THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608140101
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 64 lines
Chesapeake wants to know how drivers feel about stoplights, bottlenecks and rush hour along the city's stretches of Routes 168 and 17, better known as Battlefield Boulevard and George Washington Highway.
Today, the city will begin delivering random surveys to travelers along the roads.
Workers and Chesapeake police officers will work strategic areas along the roads, handing survey cards to drivers by methods city officials would not specifically divulge.
``Don't get panicky,'' said city information coordinator Sharon Hoggard. ``We're going to use these surveys to find out how heavy traffic is and what roads are being used. They'll help us determine the best way to spend money to improve these corridors.''
According to Ray Stout, a city engineer who is helping coordinate the survey with a private contractor, information gleaned from surveys will help the city decide what will become of a proposed improvement to 168 South, the path that links vacationers to North Carolina's Outer Banks.
``We're looking to build a new 168 South parallel to the current road,'' said Stout. ``For some time, we've been diverting traffic (from Interstate 64) to the outer banks to use Route 17.''
The proposed Route 168 would be built parallel to the existing road, which would remain Battlefield Boulevard but cater more to local traffic.
The survey will help the city decide what the parameters of the road will be, and whether toll facilities will be part of it. Survey information will help decide where the toll facility would go, and whether additional toll facilities at on and off ramps would be cost effective.
Questions will address the nature of trips people are taking along the roads, including starting point, destination and how many people are in the car. The surveys also will ask drivers to estimate how many times per week they follow the routes, and whether the trips are seasonal or taken year-round.
Chesapeake residents who suffer through the traffic snares along Battlefield hope the survey will lead to clearer roads.
``Summer traffic was pretty heavy,'' said Syneeda Penland, a 25-year-old Oak Grove resident who travels Battlefield at least twice a day to get to work. ``There's a lot of traffic going down to Nag's Head. Mostly tourists.''
David A. Phillips, 36, also travels Battlefield every day. He sees a lot of problems on the road, especially where Battlefield crosses a pair of Great Bridge bridges.
``There's too much traffic for the area of road,'' said Phillips.
Chesapeake's Bryce A. Gilchrist, 30, isn't up in arms about local traffic on Battlefield, though he admitted ``it does get pretty hectic during the afternoons.''
Gilchrist cited the summer rush hours as the culprit. He suggest wider roads as a tonic.
But the city is pushing for an altogether new road to bridge North Carolina and the commonwealth, and to bring revenue into Chesapeake's wallet.
Ray Stout said survey information will fuel the progress of the new 168, a route he said will relieve existing congestion on Battlefield.
Stout said the city is pushing for the 168 project to be completed in the late 1990s, and that it would be functional by 2000.
Its future in part depends on how the survey helps Chesapeake determine who is traveling its arteries and how a new road would help.
Revenue projections aside, information gleaned from such questioning will hopefully help the city smooth traffic to the point where drivers won't be moving slow enough to have surveys handed to them. by CNB