Mathews resident Carol Bova asked Mathews supervisors last month to think twice before moving ahead with the second phase of the Mathews Main Street project.

Speaking during the public comment portion of the Sept. 25 meeting, Bova told board members that traffic calming measures used along Main Street between the Food Lion parking lot and the intersection of Main Street and Brickbat Road were intended for streets with fewer than 4,000 vehicle trips a day.

Not only does Main Street have 5,100 vehicle trips a day, she said, but it also is an evacuation route and a primary road. The street’s original 20-foot lanes were pared down to 11-foot lanes with one-foot gutter pans, she said, and the town ended up with less parking.

Bova asked how Food Lion was going to get tractor-trailer deliveries if VDOT went ahead with the bumpouts with planter boxes and trees that are planned for the stretch of road from the Food Lion parking lot to Hyco Corner, and she argued that the 30-inch inlets...