VIRGINIA BEACH
Mariusz Mijal is doing something that would make City Hall wag its finger.
With a Panera Bread takeout bag in hand, he's crossing Virginia Beach Boulevard from Pembroke Mall to Town Center Drive. There's no crosswalk, and no traffic signal, to guide him.
When he crosses the eight-lane boulevard, Mijal said, "I feel like I'm going to get killed."
That's why the City Council asked traffic engineers to come up with a pedestrian safety plan. A $208,000 plan was approved by the council.
"With the success of the Town Center, there is an increasing number of pedestrians, and we want to do something to improve the situation before someone gets hurt out there," said Bob Gey, the city's traffic engineer.
The plan is a bridge to the bridge - a Band-Aid until an overhead pedestrian walkway is built. The overhead bridge is at least three years away.
The biggest part of the plan for now is a wrought-iron-style fence that will stretch along the Virginia Beach Boulevard median from Independence Boulevard to Constitution Drive. Its purpose is to stop pedestrians from crossing midblock and to encourage crossing at intersections with signals.
That will leave a stretch of about 100 yards between Constitution and Central Park without a crossing.
"That's a terrible idea," said Mijal, who works at HBA Architecture & Interior Design. "There has to be a crossing somewhere in this block."
Mid-lock crossing, particularly at Town Center Drive, is a lunch-hour phenomen on, a main reason for the safety plan. The plan would encourage crossing at Independence, Central Park Avenue and Constitution. Constitution would get a crosswalk, crossing buttons and walking-man countdown lights.
One thing that won't change is the length of time for crossing. "There is not enough time," Mijal said, echoing a sentiment around the Town Center. "You really have to run."
Gey said the city doesn't intend for pedestrians to cross the boulevard in one shot. Engineers found that 20 seconds would have to be added to get across all eight lanes. That would rob boulevard traffic of green-signal time.
"The backups to traffic would have been two to three miles long at rush hour," he said.
In addition to the fence, which would be built on both sides of the median - about 4 feet tall - and crossing signals at Constitution, the $208,000 will pay for low-level shrubs within the fenced area.
The work should begin in early 2009, Gey said, and take about three months.
Brandon Tucker was at the Town Center on Thursday, in town for a couple of days from Danville for training with his company, Alltel. The main strip in his Southside city of 50,000, Riverside Drive, is no Virginia Beach Boulevard.
"It's terrible crossing the street around here," he said, winded from one of the soon-to-be blocked sprints across the boulevard. "I'm ready to go home."
John Warren, (757) 222-5114, john.warren@pilotonline.com
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why are we waiting
Can anyone tell me why are we waiting 3 years to construct a bridge??
My guess is someone will get killed before then and family will sue for more than the cost of the bridge.
The Fence
I don't have a problem with the fence. The fact is, people don't take personal responsibility anymore so it's government's job to do it. Sad, huh?
Fences work fine along the strip in Las Vegas to keep people from getting into the street.
What I find crazy is the bridge the City Council wants to build. The folks at the Westin put their bridge up in no time and for a few hundred grand. Not a few years later at a cost of millions.
Not too smart
Am I to assume that when the powers-that-be were constructing the initial ideas and structure of the Town Center area, they NEVER accomodated foot traffic venturing back and forth on that section of the Boulevard?! The end result, no matter how it was decided, was proposterus. For there to be continuity in the processes of Town Center, they have to have pedestrian access features.
20 to 30 seconds would add 2-3 miles of backup?! Uh ok. Wait, on second thought, maybe during christmas shopping season and random other times, but c'mon.
If the guy visiting from Danville thought the Boulevard was horrible, he should never go to NYC or other big cities.
The city isn't concerned
The city isn't concerned with intelligent crosswalk placement... they're just concerned with pleasing their donors.
There's not a crosswalk from the HRT Bus Stop on the opposite side of the street at the Central Library... so kids who take the bus to the library get to dodge traffic to do school work. Good looking out for the children, council.
Despite the proximity of Trashmore, it is nigh impossible to get to Trashmore on foot from the Town Center side of 264. A few crosswalks and some pedestrian friendly sidewalks would work wonders, but why spend the money on infrastructure when we can waste it on a center for performing arts, or a giant statue of Neptune, or a huge video wall at the convention center?
Why...
should the city be responsible for preventing a pedestrian being hit by a car when they are jay-walking? That block between lights is an average city block. Have we become so lazy to tempt fate by racing across VA Beach Blvd? Should a person risk life and limb because it is more convenient to cross mid-block than it is to attempt those extra paces to the crosswalk? Maybe the city should just provide shuttle service to area eateries. Hmmm...didn't realize it was government's responsibility to protect us from our own stupidity. There is a good argument to be made regarding the timing of the lights for the pedestrians, but to install another lighted crosswalk between blocks to accommodate those who are inconvenienced by having to walk an additional half block, forget it.
The real ridiculous part of
The real ridiculous part of this entire crosswalk issue is that the people living in Aragona Village are still without a reasonable way to cross Independence Boulevard into Town Center. Why do we need three crosswalks to cross VB Boulevard when we've been in dire need of ONE at Columbus and Independence?
For that matter, when it VB going to build a crosswalk across VB boulevard to/from the Central Library??
Send that fence to the
Send that fence to the Mexican/Texas border. They need it there. Slow the speed limit down to 25 mph, time the lights better and install large crosswalks.
How dare you....
Parking is ample and free at Town Center. Therefore, if you choose to park all the way across 8 lanes at Pembroke Mall (for whatever reason), you must suffer the consequences of said decision. How dare you ask the fair citizens of Va. Beach to pay to accomodate your stupid and irresponsible behavior.
My Thoughts
On the one hand, the city is discussing putting a pedestrian bridge across VB Blvd. to Pembroke Mall. On the other hand, the City has a transportation plan pending that would demolish Pembroke Mall. Why spend $3.15 million bridging to a building you'd like to see demolished?
Reid eats at the Subway in the Mall? Working in the Mall, the joke is that Subway is "just this side of a Health Code violation". The Chinese place in the Food Court is much better.
Then, once we get light rail built in Virginia Beach, Reid can take The Tide many places to lunch....
Stupid is as stupid does.
Stupid is as stupid does. Blame the current City Council. Reelect no one. Especially the Mayor. Sessoms will not be much better.
The bridge will be a joke.
You heard it here first. The bridge will not solve the problem.
Why? We are a City of fatties and oldies. How will the fatties get up all those stars? How will the oldies march up, across and down those steps, without oxygen tanks? What will be done to accommodate the cripples....elevators? How will that work? Has anyone in government addressed those issues?
For me....I'd do what they do in New York City, where I used to work (on Park Avenue): three lanes each direction and a big, fat, beautiful, grass-covered center isle. We don't need all those lanes at the Town Center....we need more green in the median. OK, so you might have to wait for an extra light sometimes before you make it across; but at least you'd always be safe.
and how much would it cost
...and how much would it cost to put a beat cop there to ticket jay-walkers?
Reid
For once I actually agree with you. Henry taught me to cross the Blvd mid-block for a City Council retreat once and yes, the wider median is safer.
How about a relatively cheap crosswalk light there (instead of the expensive bridge) at Town Center Dr since the city wants us to use a cross walk so badly?
If I'm not up for crossing Va Beach Blvd, I'll let the #36 do that for me (pick up at Dick's or Planet Music - er, excuse me, FYE - and dropp off at K-Mart). It's much cheaper to eat at the mall any day.
PLESE THINK VA BEACH!
If Virginia Beach wants to be a downtown, they need to start thinking like one! I too am a town center office employee, and let me tell you unless you are an executive, eating lunch everyday in town center can get real expensive real quick! That leaves us employees who would like to save money to dash across the blvd to more affordable lunches at the Pembroke mall, or drive elsewhere for that cheap quick lunch fix. Crossing the blvd mid-block is so much easier and less stressful than crossing at the intersections. The timed lights at the crosswalks DO NOT give you enough time to cross. Erecting the fence is just a waste of money, and another attempt from the city to band-aid a problem they should have been fixed before the "planned downtown" was constructed.
what idiots....
I have been in every one of the "top 100" cities (downtown area) in the U.S. None have a 45 mph speed limit right in the heart of it....NONE! "Towne Center" is also one of the few if not the only area of VB that has regular pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks immediately adjacent to cars moving at that speed. Slow the cars down, or are we just waiting to do it the usual way.....AFTER someone, or a crowd, is mowed down??.....
a new downtown
This can be worked around, but it reveals that the all new downtown is not very well planned. It was very much an afterthought. Even a pedestrian bridge over the boulevard is not really the best solution - by consolidating pedestrians, you're adding significant distance to their already long walk. And not everyone will take the bridge. Downtown Virginia Beach was fabricated to give the city a piece of the urban investment pie that has been sweeping the nation. Only, Virginia Beach is so spread out - our courthouse is miles away, and our primary source of revenue (the oceanfront) is also miles away. So what we have is a nice little fabricated district. But it's not going to provide anxious city treasury officers with the dense taxpayer base of say, a downtown Norfolk. If our cities worked well together, each realizing who they are, their strengths, their core competencies - and if they felt comfortable with their identities, instead of each wishing for the other's advantages - then our entire region would be so much better off. Instead we run into problems like this as each city tries to be everything.
Old Enough
to know the reason Va. Beach never had a real downtown. It actually has to do with "Massive Resistance", of the late 1950s.
Well -
Why not put several covered/raised motorized walkways over Va. Beach blvd. Escalator up, moving walkway similar to those in airports, in a covered/raised walkway ABOVE the blvd. that way people will be tempted to relax, take the escalator up, the moving walkway, (with a non motorized path for those who want to walk), and an escalator down, (on each side of course, and maybe even an elevator for those in wheelchairs.
You would have 2-3 walkways, 4-6 elevators, escalators on each side upa nd down for each walkway, all covered so people are not in the elements, heck, you could even have benches and places for people to sit, and sell space for hot dog or lemonaid stands, or coffee stands in small areas of the walkways. Profits from renting the spaces could even help cover the costs/expenses of the walkways.
Oh darn, maybe that makes too much sense.
what a waste
just another means of wasting tax dolalrs in VA Beach . . . . planners should have anticipated increased motor and pedestrian traffic . . . VDOT and city officials letting us down again! when will it ever end?
Town Center in-and-of-itself
Town Center in-and-of-itself is a great idea. Traffic planning has been a nightmare from the beginning from I-264 to Independence to the Boulevard to even the little side streets and even the stopllight setup. Independence and VB Blvd. should have an urban intersection in which one part goes over/under the other. The speed limit at Town Center should be reduced. Pedestrian crosses should have been built as part of the beginning plan. I-264 @ Mt. Trashmore should have begun with an exit into Town Center. None of this was done and it make the entire area a nightmare to drive or walk. We don't need $XXX,XXX studies to tell us this, we just need someone to develop a design to fix it and to implement the design. I certainly know urban planners who don't charge that much to draft up some work. Why does it take 5+ years for the pedestrian bridge? That doesn't make any sense.