NO WAY
It seems a great many people find comfort and encouragement in reading about several method being considered which might be used to bring about a measure of containment pf some of the excess traffic which now complicates travel and the movement of commerce on Interstate 81.
Two such plans have been set forth repeatedly bit neither plan seems to have gathered enough support to outshine the other. Both are temporary “Band Aid” treatments to be applied to some deep-rooted evils which will continue to fester and which will become dominant again in short order.
Both plans suggested rest on the concept of simply widening the road by additional lane which, it is thought will be limited to truck use. I traveled section up the Valley to Roanoke last Monday, and it is obvious that even average truck traffic can be profitably moved on a single lane even if it is all their own. Monday is considered to be a "light" traffic day in I-81 but , even then it is obvious a single truck lane would be a joke. Another point is that of making I-81 a toll highway. Truckers dislike that feature as do the rest of us. The higher rates charged for truck use will prove to be a book-a-rang the builders will regret having suggested. Before too long, if present disagreement is allowed to fester, I think we will see a day on which trucker will unite in a massive demonstration to protest toll charges. One such day do it, too. The argument has been set forth that they don't want to pay the suggested toll they can travel by other routes. If, on one day, truckers would schedule all north and south runs for that one day only for Route 11, the resulting congestion for that highway and the towns all along the way. Let's hope it does not come to such a ";day of demonstration" because, even as just a one time thing, it could prove to be dangerous and costly for many.
I still maintain that solution to the I-81 overuse problem can best be solved, for a decade or two, just as was done before. The construction of I-81 helped lower volume of traffic on I-95 and a new north-south interstate highway from the Raleigh-Durham area through the Lynchburg and Charlottesville areas staying on the east side of the Blue Ridge into Maryland, would be a far more, efficient and sensible way of north-south access routes which are so essential.
Such a plan was suggested a year or more ago, and ignored.
Isn't it time to take another look at it?
A.L.M., November 26, 2003 [c488wds]
