ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180073
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
INTERSTATE 81 will have to be widened. That seems inevitable. But ever more miles of pavement, spread ever-wider, cannot be the sole response to transportation needs that are pushing greater numbers of trucks, cars and motor vehicles of every description onto crowded highways.
The ever-more-pavement option isn't sustainable.
Yet laying more pavement is what will have to be done, for what alternative does Virginia now have?
The need for more capacity on I-81 is a quality-of-life issue, says Fred Altizer, Salem District administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The freight industry is a quality-of-life issue. He is right.
Competitive, open markets, and the urgent need for on-time delivery dictated by just-in-time production methods, make for a great deal of hauling of raw materials and finished products. More and more of the loads are running north and south through Virginia, along I-81.
Add to the truck traffic more and more personal vehicles, required for Americans' mobile lifestyle, and rolling on the interstate not just for business or holiday travel but for daily commutes that grow longer as suburban sprawl spreads deeper into the countryside.
No statistics from VDOT are needed to convince a motorist crawling uphill behind a decelerating tractor-trailer, a string of cars flat out flying up on the left, that traffic is too dense for comfort.
So lanes will be added. Specific projects are still in the talking stages, but absent any feasible alternative mode of transportation, the interstate will be made to accommodate more vehicles.
And, years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, I-81 will be overcrowded and dangerous - unless, while acting to meet the immediate need, the nation and commonwealth look farther down the road and develop more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and less stressful modes of transportation.
Rail, for one. Thomas Hylton notes in his book, "Save Our Land, Save Our Towns," how building a society around cars and trucks, rather than people, is wasteful. A train can move a ton of freight three times farther on a gallon of fuel than can a truck, he points out.
"A train hauling 140 freight cars requires a crew of just two and moves over a right-of-way no wider than a residential alley. To haul a comparable load by truck requires up to 280 drivers behind the wheel of tractor-trailers covering about five miles of highway.
"On one track, a railroad can haul 50,000 passengers in an hour, fair weather or foul. To do the same by highway requires 10,000 cars, each containing four passengers and a driver, traveling over four lanes of highway, in fair weather, and without any accidents."
One promising prospect is for modes that marry advantages of mass transit with the convenience and freedom of roads - such as automated highways and bike trails for passenger traffic, and continued expansion of freight service that combines rail and trucking.
A VDOT less fixated on road building is needed. So is better land-use planning, clustering development where services are. A modern passenger rail system would also help. Without it, better roads will only draw heavier traffic.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB