THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605160167
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: The Road Warrior
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
Say adieu to the Mustang Trail branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The office, which opened in 1971, will close its doors for good at 5:30 p.m. today.
In its stead, DMV will be opening the doors to a new branch office in Hilltop Monday
The new office features 16 teller booths, a driver photo station and a drive-through window for vehicle registration decal renewals. The office is nearly twice the size of the Mustang Trail office, says Jeanne Chenault, a DMV spokesperson.
There are also six Knowledge Automated Testing System machines where customers can test for a driver's license.
The new office, at 1712 Donna Blvd. just off First Colonial Road at Hilltop (by the McDonalds), will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Folks who need to visit DMV this Saturday can be served at the Buckner Boulevard branch of DMV off South Independence Boulevard. The hours are the same as those listed above.
SNARLS OF THE WEEK
The following people called Road's INFOLINE number with their complaints.
Sharon, Lynnhaven. I'm wondering if there's a place that can tell me what road is going to be worked on at a certain time. I was coming from the Pembroke area last week around 9:30 p.m. and evidently they were doing some work on Route 44 and had blocked off the merge lanes on the INDEPENDENCE on ramp heading east. What you had to do was merge into 55 mph traffic from a dead stand still. It was what I consider very dangerous. I had no idea they were going to be doing this work otherwise I would have taken a safer route. Thanks.
RW: Sharon, the work you speak of is pavement repair. The Virginia Department of Transportation is replacing the concrete in the right most lane from Independence Boulevard all the way to Lynnhaven. If you haven't noticed, the condition of that lane was just horrendous due to extreme temperatures. As a temporary measure the VDOT folks filled the holes with asphalt until workers could come and replace each concrete square, which is what they're now doing between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The work will last throughout the summer.
As for your safety concerns . . . the VDOT folks are doing this work at night so it won't impact thousands of daily drivers. Granted merging into 55 mph traffic is not easy, at 9:30 p.m. it shouldn't be that big of a problem especially on a week night.
Paul Abretski, no address given. My problem's in Windsor Woods at the corner of WATER OAK and WOODLAKE roads. When you're coming down Woodlake and reach Water Oak there's a stop sign and if you stop at the sign, people coming off Water Oak want to take your left front fender off by cutting into your lane.
What's needed there is a stripe painted down the center of the road so that people realize that they're in the wrong lane.
They cut right along the curb sometimes. It's like suicide lane. Thank you.
RW: The typical driver reaction is to swing in close if there's no one sitting there at a stop sign and the area is not heavily traveled. A driver will usually swing wide if someone is there. Road hasn't heard of many folks who intentionally cut close to scare other drivers or to cause accidents. If anyone else would like to call and request a solution to this particular problem, we'll send engineers on out.
Mary Graham, no address given. I'm responding to your article last week and Jeff Kidwell (who called in reference to letting people merge) has given me an opportunity to say what my pet peeve is. When you're in a line of people and traffic is merging down to two lanes and you're going along as slow as you can go, creeping and crawling along, there are always half a dozen or so people who think it's OK to drive on the shoulder or get around you and go way up to the front of the line and then merge in. After I've sat in traffic for 10 minutes to get to the same spot, if they think I'm going to let them merge they've got another thing coming. That's using as bad manners as anybody. Thanks a lot. Bye.
RW: You're not the only caller with this pet peeve, Mary. Several folks thought the situation was supremely rude and most agreed that they took extra measures to not let those kinds of folks in. Road's right in line with that thinking too.
Kerry Cecil, no address given. I was reading your column - I always read it - and that Bill Whitehurst comment about the pedestrians really hit a nerve.
I'm from California and have lived here about a year, and I have never seen such atrocious driving in my life. If I hear one more crack about Californians and their driving, I'll go through the roof. Out here, it's like pedestrians have no right of way. Especially in front of stores like WalMart, Kmart and the malls where there are a lot of children and a lot of family traffic.
It's like pedestrians seem to signal speed up to motorists. Bill Whitehurst sums up the attitude out here by thinking motorists have the right of way and have no respect for pedestrians.
Thanks for your time. I really had to blow off steam because it's been building for a year and Mr. Whitehurst really pushed the right button.
RW: There are a ton of folks out there, Kerry, who don't give pedestrians a second thought. Of course, that changes once the injury lawyer comes into the action. Road tends to be a bit of an extremist. When walking in front of stores where the problem is really bad, Road will take a break in traffic as an opportunity to stand there right in the middle of the road and let everyone who is waiting cross. Road has never had anyone not take advantage of the situation by not crossing and Road has never been run over either. The threat is always there, but so is Road's personal injury lawyer.
Bill Martin, Great Neck. I just want to commend you about taking on the red light runners. I think that's a much bigger problem than speeding or anything else around here. More people, I'm told, are killed nationally running red lights than anything else. The idea about blowing horns . . . I've been doing that for the last couple of years. It's got the additional advantage that you didn't mention in your column - it also warns other drivers that something bad is going on.
I think that's something we ought to start doing - the horn blowing - and I think you ought to push that. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work.
RW: It's definitely a topic of conversation because drivers are just tired of it and so is Road. You can bet Road has every intention of tooting the horn every chance I get. MEMO: Tell the Road Warrior about your motoring problems. Get 'em off your
chest. Call on Infoline, at 640-5555. After a brief message, dial ROAD
(7623). When directed, press 1 to deliver your message, and 1 again to
sign off.
Or, write: The Road Warrior, Virginia Beach Beacon, 4565 Virginia
Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va., 23462.
Don't forget to include your name, address and neighborhood.
by CNB