DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 1997               TAG: 9705280008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  215 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Last Thursday, the editorial ``Under-used and abused'' examined the controversial high-occupany-vehicle lanes on I-64 and the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway. It also looked at a proposal by Dwight Farmer, director of transporation for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, that single-occupancy vehicles be allowed to use the restricted lanes during rush hour if the drivers are willing to pay a fee.

The following are some calls we received in response to the editorial and to Farmer's proposal. HOV lanes are a waste of money

The toll on the HOV is a big mistake. People don't use it now as it is. I think they should open the lanes to everybody because it's underused and, if they put a toll on it, even less people are going to use it.

I-64 is so congested now you can spend an hour, hour and a half, in traffic, and it's ridiculous. The HOV was a big waste of money and they should open it to everybody.

Kim McCarty

Chesapeake Limit HOV to base-only traffic

I'm one of those single drivers who drives during rush hour to and from the Naval Base, and my opinion would be not to raise a toll on the HOV but during the rush hour to have it base-only traffic.

It would be nice to use that lane, because it looks really silly sitting there with no cars on it.

Eileen McNerney

Chesapeake Unfair to HOV victims

I loved Mr. Farmer's proposal of a voluntary toll for the HOV lane. I was one of those who got caught, just to get out of a traffic jam. I was on the HOV lane for 2 seconds and I got a ticket, and I think that's very unfair.

Adelma Radosevich

Virginia Beach Just another gimmick to get money

I don't understand how it's going to be effective if you start putting tolls on the HOV. It's not going to be as quick as if you use a human body to take the tolls. If you have sensors, how are they going to understand whether there's one or two or three or 10 people in the car? I think it's just another way to get money.

The reason the lanes are so congested at the exits and on-ramps is because people are eyeballing; they don't know where they're going and they can't figure out what those signs are all about, and they wait until the last minute to get in the right area to get off.

Joyce Saxon

Gates, N.C. It's about time!

Mr. Farmer has the right idea for the HOV lanes. What took him so long to think of it?

J. H. Robertson

Chesapeake Car pooling can't be forced

I think the HOV stinks. We should have never had it and to charge people, anyone, to ride on it is totally ridiculous.

The original object of the HOV was to save gas at a time when gas was hard to get. And then there was a statement, ``HOV has not been a success as some predicted'' - that was not the general view of the public. It was the city-state-federal fathers who made that statement.

If all of those lanes were opened up, all traffic would move very smoothly. Everyone should be allowed to use all of the highways. Open the roads, let us get on 'em. You cannot force car pooling. The only thing that will do that is a shortage of gas.

Bob Spruill

Virginia Beach Some ways to keep on truckin'

I'm a long-haul trucker. I get to see those HOV lanes in use around the country, and I can tell you that our problem is not really that unusual with the HOV lanes being underused.

Perhaps have a toll for single-occupancy vehicles or even open the Virginia Beach access on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the Chesapeake access on Tuesday and Thursday and reverse it the next week because most of that traffic is going to the Naval Station.

What frightens me about the HOV lanes is that on the 44 side, anybody could just jump out of their lane into the HOV lane. There's a real potential for catastrophe.

Jimmy Frost

Virginia Beach Seven HOV cars - count 'em

I definitely think the HOV lanes need to be opened up. I drive to Hampton every day from Virginia Beach and was surprised to find out that there're 500 vehicles per hour in the HOV lanes, because I sit in traffic every morning and watch the same seven cars on the lanes. And sometimes you can sit there and actually count the seconds before you see another car come by.

Todd Rawlings

Virginia Beach Unfair to car-based salesmen

HOV lanes tend to punish the individuals who have to work in their cars for a livelihood. These people, such as insurance agents and security-systems salesmen, must work alone in their cars; therefore, they're excluded from HOV lanes. They're already paying an exhorbitant amount of road-funding taxes in the form of gasoline just by the way they use their cars for work. I don't think that a toll on these individuals would be fair.

What I propose is that people who have to work out of their cars for a living can file with the DMV for some kind of sticker they could put on their license plate at no additional charge, indicating to everybody that they have to use their cars alone.

Brian White

Virginia Beach Too many HOV restrictions

One of the not-well-known factors of the HOV lanes is that vehicles towing trailers are not allowed on the lanes during the HOV hours, regardless of the number of people in the vehicle. Also, vehicles such as pickup trucks that have six or more wheels, even though they're not licensed as a truck, are also restricted from the HOV lanes.

That just adds more vehicles that are not allowed to use the HOV lanes. Those facts are not well-published, but you can certainly find it out when you violate it and get caught.

L. T. Alexander

Virginia Beach Gas availability hurts HOVs

As long as fuel prices are low and fuel is relatively cheap, the idea of HOV lanes will never work. This society is basically automobile-driven, and to car pool with the abundance of fuel is just not going to work.

It really rankles me that my tax dollars have been used to supplement these HOV lanes when, in fact, they just don't seem to be doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Thomas Boose

Virginia Beach Pay fee for ``diamond'' plate

I'm the maintenance supervisor for the HOV lanes, the variable message signs and the gate systems. To allow people to use the HOV lane with only one person in the vehicle without adding additonal equipment on the roads, such as transponders or toll gates, would be to have a license plate with a diamond on it. That would allow people to get in and out of the HOV lanes anytime they want.

Of course, they'd pay an additional fee that the bean-counters could come up with - $250 to $500 per year - to use it.

Loren Reid

Virginia Beach Willing to pay small fee

I think that's a good idea by Mr. Farmer to increase the usage of the HOV lanes. I commute in and out of the base every day, and I would be willing to pay a small fee, like the 10-cent toll that used to be on 44, for traveling the HOV lanes.

Calvin Foster

Virginia Beach Local job market doesn't help

The HOV lanes in this area are a failure due to the type of work that most people do here. They have schedules that are not conducive for people to go to and from work at the same time, and they're geographically separated. This is why they started out with three people in the car and then went to two. It barely works. Anybody who drives the HOV lanes on the interstates realizes that one side is a parking lot and, about every minute or so, you see a two-occupant car go by in the HOV lanes.

Charles Fenwick

Chesapeake Follow example set by L.A.

I don't understand why the HOV lanes are used only for military personnel. Why can't they be adjacent to the roadway so that people can access them and use them like they do out in L.A.? People can exit and enter the HOV lanes wherever there is an exit or entrance on the freeway itself. Maybe then more people will use the HOV lanes.

Freddy Massabki

Virginia Beach Lanes difficult to use <

The lanes are poorly designed for traffic flow. During rush hour you have to cross so many lanes of congested traffic that you can't get to the HOV lane. Once you do and you come to your exit, you have the same problem getting out. This makes it very difficult to use.

Also, the limited number and changing exits during the day and week make it a puzzle as to whether you can get off where you want to. There are enough lanes to move traffic, but there's not enough proper engineering on the exit- and on-ramps. The best use of the HOV space would be light rail.

Bob Peresie

Chesapeake Current system is a disgrace

From the very beginning, I've opposed HOV lanes. I think it has been very poorly implemented by VDOT. I live in the Bayside area, specifically in Thoroughgood, and there is no access to HOV lanes for Thoroughgood residents going westbound toward Richmond on I-64. The only way we could get on would be to backtrack miles out of our way.

The waste of space by VDOT in constructing the HOV lanes is a classic example. We could have had two additional lanes, both east and west, if they had used their heads. Instead, we have a social program that is a disgrace.

James Spillane

Virginia Beach

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