One more thing...

One more thing to add to my regional LRT plan. The total projected cost of all six projects that the HRTA is responsible for is over $10 billion dollars. We may be able to get 135 miles out of $4.2 billion, but we can get 312 miles out of $10 billion. That is more than enough to solve our transportation problem in a reasonable, environmentally-friendly way.
In addition, one of the main arguments for expanding out highways is the evacuation factor. Can you imagine 1.5 million people driving out on our current roads? Even expanded, thats still a lot of people, especially when it takes 2 hours to get to Richmond we the traffic IS moving. Now going with the LRT plan, if we connected it to the proposed high speed rail to Richmond (http://www.rich2hrrail.info). This trail would travel at an estimated speed of over 100 mph. That means Norfolk to Richmond in an hour or less. If people were evacuated using mass transportation, we could be evacuated quicker with less traffic on the roads. It would also speed up the process of returning after an evacuation, when interstates resume to normal operating procedures (they switch to an all-lanes-out procedure during an evacuation). It seems that once again, outdated thinking and stubborn pride is tromping over reasoned logic.