HR Partnership | March 17, 2010

by Chris Bonney, owner of Bonney & Company, an independent marketing research firm

For years our region has been content to let its public transit infrastructure dwindle to the point that it is used only by the poor, the handicapped, the elderly and others who have no other choice. In some ways, we are a victims of our own affluence. The price paid for suburban sprawl is low population density that makes it difficult to provide cost-efficient public transportation.

But, in fact, our poor public transportation system is doing us even greater harm, particularly as we work to create a reputation for our region as a dynamic, progressive and fluid place to do business.

The other night my wife and I had dinner at a friend’s home with a young man from Chile who is doing research at Jefferson Lab and taking classes at Christopher Newport University as part of his Master’s degree program. He will only be in Hampton Roads for six months. Yet he is attempting to be part of our community in the same ways he was when he studied in Switzerland and France. As time allows, he attends local events and plays in two of the region’s smaller symphony orchestras.

This young man has a modern, international perspective and a bright future. He will “go places” in life. He will take and spread impressions of the Hampton Roads region with him wherever he goes in the world.

Unfortunately, the impression he is getting about our region is that we care very little about those who do not have or wish to use automobiles…. Read more…

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Transportation | No Comments »
Tags: Hampton Roads, Sense of Place, Transportation

HR Partnership | March 17, 2010

by Missy Schmidt, Communication Manager, Hampton Roads Partnership

From WTKR-TV3: New survey ranks Hampton Roads 4 out of 100 when it comes to car dependency, and Hampton Roads drivers know a thing or two about sitting in traffic. A new survey gives high marks to drivers stuck in the Hampton Roads traffic jam. Men’s Health’s Motor Cities, USA Poll gives the Virginia Beach area an ‘A-’ on its list of most car-crazed metro areas. Hampton Roads ranks number four on the list of 100 areas surveyed.

The magazine looked at the number of people who used the government’s Cash for Clunkers program, the amount of money spent on car care and repair, and the availability and usefulness of public transportation.

Most traveling in Hampton Roads requires a trip over a bridge or through a tunnel, or both, suggesting those in Hampton Roads are more dependent on their cars than drivers in other areas. <end WTKR>

I took a look at this article in depth and found it very interesting as to who our “peer” metro areas in car-craziness were:

#1 – Arlington, TX
#2 – San Jose, CA
#3 – Sioux Falls, SD
#4 – Virginia Beach, VA (actually the Hampton Roads MSA)
#5 – Anchorage, AK
#6 – Salt Lake City, UT
#7 – Charlotte, NC
#8 – Austin, TX
#9 – Fargo, ND
#10 – Riverside, CA

While Hampton Roads has certainly compared itself to the likes of Charlotte, I doubt that anyone would have thought to compare the region to sparsely populated areas such as Alaska or the Dakotas.

Unfortunately, Men’s Health didn’t bother to use a real picture from the region; instead showing what appears to be a Pacific coastal shot of a winding road with small mountains and thunderous waves. The old convertible pictured was pretty cool, though.

This survey / article is one more example of the Hampton Roads region’s identity crisis, not to mention the public transit issues. It’s been said on more than one occasion: if you are in a Port/maritime- or DoD/defense-related industry anywhere in the world, then you know Hampton Roads. Not so much with other industry sectors.

SmartRegion: we’ve got work to do.

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Tags: Hampton Roads, Sense of Place, Transportation

HR Partnership | February 27, 2010

The Small Business Administration and the Office of the Secretary of Defense sponsored a workshop on January 25^th and 26^th at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel for a recently announced Robotics Technology Cluster initiative. Hampton Roads is one of three regions participating in the pilot initiative. Southeastern Michigan and Hawaii are the other two. The Michigan cluster focuses on ground robotics, Hawaii’s on undersea robotics. The Hampton Roads cluster focuses on port and harbor security.

This cluster aligns with the strategic vision of the Hampton Roads Chapter of Autonomous and Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) professional group and the regional Robot Venture initiative sponsored by the Hampton Roads Military & Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA).

Over 240 participants heard key note talks from Congressmen Glenn Nye and Randy Forbes. The workshop included several panel discussions on resources available to the small business and robotics communities both on a local and a national level. Presenters represented the Department of Defense (DoD), the Small Business Administration, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and other regional stakeholders. After listening and questioning the presenters and panel members, attendees participated in group breakout sessions where ideas and strategies were gathered to identify port and harbor security focus requirements.

The six breakout topics covered: Comprehensive port and harbor security, emergency management, sensors fusion, alternative energy, manned and unmanned systems integration, and workforce development through a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics focused education approach. Discussions were facilitated by subject matter experts in each topic area, and the majority of participants attended up to four different topic sessions over the two day workshop. Feedback from the workshops will be used to create a framework of action for the robotics cluster going forward.

Presentations from the workshop are available on the Robot Venture website: www.robotventure.org/rvinformation.html. More information as the cluster activity progresses will be posted as well.

by Program Managers Bill Piersol, Robot Venture, and Andrew Sinclair, Hampton Roads Partnership; Photo credit: U.S. Navy

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Category: Military Bastion, Research & Technology, Transportation | No Comments »
Tags: Hampton Roads, HRMFFA, Military Bastion, Navy, Port

HR Partnership | February 21, 2010

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis.

Congestion consumes billions of gallons of fuel, wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and causes billions of stress headaches. Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option. “We put so much of our national wealth and our identity into the whole motoring thing,” says James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere, “that we can’t imagine doing something different.”

Anthony Downs, author of Stuck in Traffic has identified four reasons for America’s congestion problem, also applicable to most European and Asian economies:

• first, most of us work during the same hours of the day;
• second, the country’s economic success has allowed households to buy multiple cars;
• third, there are more people now than when most roadways were conceived;
• fourth, more cars means more accidents which means more delays.

In other words, this problem isn’t going anywhere. …

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Transportation | 2 Comments »
Tags: Hampton Roads, HRTPO, Transportation

HR Partnership | February 15, 2010

by Missy Schmidt, Communication Manager, Hampton Roads Partnership

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce met for its annual “Chamber Day” at the Capitol in Richmond on January 27th, an event designed to promote grassroots involvement with the business of the legislature especially in matters that affect commerce and economic prosperity. Professional lobbyists aren’t the only ones who can have a voice with the General Assembly (GA) in Richmond thanks to the World Wide Web and great online resources like the Commonwealth-provided http://leg1.state.va.us and the privately funded RichmondSunlight.com. And, groups like the Virginia Chamber help facilitate face-to-face engagement.

George Washington statue, 1788, in the Capitol Rotunda – Richmond, Virginia

I had the pleasure of joining the Hampton Roads Chamber’s LEAD Hampton Roads (LHR) group on their trek to Richmond for the day, the largest of the state’s regional contingents. High speed rail (HSR) and getting Hampton Roads on “The Main Line” was the message for day from members of LHR’s Class of 2010. They lobbied passionately in the halls of the GA to…

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Category: Government & Citizens, Transportation | No Comments »
Tags: General Assembly, Hampton Roads, Virginia

HR Partnership | February 12, 2010

“There was a time when American investments in infrastructure and a willingness to plan long-term powered the growth of the most dynamic industrial economy on Earth.” That’s a bold statement from “Blueprint America,” the PBS series on the nation’s infrastructure which aired here in Hampton Roads on February 8th.

This episode, entitled “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City,” may be focused on the original “Motor City” Detroit, Michigan. But, the program title is an obvious double-entendre… with transportation infrastructure focused on moving beyond the automobile.

“National planning in this country is widely believed to be an un-American activity, an exercise in bureaucratic hubris best left to the French. In fact, national planning is as American as the family farm, the transcontinental railroads, the great hydro-electric dams of the South and West, and the interstate highway system. Not only were these and other characteristic elements of our culture and economy the product of national planning; the federal government itself was created in large part to overcome the barriers to national planning that existed under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, I would argue that no other nation has been so profoundly planned as the United States,” says Professor Robert Fishman, University of Michigan.

While the documentary focused on one city’s rise, fall, and budding renaissance, namely Detroit, Michigan, of interest was the discussion of rail: its history, its future and innovations in engineering and in financing.

It was noted that railroads are what defined and connected America in its early years. Abraham Lincoln was a great proponent of railroads, and he carried out the transcontinental railroad portion of the Thomas Jefferson-inspired Gallatin Plan in the 1860s, in a time of crisis, i.e., the Civil War, when the country was under threat of being torn apart permanently. The Gallatin Plan embodied perhaps the most revolutionary vision of any national plan: the creation of a truly democratic society through the planned settlement of a whole continent.

In just six years, the Atlantic and Pacific were linked by rail cutting travel time from coast to coast from 6 months to 6 days.

Growth of railroads 1840-1880

The first great national plan bears the name of Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, although his 1808 “Gallatin Plan” owed as much to Jefferson himself as to Gallatin.

Indeed, it was the very success of the Jefferson/Gallatin vision through the 19th century that prompted the second campaign of national planning, which began exactly a century after the Gallatin Plan in 1908 with Theodore Roosevelt’s great conservation initiatives.

Looking at successful rail projects in Europe, the documentary highlighted Spain’s success:

“The countries that have seen the most growth and are the most harmonious are those – always – who have had the best infrastructure. And those that don’t have these types of solutions find themselves in a slow decline in their importance and their weight in the world,” according to ildefonso de matías, Managing Director of the Metro de Madrid.

AVE 200MPH electric train, Spain

In the last 25 years, Spain developed its high speed rail network and now boasts the most modern infrastructure in Europe. Transportation infrastructure was Spain’s “Man on the Moon” project. Six of the top 10 infrastructure companies in the world are now located in Spain. And, Spain’s on track with their goal of 20% of the country’s power from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Watch the entire documentary.

For a transcript and video of the PBS NewsHour report on Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, visit http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/jan-june10/detroit_02-08.html

Visit this Blueprint website link for more information from Professor Fishman.

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Category: Economy, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Tags: Hampton Roads, Military Bastion, Rail

HR Partnership | February 10, 2010

$1 Million for Craney Island Included in President’s Budget

from the Port of Virginia; for larger, downloadable images, click on each graphic

The development of Craney Island Marine Terminal has taken another step forward as $1 million for the project has been included in the President’s proposed 2010-2011 federal budget.

“This, we believe, clearly demonstrates the Obama Administration’s commitment to this strategic project,” said Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “Our thanks goes to the White House and to Virginia’s delegation on Capitol Hill that pushed for inclusion in the budget. Reaching this point required tremendous effort and we truly appreciate it.

“When you look at this project as a whole, it will be very good for Virginia and the national economy. It will create jobs and taxable wages near- and long-term, and reduce the cost of getting goods to the store shelves.”

A study conducted in 2005 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the long-term benefit of building Craney Island Marine Terminal would be savings of $6 billion that would not have to be invested by the federal government in large transportation infrastructure projects. The study says the project would generate 54,000 jobs with wages of $1.7 billion and local tax revenues of $155 million.

“There is no doubt that this project is important to The Port of Virginia, with benefits well beyond the Commonwealth,” said U.S. Sen. Jim Webb. “The President’s budget demonstrates a commitment to continued federal investment in the development and expansion of Craney Island. At the same time, we continue to believe that the merits of the project argue strongly for federal funding at levels even higher than those proposed by the President.”

Construction of the Craney Island Marine Terminal is a $2.2 billion multiphase project that will result in the newest, most modern marine terminal in the United States: a 600-acre complex encompassing 8,400 linear feet of berth space, 20 Suez-class cranes and an on-terminal intermodal (rail) container transfer facility [ICTF]. The marine terminal will be built in three phases over the next 20-25 years and upon completion have capacity for at least 2.5 million TEUs.

“I am pleased that the President’s budget recognizes the economic importance that the development of Craney Island has for Virginia and the nation,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner. “This vital infrastructure investment will create thousands of jobs in the region and enhance our competitiveness in the global economy. While this proposed funding advances the expansion effort for Craney Island, I will continue working with my colleagues in the Congressional delegation to press for additional federal support for this initiative.”

Work on the first phase is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2011 and finish in 2019 or 2020. This phase includes 220 acres of container yard, 3,000 linear feet of berth space, eight cranes and the ICTF.

“Expanding Craney Island will have huge benefits for Hampton Roads and our national economy and this funding demonstrates that the Administration is committed to making this project a priority,” said U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye.

The Virginia Port Authority (VPA) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, reporting to the state Secretary of Transportation. The VPA owns and operates four general cargo facilities on behalf of the state: Norfolk International Terminals, Portsmouth Marine Terminal, Newport News Marine Terminal and the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County. The terminals are operated by Virginia International Terminals, Inc. (VIT) the non-stock, non-profit operating company. The VPA, through terminal earnings generated by VIT, is operationally self-sufficient. The VPA and correlating maritime industry is responsible for 343,000 jobs, $41 billion in total revenues throughout the Commonwealth.

Ever wonder how this new terminal will be built? See this presentation by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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Category: Economy, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Tags: Economy, Hampton Roads, Transportation, Virginia Port

HR Partnership | February 5, 2010

Reposted from the Port of Virginia’s blog: Edward L. Brown Sr., the long-time leader of the Atlantic Coast District of the International Longshoremen’s Association, died Friday Feb. 5; he was 84.

Brown spent 50 years on the Hampton Roads waterfront with the ILA, and during that career spent time solving problems and negotiating on behalf of the union from Maine to Texas. Many who knew Brown and sat on the opposite side of the table from him are quick to remember one of his favorite sayings as a negotiator: “We are in the middle of the couch.”

“I think his dedication to the ILA, and in particular the men and women he represented here, will never be matched again,” said Roger Giesinger, president of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association. “Ed led this Union to greatness with his forward-thinking and his ability to make decisions when they were not popular to all his members. Typically, these decisions were not only the right decisions, but decisions that created more jobs and more money for ILA benefits….

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Category: Business Community, Transportation | 2 Comments »
Tags: Hampton Roads, HRP, Labor, Port

HR Partnership | January 29, 2010

“The real story is how many people showed up tonight; there’s real passion in the region for high speed rail. This is the most important decision in Hampton Roads for the next 50 years.” — Attendee

We're on board with High Speed Rail…

Over 500 regional residents, public officials and private citizens alike, jammed into Norfolk’s Half Moone Cruise Terminal on the evening of January 28^th. Only negative comment heard during this Virginia Dept. of Rail and Public Transit’s (DRPT) federal hearing? Not enough seats! The crowd was standing room only!

What is the economic impact of bringing high speed rail to Hampton Roads? According to Mike Barrett, Chair of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance (HREDA), it’s $3 Billion and 30,000 jobs. As the 36th largest metropolitan area, this region deserves high speed rail. “Proximity equates to prosperity,” said Barrett. “We will see immediate return on investment from day one.”

New DRPT Director (and former Virginia legislator and U.S. Congressman), Thelma Drake, arrived late to the event due to a disabled car in the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT). Drake explained that the mission of the DRPT is to expand the state’s transportation choices and increase mobility, adding that tonight’s crowd should show the federal government how critically important this project is to the citizens of the region.

Norfolk City Mayor Paul Fraim welcomed everyone and mentioned the announcement today of the $8 Billion in first-round awards for the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program and how Virginia fared. (see White House Press Release)*

Read the full summary here, including public comments…

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Business Community, Economy, Government & Citizens, Military Bastion, Transportation, Visit HR | 7 Comments »
Tags: Economy, Environment, General Assembly, Hampton Roads, Military Bastion, Newport News, Norfolk, ODU, Regional, Transportation, Virginia Beach

HR Partnership | January 29, 2010

Download and read Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC), Hampton Roads Review, Winter 2010

In this issue: Franklin Mill’s Closure Impact on the Region

• Hampton Roads Coastal Resources Technical Assistance Program
• Virginia Stormwater Management Regulations Passed by State Board
• Annual Regional Stormwater Effectiveness Indicators Report
• Norfolk School Awarded HR Green Project of the Year Award
• Wind Energy
• Water We Take for Granted
• How to Recycle Cooking Oil
• Climate Change Research Moves Into Second Year
• South Hampton Roads Disabilities Services Board Awarded Employment Awareness Grant
• Regional Benchmarking Study Released
• Highlights from Governor’s Housing Conference held in the Region
• Healthcare Organizations Emergency Preparedness Seminars Planned
• Hampton Roads Critical Infrastructure Protection Program Initiative
• Pre-Disaster Hazard Mitigation Planning Underway

Download and read Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), Crossings, Winter 2010

In this issue: Hampton Roads’ Share of Stimulus Funding

• VDOT Six-Year Improvement Program Revisions
• HRTPO Passes Resolution Supporting Regional High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail
• Passenger Rail Project Seeks Public Comments
• Update on Stimulus Projects in Hampton Roads
• A Conversation with Mayor Joe Frank
• Regional Safety Study Update
• Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program and the Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) Project Selection Process 2009
• Citizen Transportation Advisory Committee to Kick Off Soon
• Partnering with CNU to Gauge Public Pulse on Transportation Issues
• Limited English Proficiency Plan

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Category: Economy, Transportation | No Comments »
Tags: Economy, HRPDC, HRTPO, Transportation