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Starting next week, traffic will slow on four miles of Shore Drive, the Virginia Beach City Council's unanimous nod to safety on a road where 10 pedestrians have died in the past eight years.
The vote last week was the fastest and least expensive way to make the four-lane road less deadly, and the council, lately a sharply divided group, was smart to speak in a united voice.
The speed limit between Pleasure House Road and North Great Neck Road will be reduced to 35 mph from 45 mph, which will cost vehicles a two-minute delay but may save a life or 10.
Shore Drive may once have been a highway to get from Norfolk to the Oceanfront, but it's now a residential and commercial district teeming with tourists, beachgoers, shoppers, and patrons of the restaurants and bars. It doesn't need to be a highway to death.
City engineers said the speed reduction wasn't necessary, that it wouldn't improve the road's safety, but no one disputes the effectiveness of last year's speed reduction on the section between North Great Neck Road and First Landing State Park.
Drivers traveling at slower speeds have more time to react - a necessary aid given the poor lighting and lack of sidewalks.
Reducing speed can't be the only precaution Virginia Beach takes on Shore Drive.
The city must enforce the speed limit. Better lights and more sidewalks should be in the capital improvement plan. Establishments that serve alcohol should ensure that inebriated customers call a cab or a friend.
Everyone using this corridor along the Chesapeake Bay - drivers, cyclists and pedestrians - has a responsibility to pay attention and to travel safely.
Reducing speed, however, is the best way to start.
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Already a Blessed Improvement
As a long time resident of Shore Drive area, I am thrilled by the reduced speed limit and very grateful to our city representatives for taking this measure. I am also amazed by those who continue to blame the victims in selfishly revolting against this measure that can do so much good for our predominantly residential area. How many minutes in drive time is a life worth? Slow down and enjoy the scenery. Better yet, learn how to drive so that you are not always riding someone's bumper in your hurry to get to the next red light...You might just find that it doesn't take any longer to get where your going at 35 than it does at 45 mph.
The only thing that is going to happen is gangs of jaywalkers
Blocking traffic daring to be run over protected by the invisible wall since childhood has been taught to the masses Instead of Personal Responsiblity! Now they are protected by irresponsible Lawyers and Government.
While there will be police
While there will be police working radar on Shore Drive, one wonders if police will be standing by with breathalizers outside the bars as well. We have to protect people from themselves.
Oh, yeah,
Another thing that would help would be to ease the traffic burden on Shore Drive. How? By completing Old Donation Parkway.
Other Options
Lowering the speed limit on Shore Drive is not the first/only answer. Shore Drive has no sidewalks for most of its length. It has too many crossovers without turn lanes. It has bad lighting. It has only one decent pedestrian crosswalk (at Starfish.)I travel Shore Drive regularly and have most of my life, and a large percentage of the traffic travels in excess of the posted speed limit. Shore Drive also has a bike trail parallel to it for most of it's length, with the exception of the inlet crossing, so there is no reason for bikes to be traveling on the highway. Fencing the median will be necessary to keep the idiots from running across the road wherever they please.
My parents taught me to cross at the corner and look both ways first. What happened to common sense?
Thank you for the continued press
It is absurd that some people have written that they think this was a negative decision and a 25 MPH Speed Limit is next. Also, when the data is made public, people will see drunks crossing Shore Drive was never the issue. Speed, driving distracted, poor decision making and more all contributed. Finally - killing the image that Shore Drive is an interstate needed to die. Not more people. If you don't want to help make Shore Drive safer - go around.
When the data is made public?
If the data is not yet public, how do you have access to it? And if you do not have access to it, how can you use it to support your opinion?
I distincly remember the news reports stating the teacher who got killed had just left a bar, so it seems at least one of the deaths had at least a tenuous link to alcohol.
Okay, I'll bite. How many
Okay, I'll bite. How many of the 10 people killed over the last 8 years were sober?
Actually They're Too Stupid to be Idiots
Now if we could only curb the Idiot bike riders.
yeah those bicyclers
Yeah those Bicyclers are a menace. Why can't they use the bike trails the city provided. I think the city should make bicyclers either use the trails provided or be licenced and heavally taxed or be ticketed by police for not having a bicycle license and failure to use bicyle trails provided. I know of at least one accident involving bicyclers. Let's get them off the road. I don't ride my bike on the road I use all the trails and have no problem with that. And I do not support the cities plan to build a new bike trail down shore dr. The bicycles will still use the main road. Look at Great Neck Rd. The bike trail goes all the way down it, but the bicyclers refuse to use it