The intersection is not a traffic issue itself (except perhaps on football days, but where isn't there a traffic issue then?), but I believe the town wants an interchange specifically to address those safety concerns, which includes really poor visibility for those turning off of North Main onto the bypass. Otherwise, an interchange seems like overkill. However, VDOT's current plans for the intersection involve removing the left-turn movement from North Main, meaning that traffic wishing to head east on 460 would have to drive west most of the way up the ridge before being able to turn around, so i feel like neither is a particularly satisfying resolution. Perhaps a lighted intersection with jughandles might work?
The concern from residents is that the band-aid fix of eliminating left turns at a bad intersection will have a positive effect on reducing accidents, which is good -- but by reducing accidents at a bad intersection, the scoring VDOT uses to spend money will be impacted to the point that a better fix (an interchange) won't be seen as needed. There is an idea that if money is to be spent, it should be put toward doing the right thing and not just spending the minimum on an "easy" solution.
The 460 bypass around Blacksburg was built in the late '60s and was a bit of an anomaly in that what intersections there are were at grade (with plans to build interchanges "later"). Apparently no one thought the town and Virginia Tech would grow the way it did, so the necessary interchanges weren't built at the time. It wasn't until 10 years later that the traffic light at Prices Fork Road was removed when an overpass and ramps were built. It took a number of bad wrecks and several deaths to get the interchange at Toms Creek Rd. 10-15 years later. The major entrance to the Virginia Tech campus, Southgate Drive, did get a traffic light and construction is finally underway to convert this bad intersection to an interchange. The south end where it merged into S. Main St. was "fixed" about 10 years ago when the "connect the bypasses" project was built to provide a full limited-access highway between Blacksburg and I-81 at Christiansburg.
To many in Richmond and Northern Virginia, the state ends somewhere west of Charlottesville (like Staunton) while to others Roanoke is the last piece of civilization and anything beyond there is terra incognito.
Bruce in Blacksburg