Designed Dangerous
Hampton Blvd and 35th St in Norfolk on a weekday morning. Cars and heavy trucks regularly travel well above the posted 30 mph speed limit across its four to six lanes of traffic.
Throughout Norfolk, residents are forced to traverse their city on roads almost entirely without the protection of a meaningful cycling infrastructure network. In concert with sparse public transportation options, this policy choice by the city’s government results in a socially-engineered citywide car dependency and streets that neglect residents. Given its geography, climate, and urban layout, cycling could very well serve as a significant mode of transportation in Norfolk. Few right-of-ways illustrate these shortcomings as viscerally as Hampton Blvd, nor do many other city corridors present such a great opportunity to improve quality of life and transportation options for residents. Norfolk Bike Commuter presents a review of various aspects of Hampton Blvd, its shortcomings, and proposals for the city to make it a sufficiently effective local artery.
Designed Dangerous
Hampton Blvd is a six mile long arterial road running north to south on Norfolk’s east side. Beginning at Naval Station Norfolk it runs south to Brambleton Ave, a major east-west arterial road, and the Midtown Tunnel connecting to Portsmouth’s northwest side. Along the way it connects the Chelsea, Ghent, Kensington, Lamberts Point, Highland Park, Larchmont, Edgewater, Lochhaven, and Glenwood Park neighborhoods. Major destinations on the corridor include the Norfolk International Terminal (NIT), NATO’s North American command, Old Dominion University (ODU), Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and the upcoming Railyard development as well as schools, churches, parks, and a library. This combination of residences, businesses, industry, military, and social institutions leads to a myriad of transportation requirements: Sailors commuting to the Naval station jockey for road space with students; intermodal cargo trucks enroute to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and beyond grapple with residents backing out of personal driveways, etc. Norfolk’s present solution to these disparate traffic concerns is both archaic and uniquely American: a Stroad.
Strong Towns defines the Stroad as a bastardized hybrid of a street and a road. In essence: streets are places people interact while roads connect these places. Streets work best at “human” speeds or approximately below 20 mph while roads operate at “high” speeds above this. As they put it, Stroads are “the futon of transportation,” in that they attempt to be both bed and couch without being particularly great at either. While I’m sympathetic to the humble futon, unlike the Stroad, it has never had the audacity to attempt both of its functions at the same time. The structural failure of Hampton Blvd’s design leads to a complex dance of vehicles from compact cars to big rig trucks rolling through dense neighborhoods at 30 to 50 mph across four to six lanes of traffic, often interrupted by private driveways, parking lots, and large intersections. For bicycles, effectively occupying a space between pedestrian and vehicle, Hampton Blvd is uniquely dangerous. Through my interviews of local cyclists and from personal experience, the refrain is unanimous: “I never ride on Hampton [Blvd] because I don’t feel safe!”
Recommendations for Hampton Blvd and adjacent streets from the 2015 City of Norfolk Bicycle and Pedestrian Strategic Plan: note the lack of protected/separated bike infrastructure and the haphazard, car-centric nature of the recommendations. Unprotected and disjointed designs discourage cycling and elements like “sharrows” make roads more dangerous.
Norfolk has long recognized the various challenges Hampton Blvd poses and has explored various remedies. These undertakings have been coordinated by the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) as well as the Hampton Blvd Task Force (HBTF), neither of which receive much public visibility. HRTPO has, to my knowledge, conducted two studies on Hampton Blvd. Both emphasize the need to reduce truck traffic and improve safety. Nearly four years ago these efforts led to the HBTF, chaired by Norfolk City Councilwoman Courtney Doyle, to propose replacing some traffic lanes with bicycle lanes. To some this solution is counterintuitive, but nearly 100 years of data show that, over time, adding lanes increases traffic while reducing lanes reduces traffic. However, in a short-sighted decision, the task force reversed course and elected not to replace the traffic lanes, further delaying this long-needed change to solve Hampton Blvd’s core issues. While some mitigations over the years may have led to marginal traffic and functionality improvements, Hampton Blvd today remains uncomfortable for motorists and outright hostile to anyone outside an automobile.
Solutions
There are effective solutions to making Hampton Blvd hospitable to non-motorists that meet Norfolk’s transportation needs while appreciating its multifaceted social dynamic. For instance, why should a lunch trip from Norfolk General Hospital to Del Vecchios Pizza, a distance of less than two miles, require a car; or why should a family in Edgewater have to worry about their kids crossing six lanes of high speed traffic just to get to Larchmont Elementary? Over 60% of all personal trips are five miles or less in length – a reasonable distance to ride a bike – and nearly 40% are two miles or less. At only six miles in length and nearly flat there’s no reason why most trips along Hampton Blvd couldn’t be completed easily by bicycle, let alone a more-refined public transit network. Connecting traffic, i.e. out of area commuters and through freight such as intermodal trucks, highlight the street-road dichotomy and Hampton Blvd’s role as a critical thoroughfare. While some traffic should be emphasized and other traffic diverted, there are conceptions of Hampton Blvd that, unlike today, could serve the needs of the whole city.
As a superior form of transportation for human scale applications, especially compared to automobiles, cycling should be near the top if not the primary modal priority along Hampton Blvd. One solution for an acceptable future Hampton Blvd requires protected bicycle infrastructure that connects cyclists to the places they need to go. This in part means that bicycle infrastructure must be integrated into the street and not merely situated near it. To illustrate this point: the Elizabeth River Trail (ERT) winds its way east of, and for a brief stretch along, Hampton Blvd. While a useful transportation corridor in its own right it nevertheless lacks the connective strength or directness of the street itself. In addition to physical infrastructure, changes must be made to the road’s operations to improve its transportation and social capacity. Any major restructuring of Hampton Blvd would also serve as an excellent opportunity to further implement transit in Norfolk. While transit is not necessarily NFKBC’s focus, incorporating these elements is a useful exercise in what Norfolk’s right-of-ways can become. Below are five proposals that should be implemented by the city’s leadership to improve Hampton Blvd:
1. Bi-directional protected continuous bike lane along Hampton Blvd S.
From its narrowest point of 54’ across (between the outside edge of existing sidewalks) to its widest of 130’ Hampton Blvd has no shortage of space for reimagining a healthier and more-effective means of meeting Norfolk’s transportation needs. Hampton Blvd can easily accommodate bike lanes on par with the finest examples in the world while maintaining a minimum of one traffic lane in each direction Any lack of bicycle infrastructure, let alone transit, is constrained not by available space but by car-centric design philosophy. While not ideal, most of Hampton Blvd’s issues could be improved without changes to the current pavement layout: repurposing lanes, adding temporary barriers, and signage or signaling changes could all be made without major construction.
2. Single-direction protected bike lanes flanking Hampton Blvd (alternative to Proposal 1)
NFKBC rendering of Hampton Blvd with single-direction bike lanes and dedicated transit lanes. North of 40th St Hampton is never any less than 100’ across, leaving plenty of room for non-car-centric elements without entirely eliminating general traffic lanes in both directions.
Similar to a bi-directional lane, having a lane on each side following the direction of traffic simplifies intersections and signaling in some instances. Depending on construction this method could be as simple as repurposing the outermost traffic lane and installing planters or jersey barriers or as comprehensive as a freshly-built curb.
NFKBC rendering of Hampton Blvd south of 40th St with repurposed traffic lanes. Decreasing general traffic lanes reduces congestion through the principle of induced demand while encouraging alternative modes.
3. Ban Intermodal Trucks On Hampton Blvd
Regular, high-speed, heavy truck traffic is incompatible with any vision of a Hampton Blvd hospitable to non-motorists. Anecdotally I’ve spoken to at least two Norfolk residents who decided not to visit businesses in Ghent because they feared crossing Hampton Blvd on foot, largely due to fast truck traffic. Recognizing this problem, HRTPO has previously investigated methods to reduce the amount of through truck traffic on Hampton Blvd, only to conclude that the most-effective option would be an outright ban. Intermodal trucks seeking to reach Portsmouth and beyond can just as well take the I-594 Intermodal Connector to the Interstate, infrastructure made specifically for them, largely bypassing the city while driving on heavy-duty roads segregated from social conflict. Less-intimidating traffic, road noise reductions, and cost savings from substantially-lower road wear are all benefits Norfolk could see immediately by banning intermodal trucks on Hampton Blvd.
HRTPO graph showing the efficacy of various truck-through-traffic reduction methods. Solutions to Hampton’s Blvd’s traffic issues have been known to the City of Norfolk for years and don’t require further study to delay their implementation.
4. Reduce the Speed Limit on Hampton Blvd to 25 miles per hour
Hampton Blvd is, at the end of the day, a residential street with major business, schools, and social institutions. While part of its purpose is as a transportation corridor it must do this with respect to human-scale interaction. There is a direct relationship between speed and safety in regards to motor vehicles: the lower the speed the safer the street. 20 miles per hour is about the highest speed cyclists and other non-motorists feel comfortable “sharing the road” with cars. Cyclists and motorists shouldn’t be compelled to share the road with one another given their inherent modal incompatibility, but speeds on Hampton should be lowered regardless to improve traffic flow and improve safety where motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians have to interact.
5. Adopt Protected Intersections and Roundabouts
A protected intersection in the Netherlands featuring a roundabout, dedicated bus lanes, and a convergence of single and bi-directional bike lanes. Note the short crossing lengths for bikes and pedestrians.
Intersections, as the main interaction point between various modes of travel, often make or break a city’s infrastructure efforts. Protected bike lanes won’t fully inspire a feeling of safety for cyclists if at every intersection they are dumped out into unpredictable and inattentive expanses of traffic. Protected intersections, standard in bicycle-centric countries like the Netherlands and gaining popularity within the United States, make effective compromises in layout and space to maximize safety and operational efficiency. Roundabouts likewise have a substantial impact on safety and efficiency but like many other infrastructure treatments in the United States are neglected due to a lack of understanding and misconceptions.
A Street For Everyone
While beneficial if adopted separately, these five proposals implemented together would rapidly transform Hampton Blvd from an inhospitable Stroad people fear to a street where people can thrive all while improving its utility as a transportation corridor. Truly addressing Norfolk’s infrastructure shortcomings requires bold and decisive leadership from elected officials and civil servants, particularly in overcoming misguided opposition that often impedes meaningful capital projects and the snail’s pace of bureaucracy. Norfolk doesn’t need invest in another study nor wait any longer for the safe and meaningful infrastructure we should already have. Real improvements to Hampton Blvd require convincing decision-makers, namely City Council, to make the resource allocation decisions necessary to fulfill this vision. Norfolk can and should be the preeminent cycling city in the United States; turning a road that was designed dangerous into one that serves all of Norfolk is a great first step.
Take Action
Contact Norfolk City Council here
Call/email your respective Ward’s representative
Call/email Councilwoman Courtney Doyle (Hampton Blvd Task Force lead)
Include the link to this article and request their focus be on developing bicycle infrastructure in Norfolk
Express your disapproval of continued road projects that aren’t accompanied with significant traffic calming, road diets, bike infrastructure, and transit development
Participate in the HRTPO public survey here
Emphasize the importance of expanding bike infrastructure, expanding transit, and reducing truck traffic
Contact HRTPO here
Include the link to this article and request their focus be on developing bicycle infrastructure in Norfolk
Express disapproval of continued road projects (widenings, “flow improvements”, etc) that aren’t accompanied by traffic calming, road diets, bike infrastructure, and transit development
Share this article with friends, family and neighbors to raise awareness.
