Commonwealth Transportation Board Meeting

Earlier, I attended the Commonwealth Transportation Board's meeting at the Regional Boardroom in Chesapeake. I was surprised, actually, because there was alot of regional support for expanding mass transportation. Not just from citizens, but from our elected representatives. Newport News Mayor Frank, the TDCHR, Norfolk Mayor's office representative Ann Odell, and Virginia Beach's Assistant City Manager Hanson all spoke in some capacity to support increased public transportation. I was slightly dissappointed however, that Chesapeake's speaker did not mention public transportation. They may not know this themselves, but there is a large quantity of Chesapeake residents that are itching to use public transportation. Unfortunately, there is none available. According to the APTA, the demographics of American transit riders more closely fits those of Chesapeake than those of Norfolk. More about that in my next post. This goes for Virginia Beach as well. Mr. Hanson spent nearly 10 minutes talking. Of that, less that 60 seconds was devoted to public transportation. Overall, I hope that the CTB decides to cut money from other road projects and not from public transportation.