Norfolk Gets a Train for Christmas
By Bruce Drees

Courtesy of Dan Bell

Approaching the Christmas holiday, my wife Debbie and I pondered how to connect with family and friends in Alexandria, VA on separate work and travel schedules. Our options in past years were to fly, drive separately, take a bus, take a train out of Newport News, or skip the trip altogether. Flying is usually out due to the cost, buses or driving it alone are vulnerable to the frequent traffic and congestion problems at the tunnels and interstates, and it’s always chancey getting through the tunnel in a timely enough manner to catch a train from Newport News.  At least for me, psychologically once I make it through the HRBT I’m inclined to just drive the remainder of the trip.

But this year we had one more option: taking the train from Norfolk’s new Harbor Park Station which is a short drive from our home in Virginia Beach.

After researching the schedule and station locations I booked and printed my ticket directly with Amtrak.com. It was easy and then all I had left to do was show up, ticket in hand.

The Amtrak website suggests arriving 30 mins prior to the trains departure, which on Christmas Day was 6:05 am. That may be a bit too soon for Norfolk as the train didn’t arrive from its overnight holding area until about 15 mins prior. But being there a little earlier is preferable to being there a little late and missing the train.

Once onboard, checking in takes just a couple of seconds. The conductor comes around to your seat with a portable scanner and zap, you’re done. Throughout the trip the Amtrak staff were very courteous and professional.

We left promptly at the scheduled time and arrived at each station along the way about 5-10 mins ahead of schedule. The cars were clean and comfortable; our train had 1 business class car, 3 coach class and 1 café car. The ride was smooth with only an occasional “clack” as we would cross a switch. From Suffolk to Petersburg we zipped along at about 80 mph and about 70-72 mph the rest of the time.

This train was equipped with Wi-Fi.  I noticed that 3G/4G cell phone service was available on my smartphone for the vast majority of the trip. The train also has 110v outlets for laptops at many of the seats.

We arrived in Alexandria about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, 4 hrs and 15 mins after we left Norfolk. Though slightly longer than driving it was a whole lot less stressful. It was nice to arrive at our family gathering not feeling like I just left a NASCAR race.

Given the traffic and congestion problems with I-64, the tunnels and I-95, improved passenger rail service for both sides of Hampton Rds is a very attractive alternative for adding capacity to our transportation system. This should be considered before further lane expansion of I-64 between Newport News and Richmond. Improving tracks to allow for higher speed operation and replacing many at-grade rail crossings will put rail service on a more competitive footing with other transportation modes.

Next time you have a trip to Richmond, DC, Philadelphia or New York City consider Amtrak’s new Norfolk service. I certainly plan to!

Bruce is president of the Tidewater Bicycle Association and is a member of the Virginia Beach Citizen Voices on Transportation. The views expressed are his own.

Into the Cul-de-sac by Rail
By Meg Koach

On Christmas Eve my husband and I took an Amtrak train from Washington DC to Norfolk to visit my family. This was our first train trip and we are converted. It was much more pleasant than driving in traffic or taking a plane – we could sit back and relax in a large booth, walk around, go to the restroom, enjoy dinner and use complimentary Wi-fi, all without having to go through a security pat down. It felt like travel should. The trip was smooth and prompt; everything was on time. The train arrived in Harbor Park and from there it was just a short walk across the parking lot to catch the light rail in to the Newtown Road station in Virginia Beach, saving my family the hassle of driving all the way to Norfolk and back to pick us up. In the future when we are planning visits home, the train and light rail system will be our first choice.

(and from her dad…)

By Dan Koach

My daughter and her husband came down from Fairfax, VA to Norfolk via Amtrak and then took the Tide lightrail to the Newtown Road station for me to pick them up on Christmas Eve. They made such good time, that they were at the Newtown Road station the same time the train was scheduled to be arriving at Norfolk. They had a very pleasant and comfortable experience.

Former city manager Jim Oliver recently used this page to propose a “regional mayor” for Hampton Roads. He reasoned that our crazy quilt of seventeen independent cities and counties lacks the structure and capacity to make decisions, move ahead and compete effectively with other regions for jobs, economic development, state and federal funding and other services and opportunities.

Those who study the region’s history and future prospects agree with Oliver’s observation. Virginia’s General Assembly adopted the independent municipality model in 1896. This might have made sense back then.

Legislators of the time certainly could have had no idea how much things would change in the 20th Century and how their decision in 1896 would hinder the ability of Virginia’s regions to move ahead in the 21st Century.

What’s sure, though, is that their model makes if difficult, if not impossible, for regions to make decisions, get things done smartly and efficiently and to compete effectively in a global economy.

Not every issue local governments face is regional in scope. But a great many are and cannot be successfully addressed or resolved without the cooperation of multiple municipalities. A traffic accident in one city causes ripples that reach into others. We all need good water and places to recycle or dispose of our trash. No one in our region is untouched by or without an impact on the quality of our waterways. Air pollution, crime, homelessness, poverty and national security do not stop at city limits. They touch us all.

The military and federal government, upon which we depend for roughly half of our regional economic life, have expressed disappointment with our inability to address regional problems.  New businesses and employers look at our traffic malaise and our uncoordinated municipalities and move on to better-organized regions where it’s easier for them to get things done.

Meanwhile, when we talk about ways our region can work better, conversation frequently jumps to talk of a “regional government.” When this happens, alarms go off. Elected officials fear losing power. Residents fear losing local autonomy. Conspiracy theorists jump to conclusions about lost representation. In short, productive discussion ends and we are left no better and no better prepared than we were before.

There has not yet been enough study to determine whether the Hampton Roads region needs a regional mayor or regional level of government representation. What is beyond dispute, though, is that the region lacks the capacity for meaningful deliberation and decision-making on issues that are regional in scope. Some of the issues our region faces—particularly transportation—demand immediate attention. Doing nothing or waiting are no longer viable options.

The Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement’s Regional Civic Capital Assessment Study found that Hampton Roads residents consider our local colleges and universities to be credible, independent venues for regional issue conversations. Perhaps one or more of them will step forward, fulfill this important civic responsibility and create a “safe place” for regional deliberation and decision-making.

(Note: This editorial was published in the June 10 edition of the Daily Press.)

“We’re on our own.” That’s the prediction of Bob O’Neill, Peninsula native, former Hampton City Manager and now executive of the International City-County Management Association. The “we” he is referring to are regions, all regions—throughout the world—and especially Hampton Roads.

O’Neill’s statement is not a minority opinion, but rather a realization shared by a growing majority of people involved in governance, economic development and in the practice of democracy. There can hardly be an elected official anywhere who has not confronted the fact that localities and regions can no longer look to states and the federal government to fund basic regional and local services. Recent federal and state cutbacks in education and transportation, for instance, are just the beginning, and there is little reason to believe they will ever be restored. In fact, O’Neill observes that forty-six states, including Virginia, have mandated obligations that exceed their future revenues.

Nowhere has this been more visible in Virginia than in transportation.  And nowhere in Virginia has regional transportation planning and funding become more of a crisis than in Hampton Roads, where we are hobbled by an outdated tradition of independent cities and counties.

A friend says, “Hampton Roads is between a rock and a hard place; the rock of the past and the hard place of the future”.

Tradition is in the culture of Virginia. The autonomy of localities derives from the double-edged sword of our quest for the freedom of local self-determination and from the state’s desire to keep a lid on that very freedom. In the Twenty-First Century, this is a collision of desires that holds our region back because it discourages localities from working together to create greater regional visioning and collaboration.

It’s not like we haven’t tried.  Regional cooperation has been a staple of our Mayors and Managers for forty years, resulting in many interlocal agreements and a few regional organizations.  A telling fact, however, is these agreements are not products of strong democracy, and they have not been based on regional criteria.  Rather our regional successes have been administrative and managerial initiatives with little, if any, direct civic engagement.

One result is we have little sense of public knowledge or connectivity or shared destiny for the future among the region’s citizens.  This remains a difficult cultural hill for us to climb.

One place I find emerging hope for improved regional decision-making is at the little known Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO).  This is the agency responsible for developing the region’s transportation plans and for prioritizing and programming the federal regional transportation funds.  Its voting members are the senior elected officials of all Hampton Roads cities and counties.

Because the public rarely attends, HRTPO now tapes its meetings and put them on the Internet so that citizens can become more aware of the challenges and choices we face as a region.  I especially encourage you to view their recent meeting on the Internet: http://youtu.be/Mn89IPTxQNM

Hampton Mayor Molly Ward presided over the meeting.  Neil Morgan, Newport News City Manager, Jack Tuttle, Williamsburg City Manager and Tom Shepherd, York County Supervisor were among the active participants.

If you take the time to watch this meeting, you may find yourself surprised at how public officials looked for ways to bring more citizens into the discussion of regional transportation challenges. This is good, because if our models of regional decision-making are going to get any better they are going to have to involve more citizens.

However, the model of citizenship needs to change, too.  Newport News CNU scholar Quentin Kidd, PhD., in his new book, Civic Participation in America, describes the dilemma this way:  “By the 1950s, the American political economy not only encouraged self-interested behavior on the part of citizens, but also encouraged citizens to think of their self-interested behavior as fulfilling a greater good…Citizens who consumed, the argument went, were thus good citizens who were performing a civic duty, doing their little part to keep the nation strong.”

Self interested citizenship must yield more and include civic duty citizenship if we are going to become more competitive and remain a wonderful place to live.  That will take uncommon civic courage that so far is missing.

Being on our own can be a transformative regional wake-up call if we truly get the message.

Democracy Is for Amateurs: Why We Need More Citizen Citizens

By CHRIS BONNEY

IT HAS BECOME a given in government funding conversations: “There’s no new money.” Whether talking about national defense, education, human services or, closer to home, deteriorating sewer lines and transportation, the assumption that there’s no new money to pay for things that Americans look to government to provide has become so pervasive that it’s accorded the respect of a truth.

In fact, nothing could be further from reality. In good times and bad, Americans have always stepped up for the things they believe in. When our parents and grandparents came home from two World Wars, instead of whining about hard times and the deprivations of war, they agreed to the most ambitious investments in public education, infrastructure, science and technology in our nation’s history.

The idea that there is “no new money” is nothing but a myth perpetuated by those determined to reduce their personal exposure to the cost of maintaining the American way of life.

This is not a recent phenomenon, but rather the resurgence of an extremist point of view that goes back more than 100 years. It’s not surprising that the movement has resurfaced to take advantage of this volatile time in history. What is surprising, however, is the extent to which the movement’s impact has influenced elected representatives at all levels of government.

Curious about the impact of the tea party and similar movements on local revenue initiatives, the International City/ County Management Association reviewed hundreds of local tax measures, bond issues and referenda from 2010 and 2011. Its findings were surprising. Rather than suffering blistering defeat at the hands of angry taxpayers, fully three-quarters of these initiatives were approved by voters.

Even Hampton Roads’ own congressman, Scott Rigell, who rode into office on the shoulders of tea partiers, recently conceded that tax increases will be necessary to resolve the nation’s budget challenges.

The analysis found three conditions present in successful revenue initiatives:

• A clear explanation of need and priority.
• High citizen trust in the local government or agency sponsoring the initiative.
• Voter access to accurate and timely information that enabled them to make informed decisions.

The analysis shows that taxpayers are willing to pay to get the services they expect government to provide so long as reasonable assurances are made. Elected leaders in Virginia localities, fearful of voter backlash but also mindful of the increased financial demands on localities, can take confidence from the results. And they may lead boldly and confidently if they do a good job explaining and justifying the needs.

As we have throughout history, Americans are willing to take responsibility for maintaining and updating government at the local, state and national levels. Let’s get past the idea that “there is no new money” and get on with building the future.

*******

Chris Bonney is an independent marketing researcher and board member of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement.

Yonah Freemark
The Transport Politic

August 23rd, 2011 | 48 Comments

Last weekend, Norfolk’s Tide light rail line opened to big crowds and lots of excitement in a state that has never before seen modern light rail technology in action. But the project was overbudget and the subject of years of controversy. What was once supposed to be a $232 million line had ballooned in cost to $318.5 million and in the process taken down political leaders who had supported it. Perceived mismanagement delayed consideration of extensions into nearby Virginia Beach. And the scheme’s implementation flaws emboldened conservative activists insistant on playing up the poor performance of government.

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]]> http://hrcce.org/blog/2012/01/how-significant-an-opportunity-for-reducing-u-s-construction-costs/feed/ 0 http://hrcce.org/blog/2011/09/news-release-city-encourages-community-to-help-shape-the-future-of-lynnhaven-sga-at-second-round-of-public-meetings-oct-5-6/ http://hrcce.org/blog/2011/09/news-release-city-encourages-community-to-help-shape-the-future-of-lynnhaven-sga-at-second-round-of-public-meetings-oct-5-6/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:36:31 +0000 HRCCE http://hrcce.org/blog/?p=421

Monday, September 26, 2011 · 11:30 am

The City of Virginia Beach invites the public to a second round of meetings that are integral to developing a master plan for the Lynnhaven Strategic Growth Area (SGA), one of eight urban SGAs identified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan.  As part of a weeklong design charette, the public is invited to an open house on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., to view the work in progress and to talk with the design team as it explores various future urban design scenarios for the SGA.  The open house will be in the pavilion at London Bridge Baptist Church, 2460 Potters Road.  A public meeting is also planned for Thursday, Oct. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the church gymnasium.

In early September, the City of Virginia Beach held the first round of public meetings to receive broad public input on the SGA’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.  These meetings were facilitated by Urban Design Associates and resulted in a set of draft design principles and potential boundary expansions for the Lynnhaven SGA.  The purpose of the October design charette is to refine these principles into future design alternatives for the SGA and obtain more specific public input.

For more information on the Lynnhaven SGA Master Plan, contact Jeryl Phillips in the Planning Department at (757) 385-4621 or visit www.VBgov.com/lynnhaven.

# # #

In an effort to establish tomorrow’s leaders and enhance the quality of life in their city, young professionals in Norfolk have stepped up to take the reins from the “old boys’ club” – or at least help them steer.

The Generation Norfolk project, headed by Meredith Badali and Jesse Scaccia, young residents of the city, came out of discussions by a Greater Norfolk Corporation subcommittee called “Brain Drain.”

Click here to read the rest of the article

BY Bill Reed

A GROUP OF prominent Virginia Beach businessmen advocates a quick, no-frills strategy to ease Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel traffic during peak hours and holidays.

Why? Because the crossing has become a serious obstacle to tourism and commercial interests in South Hampton Roads.

The plan is aimed at lessening 100,000 vehicles-per-day HRBT congestion until the state can finance a third Hampton Roads tunnel, add more lanes to existing approach bridges or build a tunnel connection linking Interstate 564 with the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.

The cost of any of the options ranges in the billions and could take two decades to complete, state highway officials say.

The group, headed by Beach businessman Jerry McDonald, includes Bruce Thompson, a Beach developer and hotelier, and Frank Reidy, an engineer and philanthropist who heads the Center of Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University.

Financed by the businessmen at a cost of $150,000, the four-month study was conducted by Iteris Inc., a California traffic-management engineering consulting firm. It cites aggressive and fearful drivers as the chief reasons for tunnel backups. Structural, environmental and signage issues are listed as contributing factors.

To combat backups, the consultants recommend:

1. Easing the closed-in effect, which scares some drivers entering the tunnel, by removing ceiling tiles and painting the surface black.

2. Installing LED lighting inside the tunnel and using a plastic shade to filter sunlight at the entrances to ease the transition from bright to dark.

3. Painting tunnel walls with soothing illustrations of dolphins or water scenes to ease driver angst.

4. Installing electronic signs inside and outside the tunnel to advise motorists of traffic conditions.

5. Limiting heavy truck traffic to nonpeak hours. In addition, Navy and shipyard officials would be asked to stagger work hours at the Norfolk base and the Newport News shipbuilding facility.

Reidy, in a July 21 presentation to the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association, said the recommended changes could save tunnel users $6 million a year in fuel and travel time and increase vehicle speeds inside the tunnel to 45 mph from 32 mph. The estimated cost of the changes: $8.5 million.

Reviewed by Carolyn Caywood

Local journalist Swift has traced the evolution of American roads over a century of change.  He celebrates the achievements of Thomas MacDonald head of the Bureau of Public Roads from1919 to 1953, and his protege, Frank Turner, who retired from the Federal Highway Administration in 1972.  Whatever the unintended consequences, these men led the greatest public works project in history.

In the 19th century, long distance travel was by train because roads were unmarked, unpaved, rutted mud wallows where they even existed.  The first advocates for better roads were bicycling enthusiasts, some of whom also became early adopters of motor cars, and airplanes.  The first national road was the Lincoln Highway, vestiges of which remain as route 30.  As private road organizations gave way to government highway departments, the role of federal coordination was debated.  Today’s numbered grid was worked out in the 1930s cooperatively with the states.  The famous route 66 got its designation in an argument with Kentucky.

Safety and congestion were already problems in the 1920s and the new breed of urban planners were as concerned with traffic flow as land use.  “As fast as new pavement was laid, it seemed to fill with cars and trucks.”  Gasoline taxes were popular means of financing roads, especially as gasoline prices were falling from around 30 cents a gallon in 1920 to below 17 cents during the Depression.  “People lamented the death toll even as they piled into their cars.  They complained about traffic as they became part of the problem.”  And Lewis Mumford lamented the transformation of roads from connecting neighbors to carrying strangers. It took quite a while for anyone to figure out that the solution to congestion was limiting access to the road and thus creating what we now think of as freeways – roads where cars move freely without interruption by traffic lights or commercial driveways.  Ironically, the man who hit on that idea was also the instigator of the Appalachian Trail.

The 1939 report Toll Roads and Free Roads proposed limited access urban highways in addition to the previous focus on long distance roads connecting cities in different parts of the country.  Implied was urban renewal that would replace slums with freeways.  In the report, MacDonald argued against tolls.  “Roads were a birthright akin to free public schools.”  He believed toll road must compete with free alternatives, causing free roads lose out on maintenance.  Since there was no money to implement the plan, the committee appointed by FDR felt free to plan the ideal system.

Swift states that postwar Americans, “did not have an automotive life foisted on them, they did not buy homes far from work, or forsake mass transit, or pave over their cities because they were manipulated into doing so by Detroit fat cats, or a government-industry conspiracy, or anyone else.”  They wanted interstates right away.  By 1950, impatient state governments began to build toll roads.  Eisenhower appointed a committee that proposed financing with bonds, but Harry Byrd blocked that, boasting that Virginia “hadn’t issued highway bonds since 1835.  Trucking companies opposed taxes that would affect their business till they realized that lack of road improvements were costing them more.  Eventually an combination of taxes satisfied Byrd and the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was passed.

But the roads turned out to be much more costly than predicted.  Limited access roads couldn’t afford to use older highways’ right-of-way and pay roadside property owners for their loss of access.  That’s why we often see the old road running parallel to the superhighway.  Defense was used as a rationale for the superhighways (much as hurricane evacuation is now) and that spawned a variety of myths.  Most controversial were the urban extensions of the superhighways, which Eisenhower claimed he hadn’t asked for.  And traffic predictions were quickly useless as we learned that superhighways create more traffic.  “As fast as they were laid down, they seemed to fill with cars.”  Lewis Mumford castigated them as, “a tomb of concrete roads and rams covering the dead corpse of a city.”  Swift explores in detail the confrontations in Baltimore over the proposed paths of an urban freeway.  Anticipation of property condemnation created blight in some neighborhoods and community activism in others.

Swift concludes that the “$130 billion investment in the interstate highway system” which covers nearly 47 thousand miles is reaching the end of its expected lifetime, so we are facing more than simple maintenance costs.  Meanwhile, the Federal gas tax revenues have been reduced by fuel economy.  Alternative funding methods could be based on miles driven or congestion pricing.  Truck traffic could be segregated to extend the life of auto-only roads.  But, if alternative fuels are not found, none of this may matter.   Frank Turner, a life-long mass transit user himself, recommended buses for their flexibility and opposed light rail including the D. C. Metro.

Understanding why the decisions were made that led to the interstate highway system can help us figure out these current quandaries and plan a sensible future for transportation.  Much as we may deplore the unintended consequences of our highway system, we need to appreciate that we no longer have cities whose streets are paved with horse manure a-buzz with flies.  Swift’s book is an entertaining review of engineers in public service doing the very best they knew how.