Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Norfolk Naval Base Traffic

Remember the opening traffic scene in Office Space?  Where Peter is sitting in traffic and the man in the walker is making better time than he is in the car?  That was me this morning.  A woman was walking (not jogging) up the Lafayette River Bridge at the same time as I was driving.  She not only finished the bridge when I was only at the top going down the other side but she got such a big lead that I never caught up with her.  

The traffic situation going into Norfolk Naval Base has gone past ridiculous.  Ridiculous is too weak of a word to describe the situation.  It has now shifted to ludicrous and is beginning to approach out-fricking-rageous.

It should not take me an hour to travel less than four miles. 

Here's a couple of ideas that could be implemented almost immediately:

  1. All Gate 2 traffic could be inbound in the morning.  Outbound traffic is already closed.  Man the outbound gates and have traffic come in those gates.  There is plenty of room to merge.
  2. Double the guards on Gate 5.  The traffic can not move through quickly enough and backs up on Hampton Blvd which then backs up for miles.
  3. Turn off the lights on Taussig Blvd.  Don't allow people to cut through the NEX parking lot and keep the traffic following straight off 564 directly into gates 1 and 2.
This isn't a particularly complex situation.  We aren't launching the shuttle here.  The variables are relatively constant.  A couple of minor adjustments and people (like me) won't spend unnecessary time in the car wondering if the people running the show aren't in fact related to these guys:

2 comments:

  1. Don't worry, I'm sure you will be able to take the Tide for a few weeks before you retire.

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    Replies
    1. E,
      Ha! I don't which is worse: sitting in traffic for an hour or riding public transportation that doesn't go anywhere and has the added bonus of costing the city millions in subsidies for the foreseeable future.

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