Because, light rail, you know…fixes everything

I was the new chairman of the College Republicans at Old Dominion University in the late 1990’s and all excited about our guest speaker – a city councilman from Virginia Beach.

In his talk, this (Republican) councilman brought up the region’s transportation issues. And, if you’ve ever lived in Hampton Roads, you know our transportation issues are legion.

Check out this latest report on one of the worst places in the WORLD to drive:

“An analysis released Tuesday by TomTom — a navigational system maker and tech company known for helping drivers find solutions and detours to traffic woes near and far — ranked Hampton Roads as having the nation’s 31st worst traffic congestion.

“Hampton Roads’ traffic is so bad that it also ranks as 132nd worst of 174 major international metros.

“Statewide, Hampton Roads ranks second, behind Northern Virginia/Washington D.C, (8th worst in the nation), and ahead of metro Richmond (66th in the nation), according to the analysis.”

At least we’re known for something.

But back to the talk. Afterwards, a few of us big-brained sycophants stayed behind speaking with the councilman and started to diagram a light rail system for the region.

We put the hub in Norfolk. Had spurs off to the Naval Station, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and created another tube to Portsmouth. It was beautiful. And extremely inexpensive on the whiteboard.

We were young. We were idealistic. We were stupid.

But we learned our lesson. Took it to heart that this region is as parochial as can be. And that the cost of having such a system would be exorbitant. And, it didn’t hurt that the MagLev (a test project for rail in Hampton Roads) completely failed and became affectionally known around ODU as the “big umbrella.”

Now millennials are starting to get into the act. Apparently 92.5% of those recently surveyed by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce believe that light rail is necessary. And that it will support their lifestyle.

Bah, humbug!

If sitting in traffic for an hour a day one way was good enough for me in the 100F heat of a Hampton Roads afternoon it’ll be good enough for you, punks.

So, here we stand, nearly 20 years later, with a rail system built in Norfolk that, as predicted, does not have enough riders to justify the expense. And what does Virginia Beach council do last night by a 9-2 margin?

Approve the study moving forward on light rail just so they don’t “lose” $150+ million in state funding to advance the project. Bobby Dyer and John Moss voted against the measure.

I almost drove off the road today hearing a local DJ on a mix station saying that this is “progress” for the region.

If progress means hemorrhaging tax dollars to flush down the proverbial toilet, then, I guess we’re on-track. Or off-track, if you will.

Just ask Metro commuters.

Сейчас уже никто не берёт классический кредит, приходя в отделение банка. Это уже в далёком прошлом. Одним из главных достижений прогресса является возможность получать кредиты онлайн, что очень удобно и практично, а также выгодно кредиторам, так как теперь они могут ссудить деньги даже тем, у кого рядом нет филиала их организации, но есть интернет. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi.html - это один из сайтов, где заёмщики могут заполнить заявку на получение кредита или микрозайма онлайн. Посетите его и оцените удобство взаимодействия с банками и мфо через сеть.