CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Heaven Jones, of Chesapeake, is about to begin her Freshman year at Norfolk State University. She was heading back to campus after getting off the Tide Light Rail Wednesday.
"It's more convenient. it's cheaper, you don't have to spend gas money as often," she said.
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Jones told News 3's Jay Greene she'd like to see more options when it comes to getting around between Chesapeake and Norfolk.
Expanding transit access. That's the goal of Hampton Roads Transit's Connecting Chesapeake Project Study. It started last year and tries to identify the most effective ways to move more people around faster.
The study area includes the Summit Pointe area near Volvo Parkway.
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According to Hampton Roads Transit, the Moving Forward Chesapeake 2035 Comprehensive Plan and 2050 Master Transportation Plan show a need for a "multi modal transportation system to support regional mobility and accessibility for Chesapeake residents."
"High capacity transit has been identified in a lot of the city's planning efforts. So a lot of our plans want to align with where the city is growing. So it makes sense when the city is planning where their land use visions are going to be, that's where high capacity transit, or some form of transit should go to if that's where people are going to go," said Sherri Dawson, HRT's director of transit development. "We want to provide an alternative service so they don't have to drive to work, go to medical appointments or school."
This week, HRT presented four alternatives of what high-capacity transit might look like in Chesapeake. Here are the options.
- Option A: It's pretty direct from the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center to downtown Norfolk. It goes up battlefield Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue. It's going to serve one of HRT's transfer centers at Liberty and Seaboard, and go up Campostella. It would stop at NSU's station.
- Option B: This option also starts at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, but serves the Summit Pointe and Greenbrier areas and then to Military Highway and the Indian River Road Corridor. It also terminate at NSU's station.
- Option C: It starts at Summit Point then goes up to Battlefield and serves the Liberty and Seaboard Transfer Center in South Norfolk, and terminates at the downtown Norfolk transit center.
- Option D: Goes up I-64, and also serves Liberty and Seaford Transfer Centers.
Dawson told Greene most commuters have favored Options 'A' and 'C' because they are the most direct.
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What's not included in these plans are the modes of transportation. Those modes will be added over the next couples of months and the plans will be presented to the public again for feedback.
"The next time we come out to the public, we'll have the mode identified," Dawson said. "We'll have ridership projection and planning level cost estimates.
Modes include buses similar to the 757 Express system or a connection to the Tide Light Rail service. There's also something known as Bus Rapid Transit or BRT.
A BRT line, which operates in Richmond, is similar to a trolley system where a bus has its own lane, but it makes fewer stops.
"It serves major employers, major activity centers and carries more people than the bus does," Dawson said.
HRT plans to go Chesapeake City Council with the plans next year. Any plan that;s approved, according to Dawson, would take at least 10 years to implement.
There are two more options for the public to provide feedback on these plans. One will happen from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Robert Hall station. There will be another on Aug. 24 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Farmers Market at Chesapeake City Park.
