ideas, but believes it is in everyone’s best interest
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see LEE, page two