Street Beat for Nov. 8

Q:My question is about a highway memorial sign. I had the sign made. I believe that the Virginia Department of Transportation has to put it up. I just wanted to know whom to contact. -- A reader

Answer: If you are in Richmond, you should contact VDOT's Richmond district office at (804) 524-6000 or (800) 663-4188. The e-mail address is . For other locations, visit VDOT's Web site at http://www.virginiadot.org. Click on "About VDOT" and then "Find your local VDOT office."

But just so you know, anyone requesting a memorial sign has to pay the cost of putting it up.

For those of you contemplating a memorial sign, here is some background from VDOT:

VDOT will meet with the requester and review the proposed location. If it is approved, VDOT will issue a land-use permit for two years at no cost. Roadside memorials can be installed on any of VDOT's highway systems as long as the requester pays the entire cost of fabricating and erecting them.

For a memorial to remain longer than two years, the requester must write a letter seeking a one-year extension. This can be repeated indefinitely on a yearly basis. The letter should be addressed to the residency administrator that issued the permit.

But when the time limit has expired, the people who put up the sign are responsible for removing it. If they do not, VDOT will remove it and retain it for 30 days at the residency or area headquarters.

You can see additional information by going to VDOT's Web site and clicking on "Info Center" and then "Roadside memorials."

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Answer: The reason is that Richmond is a cosmopolitan place, where East meets West, North meets South, and Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.

Wait, forget that last one. That's a movie in my Netflix queue.

You're right about the potential for confusion with this one exit. However, Taya M. Jarman of VDOT explains the big picture.

Route 10 begins in Suffolk, ends in Richmond and follows an east-to-west cardinal direction.

But at the Route 288 interchange, Route 10 runs north/south and Route 288 runs east/west. "If we were to change the signs to indicate the direction of the road at only this interchange, would the traveler coming through Richmond from Suffolk be confused to see the cardinal direction change at this location? In all likelihood, yes. Therefore, the sign remains consistent with the overall direction of the roadway because travelers rely on consistent roadway directional signs to get them to their destination."

Unless they're relying on my sense of direction, in which case it all goes south.

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Answer: I'm sorry that my answer wasn't clear. To clarify: There is no law against children in the front seat. But they must be secured no matter where they sit.