Beach officials, safety advocates divided over Shore Drive

VIRGINIA BEACH

Is Shore Drive dangerous?

Not really, city traffic engineers say. Many roads are worse, reports show. The 45-mph speed limit is appropriate, and adding crosswalks and traffic signals could cause more problems, they say.

"It's phenomenally safe," said Robert Gey, the Beach's top traffic engineer.

Families of the dead see it differently. To them, and increasing numbers of other people, the road is dangerous.

"How many people have to die before something is done?" Scott Hulce asked. His daughter, Whitney, 25, died last month after being struck by a car on Shore Drive.

"It seems like a common-sense thing," said Tami Jones. Her son, Arnold Lee Jones, 21, was killed on the road in October.

Ten pedestrians have died in the past eight years on the 11-mile road that stretches along the Bay before ending at the Atlantic Ocean.

Hulce and Jones are part of a growing movement – partially fueled by a community Facebook site – pushing for changes on Shore Drive.

The burgeoning group wants speed limits lowered to 35 mph from 45, more crosswalks, better lighting and a flashing beacon system to help pedestrians cross the busy road.

They're planning events at Shore Drive restaurants to raise awareness, flooding the City Council with e-mails, making rubber bracelets that will say "Save Lives on Shore Drive," and hoping to print cocktail napkins for restaurants cautioning patrons of the road's danger.

Tension between the dueling perspectives – obvious at a recent series of community meetings – will play out this summer as residents and city officials grapple with what, if anything, to do. A safety task force created in 2005 after five pedestrians were killed on Shore Drive will probably be reconstituted.

At a recent meeting of the Bayfront Advisory Committee, a City Council-appointed group, member Norman Carrick addressed Jones and her friend Erin Tonelson.

"I'm sorry for your losses, but I'd like to inject some physics into the equation," he said.

Carrick went on to say that lowering the speed limit would not have a significant impact, because the stopping distance for cars would not change much. (The per-second stopping difference between 45 and 35 mph is about 15 feet.)

A visibly stunned Tonelson said, "I'm not even going to touch that."

Apart from being a hot spot for bars and restaurants, Shore Drive is the major east-west corridor in northern Virginia Beach. Depending on the section, 11,000 to 39,000 motorists use the road daily, many traveling to First Landing State Park or the beach.

The challenge from a traffic engineering perspective is to move motorists through the area while making it's safe for cars and people within the corridor.

"It's a huge conflict," Gey said.

David Williams, vice president of the Shore Drive Community Coalition, said it's time to stop treating the road as a major thoroughfare.

"We no longer have a major arterial," he said. "We have a road running through our community."

The city's ranking of dangerous roads – with No. 1 being the most dangerous – puts Shore Drive near the middle. The section where Hulce and Jones were killed is ranked 131st out of 216 roads The formula assigns value to fender benders (1 point), accidents with injuries (3 points) and fatalities (12 points), including pedestrians, then factors in traffic volume to come up with a danger score.

The ranking is a snapshot of three years of data – 2006, 2007 and 2008 for the most recent list. It divides roads into small sections. For example, there are eight sections of Shore Drive, each with a different score.

As a result, it's hard to get a full picture of an entire roadway over a long period of time. There is no formula that analyzes a road's danger to pedestrians.

Safety advocates point to one number: 10, the number of pedestrians killed on Shore Drive since 2002. That's almost one out of every three of the 35 pedestrians killed citywide in the same time span.

"What other number do you need?" Hulce said.

The next-most-dangerous road for pedestrians is the more heavily traveled Virginia Beach Boulevard. Seven pedestrians have been killed there since 2002. On the city's list, Virginia Beach Boulevard is divided into 11 sections with danger rankings from 1 to 206.

Four pedestrians have been killed at the Oceanfront.

Mary Lynn Brown stopped while walking down Shore Drive last week. She's taken a lead role in organizing residents to push for road improvements.

"There are no crosswalks at all," she said, pointing to the left and right. About four-tenths of a mile away in both directions were traffic lights, the nearest pedestrian crossings. "It's way, way too far to expect anybody to legally cross the street."

She stood in front of Cabo Café, the bar that Hulce and Jones left before being killed.

Police said Hulce and Jones were under the influence of alcohol and not in crosswalks when they were hit. The drivers have not been charged.

Brown said people are going to continue to drink along Shore Drive, so improvements need to be made to help people cross.

"That's human behavior," she said. "That's not going to change."

June McDaniels, a resident who has worked on Shore Drive safety issues for years, said: "I always want our drunk people to be just as safe as all the other drunk people. I know that's politically incorrect."

The big push for advocates this summer will be to try to persuade city officials to lower the speed limit to 35 mph.

"That's the easiest fix," Hulce said. "How hard is that? We try to be so smart and educated to figure this all out, but you just need common sense."

Gey said studies show the road is correctly rated for 45 mph.

Last year, a residential section of Shore Drive near First Landing State Park was lowered to 35 mph after homeowners complained about motorists driving fast. That change came from the City Council; Gey did not recommend it.

"We have done the proper analysis, and we believe the posted speed is appropriate," said Deputy City Manager Dave Hansen, who oversees the Public Works Department, which includes traffic engineering.

A subsequent city study showed most drivers are going through that section of Shore Drive at 41 to 43 mph, slower than the 44 to 52 mph motorists are driving on other sections of Shore Drive.

Vice Mayor Louis Jones and Councilman Jim Wood, who represent different sections of Shore Drive, said they would support lowering the speed limit if that's what residents wanted. Support is not unanimous.

"I'm not 100 percent sold on the idea," said Kal Kassir, chairman of the Bayfront Advisory Committee. "I need to have more evidence."

In addition to getting drivers to slow down, advocates want to have the speed limit lowered to give pedestrians more rights. In Virginia, motorists must yield – but not stop – for pedestrians in crosswalks if the speed limit is 35 mph or less. If the speed limit is over 35, motorists have the right of way at crosswalks.

"If it's over 35 miles an hour, they can just run you down, and they won't even get a ticket," Brown said. "Who would think that would be the law? The public thinks they are safe in crosswalks. It's a false sense of security."

Ultimately, advocates said they want the state law changed.

"That street is not like any other in Virginia Beach," Tami Jones said. "It's full of pedestrians, and none of them have the right of way."

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com