St. John's students continue their citizen journalism project. Read Jared White's piece on public transportation.

“Some days it’s good, but most days I wonder if people even know there is a bus to get on.”

It’s a Monday morning on Hampton Roads Transit bus number 20 for Reggie, 53 a veteran bus driver. An elderly man finds his seat along five other locals quietly riding to work. Reggie is candidly commenting to anyone who wants to listen on the number of cars he sees clogging up the roads every day.

“I usually pick up the same people every day,” he says. “It’s gotten to the point where I’m getting to know them pretty well.”

In the age known for its constantly rising gasoline prices, global warming, and ever-worsening traffic issues, public as well as alternate means of transportation need to be recognized as beneficial remedies in Hampton Roads. Not only can they greatly free up road ways and help to combat gasoline prices, but they can positively affect the environment and potentially benefit personal health.

“I have been biking five miles to work for five years now and I love it,” says Jamie Carter, 35, Chesapeake. “With the exception of a rainy day I feel great about it,” she says, noting that she has been late only one day due to an unfortunate flat tire.

One of the most overlooked aspects of public transportation is the potential savings to commuters. With the price of a gallon of nearing $3.00, sitting stationary in traffic becomes a costly venture. In Hampton Roads, a bus ticket for an adult is $1.50, a flat rate that permits free transfers. For frequent riders, passes are sold, lowering the price of a single ride.

Somewhere around a tenth of the population takes advantage of the Hampton Roads transit system, busses being one of over fifteen services offered annually. Nationally, the demand for, and use of, public transportation has been steadily growing. Meanwhile, in the Hampton Roads area, traffic seems to be a recurring complaint. It’s the great question “why is there all of this traffic, and what is going to be done about it?”

Michael Perry, Vice President for Operations of Hampton Roads Transit, says “If every city, major or not, would begin to engage in a process of eliminating the personal automobile as a constant necessity, we could begin to see [transportation] issues solving themselves in the coming years.”

More than one hundred people responded to an unscientific survey about the affect traffic has on their daily life in Hampton Roads. More than three-quarters indicated traffic was a problem. Additionally, more than three out of five people said traffic was their largest stress inducer on an average day. Slightly more than 80 percent felt that little was being done to remedy the traffic problem in Hampton Roads.

The words “Hampton Roads” is increasingly becoming synonymous with the words “traffic headache.”

Jose Ramirez, 35, from Maryland, has been coming to Virginia Beach for summer vacations with his family for the last ten years. This may be the last year because to him it’s just not worth the trip if he’s going to sit in his mini-van all day.

“The oceanfront is a joke. It has just gotten worse and worse each year and we probably won’t come back,” says Ramirez.

And in Chesapeake, the comprehensive planning team, which plans ahead for the coming decades, shut down a proposal to install bicycle paths along existing roadways and communities. A team member who did not want to be identified states that detractors attacked the plan as too costly. It appears that many measures such as widening streets, moving cables and abandoning other development projects were not in the cards for the city.

“A plan to incorporate paths for [alternate means of transportation] in future neighborhoods in Chesapeake will be looked over in the coming months,” she says.

Meanwhile, when it comes to avoiding traffic headaches, citizens must begin to work with what they can find when it comes to alternate transportation.

“Bike lanes should be part of the plans for future communities,” says Linda Drummond, 51 of Chesapeake. “I would like to see biking become a larger part of the transportation pie.”

Drummond says the traffic situation in Hampton Roads has only gotten worse each year for the last 20 years. This past year she did her Christmas shopping in June so that she didn’t have to deal with the pain of trying to get around during the holidays. “Living near an interstate exit and behind a major mall gives me little hope in regards to traffic problems,” she says.

Although Drummond likes biking, she is in the minority. Only one in five that same unscientific poll of Hampton Roads residents say they would bike to work instead of driving, if it was practical. Of those who would bike, 24 percent stated that the primary reason would be to help the environment. More than two-thirds said traffic would be their primary reason while only two percent gave health benefits as their chief motivation. However, the vast majority indicated that biking was not currently a part of their commute because they did not feel safe on roadways.

Greg White, 46, of Chesapeake says, “Am I expected to ride my bike in the grass, alongside a highway, between the trees and the guardrail to save the earth?”

So, citizens are willing and wondering when Hampton Roads cities will take definitive measures to encourage biking. At the same time, citizens can take more advantage of existing “smart alternatives” for their commuting. From the paddle wheel ferry that runs on natural gas to high occupancy vehicle lanes, we do have choices that can help the traffic situation as well as the environment. In Hampton Roads, public transit vehicles run on alternative fuels which pollute less. With more passengers on busses and ferries, there are fewer cars and thus less traffic.

In the meantime, Reggie keeps the bus moving, but the load is often light. “The way I see it, for every person that’s sitting on my bus, that’s one less car on the road,” he says. “I don’t mind seeing the same people every day, but yeah, it’d be nice to see some new faces.”

Jared White, 24, of Chesapeake is an ODU Student

More stories from St. John's students:

Old Williamsburg, New Challenges, by Stephanie Calway

Not Just Studying Anymore: Life in the Navy ROTC, by Krysten Warren

The Quiet Side of Sex, by Ashley Jarvis

Not just studying any more: Life in the Navy ROTC, by Krysten Warren

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