THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 23, 1995 TAG: 9510210021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
This letter concerns the HOV-3 Hampton Boulevard entrance to the Norfolk/Portsmouth Midtown Tunnel. For the past three years, I have sat in traffic each evening in the extreme right lane waiting patiently for my turn to merge with traffic coming around the overpass-loop approach from Brambleton Avenue.
Every night while waiting five to 15 minutes within sight of the HOV-3 approach, I have been counting the cars using the HOV-3 approach.
The results are quite interesting, and the city and tunnel authorities don't need to hire a six-figure consulting firm to tell them that the HOV-3 lane is a failure and actually a hazard that slows down all tunnel traffic.
During my nightly delay between 5:00 and 5:30, I have counted seven to 11 automobiles using the HOV-3 lane. The number of occupants in each car is almost always the same: one. My figures indicate that only one in 12 cars using the HOV-3 lane actually carries three people.
All traffic waiting on Hampton Boulevard is delayed by letting these single-occupant vehicles sit in line.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a traffic engineer to see that this experiment is a failure. Either the HOV-3 lane should be done away with or a police officer should be stationed there at rush hour to enforce this joke on every decent motorist using the tunnel.
LEROY WILLIAMS
Portsmouth, Sept. 25, 1995 by CNB