DATE: Thursday, May 8, 1997                 TAG: 9705080005

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Patrick Lakey

                                            LENGTH:   98 lines

TRANSPORTATION SMART ROADS LET US CHOOSE: CLOGGED BRIDGE OR CLOGGED TUNNEL

My first Hampton Roads cabbie seemed to be a maniac.

He drove me around in October 1984, during my first day here. Under clear skies, we tooled down the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway in light traffic while I sized up the area, wondering if my wife and I would like living here.

My spirits were high, but the driver was red-faced with hatred for tunnels. His hands trembled on the steering wheel.

``You can't get anywhere around here,'' he said, ``because of those damned tunnels.'' He spat out the word ``tunnels.'' He was the only person I'd ever met who hated tunnels. He was, in fact, the only person I'd ever encountered with a strong opinion about tunnels either way.

I twisted around to peer out the back window. I scanned all around at endless flatness. There was nothing in view that anyone could tunnel through.

``My driver's insane,'' I thought. ``Best not to ask about the tunnels. They exist only his mind, or through his mind.''

``The tunnels are blocked all the time,'' he said, again spitting out the word. I gathered that he thought there were tunnels to the right of us, tunnels to the left of us, tunnels ahead and behind. Maybe he thought tunnels were stalking us.

I returned to my home in Iowa a day later, never having passed through a tunnel and assuming the cabbie was out of his gourd.

Or maybe, I thought, he was one of those angry, rude Easterners you hear about. Virginia was, after all, on the East Coast.

Today, of course, I hate tunnels. People visit. They ask, ``How are things?'' I say, ``Those damned tunnels,'' spitting out the last word.

But the problem really isn't just tunnels. It's tunnels and bridges. It's water.

For traffic to get over or under water, it must be funneled through a tunnel or over a bridge, usually on an interstate. It seems that driving directions to almost anywhere in Hampton Roads begin, ``You take I-64 to such-and-such exit. . . .''

When Mary and I were looking for a certain Hampton Roads house to rent, back in 1984, our directions were absolutely typical: ``Go south on I-64, take the East Indian River Road exit and hang the next right.'' We exited I-64 at the right place, crossed an overpass on Indian River and took the next right, as instructed. The next right turned out to be a ramp onto the interstate, taking us back the way we'd come. We'd have kept going on I-64 all the way to the Midwest, except I'd already quit my job there.

Life on Hampton Roads roads is supposed to improve beginning this summer, because we're getting so-called ``smart'' roads. Staff writer Debbie Messina wrote about them in Sunday's paper:

``Using surveillance cameras, road sensors, fiber optics and a vast computer network, traffic controllers will monitor accidents, breakdowns and congestion on 21 miles of interstate. The system will deliver instant information to motorists about road conditions and will ease congestion by improving emergency response time.''

The initial cost? A mere $13 million, 90 percent of it in federal funds.

The U.S. Department of Transportation says smart roads shrink travel time 20 percent to 48 percent, increase travel speed 16 percent to 62 percent and increase freeway capacity 17 percent to 25 percent.

I can't believe we'll ever be that lucky. Smart roads will help. For one thing, some motorists, hearing of traffic tie-ups, might quit their jobs and stay home, reducing traffic a trifle. Another plus: We won't have to guess whether to take the Monitor Merrimac or Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. And if accidents can be cleared more quickly with smart roads, as predicted, that will help.

One person especially happy about having smart roads is Yellow Cab driver and dispatcher Don Green. Now, he said, when a cab driver has to wind through a residential area to avoid highway congestion, there will be proof the cabbie isn't simply running up the fare. The passenger can read computerized signs or hear constant traffic reports over the radio.

``It will make me look like a hero, a white knight,'' Green said, ``instead of a villain.''

Another advocate of smart roads is Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner David Gehr, who said, the public, by getting real-time information, will be ``empowered'' to make better travel choices and thus become part of the solution.

That sounds good. But do you ever get the sense, in these modern times, that even though everybody claims to be empowering you, you aren't getting any more powerful?

How empowered are we if our choice is, say, between a road leading to a clogged tunnel or a road leading to a clogged bridge? I'm reminded of Woody Allen's commencement address at Harvard in which he warned that mankind faces a crossroads. ``One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness,'' he said. ``The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.''

When traffic into Norfolk on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway clogs up, motorists have one option - Virginia Beach Boulevard. That would be a decent option if only a handful of motorists took it. But when hundreds or thousands of motorists switch to the boulevard, it clogs up.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for ``smart'' roads. In fact, I'm for intelligence in general. I'd be for smart trees, if there were such a thing. Also for smart politicians.

Still, we all know what will happen if smart roads speed traffic along. People will move farther and farther out, till even the smart roads clog.

Then we'll need brilliant roads. MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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