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This report analyzes comprehensive highway access management programs and looks at the potential benefits and legal limits to Virginia adopting such a program to replace Virginia's rather limited site specific permitting process. In 1942, Virginia passed legislation defining the right of private homeowners and commercial establishments to make connections to state highways. Va. Code $33.1-197 (private entrances) and $33.1-198 (commercial entrances). The statutes established a permit process for commercial and private entrances to state highways, administered by VDOT in accordance with the Minimum Standards of Entrances to State Highways. However, the Minimum Standards do not establish a comprehensive access management plan for Virginia's highway systems and have been criticized for being too permissive. In 1980, CoIorado became the first state to enact a comprehensive highway access management code, with strict safety and traffic criteria for private accesses to public highways. Since that time, Florida and New Jersey have also adopted comprehensive programs. However, Virginia's access management process continues to be a case-by-case permit review process. This report considers the relative benefits of access management, analyzes the legal obstacles in Virginia for a comprehensive program and discusses options Virginia might consider. The report also includes an analysis of Virginia's legal and regulatory framework within which an access management program would operate and two alternative models for access management regulation to assist policy makers.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 351 examines issues involved in acquiring access rights along roadways other than freeways. The report documents the state of the practice with the intent to limit the amount of access to the roadway for the purpose of managing highway safety and mobility. The report documents successful practices and current policies, legal and real estate literature, and other publications that address this subject.
In order to develop performance measures to communicate the effect of Virginia's access management program, five tasks were performed: (1) the appropriate literature was reviewed, (2) a catalog of potential performance measures was developed, (3) potential users of the performance measures were surveyed, (4) promising measures were tested, and (5) measures were recommended. The literature review yielded a catalog of 42 potential performance measures. These measures are based on five goals and nine objectives related to the desired outcomes of the access management program. The five goals are reduce congestion, enhance safety, support economic development, reduce the need for new highways, and preserve the public investment in highways. Seven objectives are design elements: reduce conflict points, provide adequate distance between signals, provide adequate distance between unsignalized access points, add medians and two way left turn lanes, add dedicated turn lanes, restrict median openings, and use frontage roads and supporting streets. Two objectives are administrative elements: to enhance cooperation between agencies, and plan for future development. Professionals engaged in access management provided their views regarding aspects of performance measures. Performance measures that reflected improved safety, measures related to goals, and measures related to design elements were favored. The literature review and comments from VDOT staff and other professionals yielded 23 candidate measures that were tested for ease of data collection and computation. The results showed substantial variation in the time required to estimate each measure. Five criteria were used to determine performance measures for implementation: (1) Does VDOT control the measure? (2) Is improvement likely? (3) Is the measure an outcome, output, or input? (4) Does the survey support the measure? and (5) How much data collection effort is required? Each of the 23 measures was evaluated against the five criteria, and 7 measures were selected for review and refinement by the steering committee. Five performance measures were recommended for implementation: crashes per million vehicle miles traveled, percentage of signals with spacing at or above standard distance, percentage of commercial entrance permits issued that meet access management standards, percentage of median openings with left turn lanes, and percentage of localities with a corridor access management plan. Appendix A describes how each of the five measures may be computed.
Federal and Virginia laws restrict the width of commercial vehicles traveling on interstate and federal-aid highways to 102 inches (8'6") without a special permit. Virginia regulations generally allow the issuance of special permits for loads up to 14 feet in width. Loads greater than 14 feet may be shipped only in exceptional circumstances. In addition, loads with buckets, blades, or scoops must be disassembled whenever the bucket, blade, or scoop exceeds 102 inches. This report examines the state hauling permit regulations for over width loads and the routine operation of the Virginia Department of Transportation's Hauling Permit Office. It describes the reasons for the width restrictions, safety concerns of the Virginia Department of Transportation's Permit Office, available data on over wide load shipments, and the concerns of the Commonwealth's Port Authority and the prefabricated housing industry that the regulations may be overly strict and excessive compared to other states. Also included are data and regulations from several states bordering on and/or economically competitive with the Commonwealth. The report lists three options for the state to amend certain of the hauling permit width restrictions or to maintain the status quo. The description of each option also includes the probable benefits and costs associated with it.
In April of 1987, Congress passed the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987, which allows the states to raise, without penalty, the speed limit on interstate highways outside of urbanized areas with a population of 50,000 or more. This study estimated that an increase in the rural interstate speed limit in Virginia would have both positive and negative outcomes.-The average speed traveled on the rural interstate highway system has already increased by 3.6 mph in Virginia; this is comparable to that experienced in states that have raised the speed limit. However, if the speed limit on the rural interstate highway system is raised from 55 mph to 65 mph, it is estimated that in the short run the average speed traveled on the rural interstate will increase by an additional 3 mph, from 60 mph to 63 mph. Increased speeds would be expected to result in increased stopping distances and an annual increase of between 6 and 18 fatalities and between 171 and 405 injuries. Further, injuries would likely be more severe as a result of the higher speeds traveled. If the average speed continues to increase in the long run, or if higher speeds spill over onto the urban interstate highway system or rural collector roads, then additional injuries and fatalities would be expected on those systems as well. On the other hand, the primary quantifiable benefit of the higher limit would be a savings of 1.3 million hours in business and commercial travel time. This study has also found that almost 60% of the Virginians surveyed would prefer a 65 mph speed limit to a 55 mph limit on the rural interstate highway system. Finally, because of the current speeds, the geometric design, and the accident history of the rural interstates in general, it would be possible to raise the speed limit without violating traffic engineering tenets for setting speed limits. However, if the speed limit is raised, establishing a truck speed limit differential below the limit established for passenger cars would promote increased speed variance between cars and trucks, thereby creating a more dangerous environment than if the speed limit were raised to the same level for both cars and trucks.
This report analyzes the compensation issues that arise when government seeks to curtail, by modification or restrictiion, free access between private property and the public roads. There is considerable variation in the way governments approach access compensation. Some states maintain broad authority to regulate access under the police power, allowing the government to do almost anything short of leaving propertyy stranded. Other states require compensation for "unreasonable" restrictions of access even if a property retains some access to the road system by other means such as a service road. This report focuses on access compensation primarily in the context of Virginia's regime.