Hampton Roads: America's Most Underrated Metro. (Norfolk, Arlington: loan, houses, to buy)

[Colorado_Caroline]

Coming from Denver, I believe there is. Too many cars, not enough road.

We need more roads!!

[cityboi757]

No. We need LR extensions.

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

No. We need LR extensions.

This is one thing I will certainly agree with you about. I think we need a major light rail network that is large enough and powerful enough to relegate automobiles as emergency only options, and allow most people to abandon the expense of a vehicle altogether, and replace it with a much cheaper metro card.

Building more roads everywhere is just going to make an insane confusing mess.

[snosurfa7]

Um, I never said we should not further develop our already "urban metro areas, i.e. Norfolk." I just said we should stop trying to build stupid "city centers" everywhere...heck, for a time, they were even going to build a "city center" in Moyock!?

Living in a small metro area has its benefits. Good airport, reasonable breadth of activities depending of what you like, etc. And traffic is not all that bad except for the tunnels compared to other metro areas. And it is easy to get anywhere out of town fairly quickly with the exception of a few areas. But to try to make here like NY? NY, in my own opinion, is a nasty mess that I would never want to reproduce and/or reside - but hey, don't take offense, to each their own. However, this isn't NY, never will be thank goodness for that. If you like NY move to NY. If you like Danville move to Danville. I like it here, I like it how it is, that is why I am here so don't tell me to move to Danville - go back to sipping your chai tea latte city boys.

And whether you like it or not, this area has a lot of rural character as well which makes it unique. Which is why I stay here, I love it here, the diversity of landscape and options of things to do. And unfortunately (or fortunately) there will be a clash of development ideals because of this.

And here's an idea - since everyone is SO impressed with light rail - everybody who rides light rail gets to pay the extra $100 million dollars overbudget for this project! What a wonderful idea...starting to sound like ODU's monorail project from years past...I do hope the light rail succeeds though, it is a good step; however, I love cars/trucks, I love working on them driving them you can't take away my vehicle no way...

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by snosurfa7

And here's an idea - since everyone is SO impressed with light rail - everybody who rides light rail gets to pay the extra $100 million dollars overbudget for this project! What a wonderful idea...s

The rail lines will eventually pay for themselves, given they are correctly priced, and extend far enough to attract a large ridership.

Remember, the cost for the original tracks, stations and original trains is sunk. The fairs people pay will be continuous. The only ongoing cost will be maintenance and train employee pay and any interest on bonds or loans used to pay for the trains.

However, just a little bit of math for you though. Imagine a metro card costs $50, and they can manage to convince half a million people to ride a month. 50x500,000= 25 million dollars a month. Now you tell me how long you think 100 million would take to pay back at 25 million bucks a month revenue? A few years?

Whether or not light rail makes sense is indisputable. The only possible argument against it would be mismanagement by regional authorities.

Originally Posted by snosurfa7

however, I love cars/trucks, I love working on them driving them you can't take away my vehicle no way...

Noone wants to take your car away. However, many people will likely voluntarily get rid of their automobile if trains make more sense. For instance, something like 70% of all NYC residents do not own a car. Its not because there is some law against them, its simply that people just ride the train, and have been riding it so long, that whole generations of New Yorkers never even have been behind the wheel until they leave the city.

[billybobwv]

Originally Posted by Nebat

Agree that HR seems to get overlooked all the time. It's the largest metro to not have pro sports or theme restaurants or a nice skyscraper to define the skyline. At least it's getting the light rail.

On another note, I think the whole state, outside of NoVa, is underrated. I'm not sure how people can keep perpetuating stereotypes that don't really exist on a large scale.

I agree with you that HR is often overlook, heck how many times have nationwide TV news networks like CNN or even USA Today say "...from the TOWN of Virginia Beach...." ?

Yes, the lack of a pro-sports team is one BIG reason for the area being overlooked but there are other factors too. The airports for example. Few non-stop flights. Sure one can fly from Norfolk non-stop to places like Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas and a few others but try to find a non-stop flight from Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, California to Norfolk. Impossible !! Louisville's airport offers non-stop service from that city to Denver why not Hampton Roads?

Another factor ( though not nearly as big as airports and the lack of pro-sports ) is believe it or not, the local Hampton Roads media market. For some very odd reason I have seen posts on other sites like radio-info.com for example where people assume that Pat Robertson has this "control" on what is seen say on WAVY or WVEC. In other words if WVEC decides to pre-empt a show for some reason, people are quick to assume that WVEC had received a call from Pat Robertson and there are still people who to this day who really believe that Roberston "had a hand" as far as what music has/had aired on local stations like Z104 or the old WGH. Yes..I am sure Pat Robertson listens to Z104..yeah right ..but still people assume Pat has this control.

[sbullet]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

There's nothing wrong with the road network. Please explain.

There are not enough roads, and the existing roads are terrible.

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Actually, the crime is not horrible. For a metro this size, the crime is extremely low.

I hear about shootings and stuff on almost a weekly basis in Norfolk. The physical size of an area is completely irrelevant. A city can be more or less dense.

Originally Posted by cityboi757

No. We need LR extensions.

Are there plans of building extensions? This is actually the first time i heard about the light rails and am quite excited.

[cityboi757]

Originally Posted by sbullet

Are there plans of building extensions? This is actually the first time i heard about the light rails and am quite excited.

Here's a video of our trains in Norfolk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fcjNfsOApI

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Light rail across the water, while being cheap, may not be the best approach.

Here in the Bay Area, we have heavy rail in a set of two tubes under the floor of the Bay. Peak crossing speed is 83 MPH. I doubt light rail can run that fast. In order for a rail crossing of water to be effective, a high speed is key.

The other thing we have here are multiple freeway grade crossings. As follows:
1) Bay Bridge - 5 lanes in each direction
2) San Mateo Bridge - 3 lanes in each direction
3) Dumbarton Bridge - ditto
4) Richmond - San Rafael Bridge - ditto
5) Golden Gate Bridge - 5 lanes total, variable bi directional flow.

Additionally, there is a currently unused heavy rail bridge awaiting strengthening, slated for another crossing.

Stupidly, the so called "Southern Crossing" (a freeway bridge and a second set of BART tubes) connecting from San Mateo to Alameda County was nixed due to environmental activists who feared it would drive growth in the East Bay and now is too expensive to implement.

Even with all this we are too fragmented.

Hampton Roads shall have to get very serious about its crossings in order to have a hope of good cohesion.

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by sbullet

I hear about shootings and stuff on almost a weekly basis in Norfolk. The physical size of an area is completely irrelevant. A city can be more or less dense.

By size I meant population. Noone cares about the physical size, and I cant even remotely comprehend why you would believe that I was referencing such a pointless fact.