Have you written a letter to City Council asking them to resurrect the SDSTF? 

Posted unedited with permission:

Dear Vice Mayor Jones and Council Wood,

My name is Steve Zeligman and I am a Virginia Beach resident. I am also president of the Tidewater Bicycle Association (TBA), a 650 member bicycle club. Many of TBA’s members also reside in Virginia Beach.

I am writing because TBA would like to express it continued concern regarding safety for bicyclists and pedestrians along the Shore Drive corridor. In December 2005, the Virginia Beach City Council established the Shore Drive Safety Task Force (SDSTF), which benefited from Councilman Wood’s participation, as well as the involvement of other current Council members. The SDSTF was established to specifically advise City Council with respect to safety issues along Shore Drive and to recommend short, mid and long term safety improvements. TBA would like to join Grace Moran and the Shore Drive Community Coalition (SDCC) in requesting the City of Virginia Beach consider reinstituting the SDSTF to recommend solutions to current safety issues plaguing the Shore Drive corridor.

It has been publicly argued on the Virginia Pilot website that Shore Drive is a major corridor that should be reserved solely for motorized traffic. This can be disputed by the fact that Shore Drive transverses through several residential and beach front communities, and the number of people who have been injured and killed while trying to enjoy the neighborhoods they call home. It is TBA’s position the new 35 mph speed limit should become permanent and additional safety improvements, as recommended by a reinstituted SDSTF, be seriously considered as well.

As Virginia Beach grows, traffic congestion will continue to increase unless alternative methods of transportation, such as bicycling, are encouraged by providing on-road bicycling facilities to do so safely. For example, if Shore Drive were upgraded with appropriate on-road bicycling facilities, numerous cars would be taken off the road and out of congested parking areas at Little Creek NAB, Ft Story and the Oceanfront because it would become safer for local residents to become bicycle commuters.

Additionally, new shops and eateries and eateries could become a great magnet to bring hundreds, possibly thousands, of bicyclists to the Shore Drive Corridor if adequate on-road bicycling facilities existed to make the trip a safe one. This would enable Virginia Beach to compete with our neighboring cities, such as Norfolk and Portsmouth, which are already incorporating on-road bicycling facilities into their city rejuvenation projects. Businesses in these cities are already enjoying increased revenue from bicyclists and young professionals relocating to these cities because they use bicycles as their primary form of transportation. It is even possible that Virginia Beach could eventually host a major bicycling event similar to the first annual Coast Guard City Century, hosted by City of Portsmouth this coming August – yet another potential new source of tourist revenue. Of course this would require coordinated planning efforts and interconnections with other projects, such as a Laskin Road Gateway if it were upgraded to become bicycle friendly.

The five foot sidewalks, that Virginia Beach tends to favor for bicycles, are not a viable solution to increase revenue or encourage the additional bicycle traffic and events that would bring new tourist dollars into our city. Wide sidewalks are great for a family ride around the block, but they will never decrease automobile traffic or encourage alternate forms of transportation. They are also part of the obsolete concept that travel along Shore Drive MUST occur in an automobile. Other local cities have already begun to rejuvenate by changing this paradigm and encouraging bicycling as an alternative form of transportation that removes cars from their roads and congested parking areas. It is time for Virginia Beach to enter the 21st Century and do what we can to take cars off our congested roads.

TBA realizes that creating on-road bicycle facilities is expensive, yet roads such as Shore Drive can be made more bicycle friendly for minimal expense. Bruce Drees, TBA’s Legislation and Advocacy Committee Chairman, advocates that Virginia Beach should include painted shared use arrows, or “Sharrows”, in MUTCD terminology, on key roads that are already used by cyclists, such as Shore Drive.  His supporting reasons are that planned roads of insufficient width for cars and bikes to safely share a lane. Bicyclists are already legal users of existing roads. They will also be present as legal users of the rejuvenated roads. MUTCD “Sharrow” markings do a much better job of alerting motorists to the presence and legitimate use of a road by cyclists compared to traditional signage. Additionally, a reinstituted SDSTF could be charged with the responsibility of making recommendations that will make our roads safer for all users.

Sincerely,

Steve Zeligman, TBA President