OUR VIEW: In context, VDOT’s plan for Route 3 a good start

» Safety enhancements should help along a dangerous stretch of the road, but real safety still requires patient, respectful drivers.

Improvements to a deadly stretch of Route 3 could be in place within a month. Upgrades announced last week by the Virginia Department of Transportation will help, but we as motorists shoulder much of the responsibility for actually making the highway a safer place to drive.

In the past two years, six people have died in wrecks along a short stretch of two-lane highway between Stevensburg and Lignum.

VDOT announced Wednesday it would place larger warning signs and a 50-mph speed advisory at the notorious curve near Clay Hill Road. Other planned improvements include more directional chevrons, rumble strips, road-marking upgrades and an adjustment to the passing zone near York Road, west of the curve.

The cost is estimated at around $300,000. Any money from the state is a godsend — especially considering other highway projects are being cut left and right from VDOT’s budget — but it’s only part of the solution. The rest is up to us.

Given the state of the economy, it’s going to be a long time before this stretch of road is four-laned. In the meantime, motorists need to remember to be courteous to other drivers, obey all traffic laws and never, ever, drive drunk.

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Keeping with the automobile theme, we’d like to wish the best to our local Chrysler and General Motors dealerships during these tough times. Both have proven to be valuable assets to the automakers in Detroit, which have announced the closure of nearly 2,000 dealerships between them.

Culpeper’s dealers were not on either list. Let’s hope it stays that way. All of our dealerships are big parts of this community.