THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010312
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 63 lines
Buses are shaking up Olde Huntersville, but Tide-water Regional Transit thinks it has the answer.
For three years, residents along one-way B and C avenues have complained to TRT that they - and their turn-of-the-century homes - get a jarring every half hour when the Route 4 transports wend their way down the narrow streets. They've worried aloud about the safety of children and the loss of branches from the crepe myrtle trees that line B Avenue.
On Wednesday, Olde Huntersville residents will hear what TRT management believes is the solution to the problem.
Meanwhile, it's 1:26 Monday afternoon, and a TRT bus completes a maneuver that, from Bea Jennings' front porch, looks impossible: it makes a right turn onto B Avenue from Church Street.
``Here it comes,'' says Jennings, a retired schoolteacher who lives a short distance from the intersection. She's just finished predicting that at any moment ``you'll see this massive hunk . . . that'll look like a trailer truck coming through.''
It's a glove-tight fit as the Route 4 bus with six passengers wends it way between the row of cars lining the left side of the residential street and the curb on the right. The top of the bus grazes what's left of the crepe myrtle branches overhead.
``And if it rains, you might as well have on your rain coat'' if you're out walking and a bus comes by; otherwise, you'll get drenched, says Jennings over the rumble. And, she says, when the crepe myrtle branches are wet, they're sure to get snapped off by the next bus through.
The bus makes no stops on B Avenue during this run.
At the end of the short street, the bus's left wheels must climb a curb and travel over grass and sidewalk in order to make the sharp left turn onto Sutton Ave.
The transport halts for a passing train on Barre Street, then proceeds down the narrow way. An oncoming rusty red Volkswagen is forced to drive onto the sidewalk to get out of the way of the bus, which has just enough room to fit between the row of parked cars on the right side of the street and the curb on the left.
Jennings says that her house trembles whenever a bus comes through, though she says the situation is somewhat improved with the new pavement recently put down. C Avenue has no new tarmac, and it's a bumpy course.
Jennings says, too, that since TRT began the new route about three years back, both streets have had to be torn up on numerous occasions to repair broken pipes.
Jeff Becker, TRT's service development manager, said Monday that he will present data to support TRT's claim that ridership on B and C avenues justifies continuation of the route. On an average day, he said, 80 people get on or off the buses along the two avenues.
Becker said that TRT will also present a solution - smaller buses - for the consideration of the Church Street-Huntersville Committee. A smaller transport is something that was tried before, but without success, he said, since elderly residents of the area complained that the step on the TRT trolley was too high.
But the smaller buses TRT plans to start using on Route 4 beginning Oct. 20 are ``800 Series'' purchased since the earlier experiment, and they have a lower first step, said Becker.
KEYWORDS: TRT by CNB