THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604120015
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
A car is your servant, waiting to take you where you want, when you want - unless the road is clogged. Then a car is a place to sit and wait and fume, as helpless as an animal in a trap.
Barring accidents, rain, rush hours, tunnels, bridge-lifts, objects to gawk at, or out-of-town drivers, Hampton Roads traffic flows like a river. Still, horrific traffic problems lurk in the near future.
Already the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway handles 200,000 vehicles a day, far more than intended. According to a federally funded $1 million study for Tidewater Regional Transit, expressway traffic in the year 2015 will average 8 mph, unless many more lanes are built or an alternative is developed. If nothing is done, the commute from the Oceanfront to downtown Norfolk or the Naval Base might be measured not in minutes but in hours.
What's needed is a light-rail system. It won't take every driver except you off the road, clearing your path from home to work. But it will provide a safety valve. When irritation with stalled traffic nears the boiling point, some drivers will take the train. When traffic worsens again, more will climb aboard.
If you have a high boiling point, you may keep to your car. But in other cities that have built light-rail systems, tens of thousands of motorists have abandoned their cars to take trains.
It happened in Dallas in 1996, Denver in 1994, St. Louis in 1993, Los Angeles in 1993, Baltimore in 1992, Los Angeles in 1990, San Jose and Sacramento in 1987, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver in 1986. After decades of smog and traffic jams, cities are rediscovering the beauty of light rail.
An light-rail line between the Oceanfront and downtown Norfolk makes sense for these reasons:
Route 44, already up to 10 lanes, cannot add more without homes and businesses being bulldozed out of the way. Double-decking the expressway would cost an estimated $2 billion and take a decade.
Fourteen of the region's 20 major employment centers would be within walking distance of a rail line from the Oceanfront to downtown Norfolk and up Hampton Boulevard to the Naval Base. Few regions have employment centers so concentrated along a line. A big reason is that the waterways here have funneled development along the few routes with bridges or tunnels.
Relatively speaking, the railway would be cheap, because the Norfolk Southern right-of-way and tracks between downtown Norfolk and the Oceanfront could be used. According to the TRT study, that route would cost $376 million - less than a fifth of the estimated cost of double-decking the expressway.
As use of light rail increased, capacity would keep pace easily and inexpensively. Consultants estimate that 13,000 to 15,500 passengers would ride the trains daily at first. As road traffic worsened, the number of rail passengers would grow.
According to the study, the railway between downtown Norfolk and the Oceanfront would boost annual payrolls by $88 million, increase retail sales by $56 million and improve nearby property values by more than $246 million.
We have to think big. A railway connecting the Oceanfront to Williamsburg would truly make Hampton Roads a region. In Richmond, there is serious talk of building a commuter railway to Washington, D.C. Eventually, a Hampton Roads line could connect with the Richmond line, and the state's Golden Crescent would shine as never before.
If Hampton Roads lacks a reliable regional transportation system, and if our roads become as clogged as those around Washington, D.C., who knows what economic-development opportunities will be lost.
The Tidewater Transportation District Commission received the $1 million study on Wednesday. The commission will hold at least three public workshops this month to discuss the project. For information, call 461-0647. The commission is slated to vote May 8 on what to do to lessen traffic congestion. Next, Norfolk and Virginia Beach city councils would have to sign on. Finally, federal funds would be needed.
An attempt to build a light-rail line in 1988 died when Virginia Beach City Council voted 6-5 not to pay $500,000 for a study. This time the federal government bought the study, and some of the railway opponents are gone from the Beach council.
For the sake of the Navy, economic development and the sanity of commuters, Hampton Roads sorely needs a light-rail. Without one, we will not be a first-class region in the next century. At rush hours, our expressways will be parking lots. by CNB