No simple fix for Pungo road war

There’s a bit of road rage in Pungo, and it needs to stop before somebody dies.

Cyclists who have experienced a euphoric, fast spin along 30 miles of farmland and backwoods — but endured harassment and honking from drivers — cannot understand why drivers won’t yield some space on the road.

Motorists who have driven a winding road behind a pack of 30 cyclists, waiting for a chance to pass safely and watching as the two-wheelers blow past a stop sign, can’t fathom why cyclists can’t just hop on a sidewalk and leave the road to vehicles.

The standoff is nothing new in cities across the country. Vitriol has increasingly replaced civility between drivers and cyclists on the roads of San Francisco, Seattle, New York City and even Vail, Colo.

But in Pungo, still the safest place for Beach cyclists to ride 20 or 50 miles, there’s no room on the roads for rudeness.

The roads are substandard: eight-to 10-foot lanes instead of 12. There’s no paved shoulder, so everyone who travels the backroads of southern Virginia Beach has to share the lane.

That puts responsibility on cyclists to heed the rules of the road, riding on the right, single file, and paying particular attention when traffic approaches from behind.

It puts responsibility on motorists to drive cautiously, not aggressively, around bicycles.

It also obligates Virginia Beach, which seemed so proud of its honorable mention in 2006 as a bicycle-friendly city, to make the roads safer for motorists and cyclists.

City Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson has proposed a modest fix as part of the regular repaving cycle: Where possible, when ditches, utility poles or curbing don’t prevent it, pave shoulders to give everyone on the road a little more room and margin for safety.

Last year, when Mill Landing Road in southern Virginia Beach reopened after repairs, the repaved road’s shoulders were covered with rocks, not asphalt.

Wilson is right to try to keep that from happening again. “It’s not about Pungo,” she said. “It’s about safety in the city. If we have an opportunity to make it safer, we ought to do it.”

Councilwoman Barbara Henley, who represents the Pungo area, wonders where the city will get the money for the extra asphalt, given the limited budget for road improvements.

She correctly points out that cyclists are taking a risk riding on curvy roads that don’t provide a safe way for cars to pass, and that, absent money for bike lanes, the two sides have to work together on road safety.

Virginia Beach has worked hard to keep its green line separating the suburban from the rustic. All of the city’s residents — including those for whom fitness means a bike ride on the back roads — ought to be able to enjoy the benefits of the rural area, not just those who live or work there.

Wilson’s proposal is simple common sense. Incrementally, improve the city’s roads where possible.

Nearly 1,500 cyclists were injured in South Hampton Roads between 2001 and 2007; 20 died. Virginia Beach should do everything it can to avoid adding to the statistics.