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Four years ago, after five pedestrians were hit and killed on Shore Drive, the Virginia Beach City Council agreed to specific recommendations to improve safety there.
The report adopted by the council noted that Shore Drive is a "multimodal corridor." It is no longer a road solely for the use of people in cars. The four-lane thoroughfare also needs to be safe for pedestrians, cyclists, in-line skaters and transit riders.
In other words, Shore Drive - the route that hugs the Chesapeake Bay between Norfolk and the Atlantic Ocean - is no longer a highway, if it ever was.
That means the city will have to adjust its thinking about the road and change the way it allows people to use it.
Some of that has already started.
Since 2006, Virginia Beach has installed pedestrian signals at several intersections, placed "yield to pedestrian" signs along the road and improved sidewalks. Last year, the city reduced the speed limit to 35 mph between North Great Neck Road and First Landing State Park.
But people continue to die, at least in part because the city hasn't done enough.
As long as vehicles use Shore Drive as a highway while throngs of people cross it to get to the beach, restaurants or bars; as long as cars fly past runners and cyclists on the way to the state park; as long as the scenic connection between Chic's Beach and the Oceanfront continues to be a fully developed community bisected by a speedway, we will continue to see casualties.
City engineers argue that more speed reductions aren't necessary, that expanding the 35-mph zone to west of the Lesner Bridge wouldn't keep people safe. But it would give drivers - and pedestrians - more time to adjust to the fact that they're on a four-lane road in the middle of a commercial and residential district, not on a highway in the country.
In the past four years, as The Pilot's Aaron Applegate reported recently, five more people have died walking along or across Shore Drive. Alcohol was a factor in some of those deaths but not all. A veteran cyclist was killed there during a ride at dawn last April.
No matter who is at fault, no matter what the circumstances, accidents destroy lives, both inside and outside the car. And that isn't worth 10 extra miles per hour.
As the council considers how best to make the road more safe, it needs to reread the 2006 recommendations of the Shore Drive Safety Task Force. They call for better lighting along the road. More crosswalks. Continuous sidewalks.
And, most importantly, slower speeds.
That's the fastest and least expensive way to make Shore Drive less deadly: Reduce the speed limit to 35 mph between Marlin Bay Lane and North Great Neck Road.
It's been done on a popular scenic road on the peninsula, Colonial Parkway. The National Park Service reduced speeds to 35 mph on sections of the road in 2006 as a preventive measure because so many more people were using it.
Drivers in a hurry to get through Yorktown have the option of taking Interstate 64.
And those in a hurry to get to or from the resort area of Virginia Beach can take I-264 a few miles south.
Shore Drive simply can't be both a major highway and a commercial and residential district. It is past time for the city to recognize that.
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Here's a start
Perhaps there's some way to make it illegal to be intoxicated and be on a public road in Virginia Beach. That would have prevented many of these deaths as effectively as lowering the speed limit, if not more. What could it hurt to try?
Ridiculous
A law that hurts the average local trying to get anywhere...
I've lived on shore drive for years, and I am actually furious over this ruling.
Seriously why are these bicyclist allowed to crowd the streets? I honestly don't know how more aren't hit. There are bike paths and trails all over this city, and yet they insist on riding in the street, often times during rush hour.
It's almost mind-boggling.
Bikes get on the path. Pedestrians cross at a light. Drunks stay out of the road. Keep it at 45.
Like someone said before, it's a HIGHWAY.
Actual impact
Just to let everyone know exactly what the speed limit change will do in terms of time spent driving. I created a map that details the difference between 35mph and 45mph
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106621776302968168764.0004882688eaffd95e720&ll=36.908039,-76.101952&spn=0.047012,0.077162&z=14
This is more for the naysayers and people that have an aversion to the change. It really isn't hurting anyone in the long run. I think this was a long overdue change and I also support the addition of crosswalks and other plans to keep pedestrians safer.
So who took away Duck inn..
From us and replaced it with Ocean View?? You call this Progress??
Enforceability of Existing Laws
Many laws are on the books, but not enforced. For example, the League of American Bicyclists ranked Virginia 50th out of 50 states in enforceability of bicycle laws. I think that if more laws were enforced, there would be fewer deaths on Shore Drive. Of course, we need to lower the speed limit on Shore Drive to 35 miles per hour, and enforce the laws, both in court and by the police. To show how lax our system is, one guy hit someone on a bicycle on Shore Drive on purpose, and the judge gave that person a slap on the wrist. On the other hand, the same thing happened in California, and the guy got ten years for attempted murder.
I agree...
We need to enforce the laws on the books. I would love to have a police task force out there on Saturday mornings writing tickets to all the bicyclists that run red lights, pass on the right, run stop signs, ride three abreast, etc. When you look up the statistics, in the majority of bicycle vs. auto accidents, the bike rider was at fault and it is about time that they start enforcing the laws that many bicyclists refuse to follow.
AMEN!
Not just on Shore drive, but throughout the city. And other cities. The combination of bicycle and ipod headsets is deadly. Now, how do we pay for the increased enforcement effort? Hire new officers? With what? Raise taxes? And duck the folks who think they are already paying too much. Please don't say "Cut out the unnecessary costs", without determining what those unnecessary costs are. If you are going to suggest cuts in services, suggest those services which would affect you, not just "the other guy". I could go on, but the idea is plain.
Are you sure
I thought VDOT determined highway speeds not Council. Further, is every request for a speed limit change going to be granted now? While Council may mean well I really question wether this will help unless they are going to cut down on drinking times at the Shore Drive bars. We are talking about people who suddenly appear on the roadway not someone standing in the roadway. I don't think you can drive slow enough for those accidents to be stopped.
The only realistic way
35
THE ONLY WAY!
The only way to guarantee know one gets hit while crossing shore drive is to have people push their cars instead of drive them.... This is not a dangerous stretch of road, no blind turns and mostly strait. there is absolutely nothing impeding pedestrians view of the cars.
Let us use some common sense: Roads were built for cars. There for, if I am a person walking toward the road I wish to cross, it is more then reasonable to assume their may be cars on it. I think the speed of travel is slow enough, here is my proof by the numbers: Pedestrians rate of speed is less then 1 meter per second giving the average pedestrian over 1 minute to come to that conclusion before crossing the street.
Where does responsibility lye? If Cars were swerving off the road to hit people or running people down in cross walks the answer might be different. Last I checked J-walking is illegal. If I wish to cross the street were there is know cross walk it is my responsibility to do so safely. What most Pedestrians don't get is that when not in a cross walk or at a stop light there is no expectation a driver would or should slow down for you to cross.
Anyone who has lived here for even a