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Virginia Beach Light Rail and Transit


vdogg

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http://pilotonline.com/news/local/transportation/light-rail-advocate-opponent-face-off-in-virginia-beach-debate/article_0e1ecd18-95c3-5857-b856-5a7b8115bc21.html

I think this this so called debate was kind of stacked with anti LRT people, just saying.

On a more critical note..... The caption for the included picture in the article states the train is on W. Bute Street heading towards the Freemason station.....Um, NO!!! It is on the eastbound tracks heading to the Monticello station. Gee wiz, where does the VP get these people. LOL

Edited by lil-bear
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  • 3 weeks later...

http://southsidedaily.com/2016/04/04/virginia-beach-to-make-major-light-rail-decision-tuesday/

It appears tomorrow is the big day. A vote for a memo of understanding is a step forward on the project, though there are certainly many more hurdles to clear. However, show the anti-progress crowd have their say, light rail in Virginia Beach is dead for the foreseeable future. 

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2 hours ago, vdogg said:

Not worried about today, it'll pass 9-2. It's what happens with the referendum that has me concerned.

You called it. Moss and Dyer are the naysayers (Surprise surprise!), with Moss proposing increased buses on the roads every 15 minutes. Why can't this or BRT be an option along with LRT expansion?

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11 hours ago, BFG said:

You called it. Moss and Dyer are the naysayers (Surprise surprise!), with Moss proposing increased buses on the roads every 15 minutes. Why can't this or BRT be an option along with LRT expansion?

Buses are not the answer.... Where do buses go when there is gridlock on the streets? NO WHERE! They are stopped in traffic with all the cars! When will these guys get a clue?

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While I agree that LRT has a more profound economic impact than BRT, BRT buses travel in their own dedicated (often separated via a median) travel lanes, and have onboard sensors that communicate with traffic signals to minimize the time spent stopped at traffic lights.

Edited by VBIllini13
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http://pilotonline.com/news/local/columnist/kerry-dougherty/kerry-dougherty-eventual-fate-of-virginia-beach-light-rail-should/article_1c5954cd-c531-5939-8eb6-79b3582bf685.html

So here is Kerry's column about light rail in VB. I do think this column is balanced, but I think that the commenters are a little un-balanced. One commenter says that LRT will further back-up traffic on Independence Blvd. Do these opponents of LRT realize that the tracks will be bridged over Independence along with Witchduck Road? Uneducated masses following the pied piper AKA John Atkinson.

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10 minutes ago, NFKjeff said:

One of the major differences between BRT and LRT is that although it has dedicated lanes it is still at the mercy of traffic accidents and that type of tie-up as opposed to a fixed track mode.

A question I have about BRT is that if it has a dedicated lane doesn't this take up some of the traffic volume that the streets would otherwise be able to handle. If they are new dedicated traffic lanes for BRT aren't they going to be expensive in their own rite?

That's a great point, and one of many reasons why I overwhelmingly support LRT over BRT. My guess is that either the BRT dedicated lane would require either a reduction in lanes on the existing roads, or a road expansion (which as we have seen in the case of Kempsville Road, can be as hotly contested as light rail :tw_grin:). When people think BRT, they immediately think cheaper, but there are always hidden costs that will come up with any form of transportation (roads, rail, buses, etc.).

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7 hours ago, lil-bear said:

http://pilotonline.com/news/local/columnist/kerry-dougherty/kerry-dougherty-eventual-fate-of-virginia-beach-light-rail-should/article_1c5954cd-c531-5939-8eb6-79b3582bf685.html

So here is Kerry's column about light rail in VB. I do think this column is balanced, but I think that the commenters are a little un-balanced. One commenter says that LRT will further back-up traffic on Independence Blvd. Do these opponents of LRT realize that the tracks will be bridged over Independence along with Witchduck Road? Uneducated masses following the pied piper AKA John Atkinson.

Kerry neglects to mention that it was her good friend, Mr. Atkinson, who caused this whole battle of the generations with his comments re: millennials. Not surprisingly, Kerry also leaves out the fact that she made equally asinine comments in one of her editorials. 

The only reason I won't totally write off her column is because the Pilot has at least had a few pro-LRT editorials in recent weeks. But, it's a lot of her same-ol, same-ol NIMBYism.

Edited by BFG
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11 hours ago, BFG said:

Kerry neglects to mention that it was her good friend, Mr. Atkinson, who caused this whole battle of the generations with his comments re: millennials. Not surprisingly, Kerry also leaves out the fact that she made equally asinine comments in one of her editorials. 

The only reason I won't totally write off her column is because the Pilot has at least had a few pro-LRT editorials in recent weeks. But, it's a lot of her same-ol, same-ol NIMBYism.

Kerry offers nothing to this city or this region. She needs to go ahead and move out to Pungo where she can pick strawberries and yell at clouds.

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On 3/9/2016 at 4:28 AM, vdogg said:

The pilot made a pretty inflammatory post about people who want light rail on their Facebook page.  Let's just say,  they did not choose their audience wisely.  :lol: People are absolutely tearing them up. This is good to see, light rail may have more support than I thought.  At the very least,  their comment and Kerry's article seems to have backfired.

For fun, I added one of those inflammatory posts, she sounds like a complete moron that has probably never experienced a light rail system in her life. We have some people like that here in Portland, but good thing they are very much the minority here and no one listens to them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So apparently there's a discrepancy about how many petition votes are necessary for a referendum. Considering quite a few people have reported the Anti-LRT folks are pulling shady stunts to trick them into voting, I wish that would be investigated as well.

http://wtkr.com/2016/05/02/dispute-over-how-many-signatures-needed-on-virginia-beach-light-rail-petition/

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I was in Town Center last night having some dinner with friends, and the consensus among the group was "Man, I wish they would finish the light rail. We'd go to Norfolk so much more often if we didn't have to drive there and could just hop on a train." Not a single dissenter. Or maybe it was all because they were those stuck up, live-in-mom's-basement millennial military types who want a free ride. :rofl:

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5 hours ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

I was in Town Center last night having some dinner with friends, and the consensus among the group was "Man, I wish they would finish the light rail. We'd go to Norfolk so much more often if we didn't have to drive there and could just hop on a train." Not a single dissenter. Or maybe it was all because they were those stuck up, live-in-mom's-basement millennial military types who want a free ride. :rofl:

Yeah it's definitely feeling like things are changing around here for the better IMO! I actually rode the Tide for fun yesterday morning from Newtown and I was happy to see a few people getting on at every stop! It's a no brainer that if they expand thru TC to the Oceanfront the ridership would break 10K a day on average especially during the warm tourist months. I truly believe that we are set up so well for medium density TODs at a lot of the current and future stations. It would be nice to get the Navy Base line and the Town Center line up and running by 2020/21 and hopefully start to the Arena/ Oceanfront by then. Its weird to me that they wouldnt be in a hurry to get to the Oceanfront... unless the arena project isnt realistically going to be built anytime soon.  

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11 hours ago, varider said:

Yeah it's definitely feeling like things are changing around here for the better IMO! I actually rode the Tide for fun yesterday morning from Newtown and I was happy to see a few people getting on at every stop! It's a no brainer that if they expand thru TC to the Oceanfront the ridership would break 10K a day on average especially during the warm tourist months. I truly believe that we are set up so well for medium density TODs at a lot of the current and future stations. It would be nice to get the Navy Base line and the Town Center line up and running by 2020/21 and hopefully start to the Arena/ Oceanfront by then. Its weird to me that they wouldnt be in a hurry to get to the Oceanfront... unless the arena project isnt realistically going to be built anytime soon.  

I think your last sentence hits the nail on the head. I don't see the arena as viable and would be stunned if this proposal got off the ground. That said, I do wish they would just rip off the band-aid and extend the LR to the Oceanfront anyway (past the convention center and possible arena in the distant future). The longer the city waits, the more the light rail is going to cost. 

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Hampton Roads Transit has decided to purchase three light rail cars for the proposed Virginia Beach extension rather than four, according to documents scheduled for review at an agency meeting Thursday.

http://southsidedaily.com/2016/05/11/after-costs-come-in-virginia-beach-light-rail-extension-to-get-three-vehicles-instead-of-four/

 

The proposed price for the three cars is between $19-21M.

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That article states that the VA Beach city council isn't scheduled to vote on construction of the extension until mid-2017. I admittedly have not been following the light rail extension as closely as I could have been, but is it just me or does that date keep getting pushed further and further back?

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  • 1 month later...

HRT hosted a forum at the Westin, where experts from across the country helped address LRT myths that people had in their cities (Denver, Phoenix, Charlotte, Minneapolis). 

http://pilotonline.com/news/local/transportation/transit-expert-explores-myths-and-misinformation-about-virginia-beach-light/article_7339d9a6-04e2-5888-9033-a8502c4221b7.html

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  • 2 months later...

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