Free Ride Friday on The Tide

This Friday at 11am, the City of Norfolk will hold a cerebration in honor of the first birthday of The Tide, the city's light rail system.  As part of the celebration, The Tide will be offering free rides all day.

The Tide launched August 19th, 2011, and is seen as a success so far.  The area's first light rail trains have carried more than 1.6 million passengers in their first 12 months.  The average of more than 5,000 passengers per day is nearly double HRT's estimate of 2,900 per day.

The Tide's success comes despite controversy over its start up.  Construction delays, including one in which flooding washed away part of the track bed, pushed back the train system's launch date by almost a year.  Cost overruns pushed the price tag to $318 million, $100 million over estimate.  Former Hampton Roads Transit chief Michael Townsend was pressured into early retirement because of the delays and cost hikes.

There was also controversy on launch day.  As the first train left the Newtown Road station, a number of protestors, some holding signs reading, "Light Fail," signaled their apparent hope that The Tide would be a flop.

But Hampton Roads residents and visitors seem to like The Tide.  The seven-mile course winds past some of Norfolk's prime attractions, including Harbor Park, MacArthur Center, City Hall and the Norfolk court buildings.  Other attractions, like the Chrysler Museum, Town Pointe Park and Nauticus, are just a few blocks from Tide stops.

In a press release, HRT officials boast about The Tide's safety record, which they say is the best of any start-up light rail system.  There have been a few collisions between trains and cars, but the car drivers were found to be at fault.  HRT aired several public service announcements last year, cautioning pedestrians to be careful near the trains.

The Tide's successful first year is already generating talk of expanding it.  HRT's long term transit study is looking at light rail lines to Naval Station Norfolk, Old Dominion University and the Greenbrier Section of Chesapeake.  Voters in Virginia Beach will consider a non-binding referendum this November on whether the city should pursue light rail.  The ballot measure will read,

" Should the City Council adopt an ordinance approving the use of all reasonable efforts to support the financing and development of The Tide light rail into Virginia Beach?"

Light rail could even cross the water in the future.  HRT's plans would have light rail trains traveling into Hampton and Newport News.  And a spokesperson for Elizabeth River Crossings, the company that will build and manage the new Midtown Tunnel, has told me that one lane of the new tunnel could accommodate a train line connecting Norfolk to Portsmouth.  The Tide's western terminus is about a mile from the entrance of the Midtown Tunnel

The anniversary celebration for The Tide will happen at 11am at the MacArthur Square stop.

On the web:
www.GoHRT.com

The Red Cross Needs Blood Donors

Kristen Hatfield doesn't like to use the word, "desparate," but she says it applies to the situation facing the American Red Cross.  Hatfield is a spokesperson for the Red Cross Mid-Atlantic Regional Blood Services.  She is a regular guest on my public affairs program, Hampton Roads Topics.  Today, she made an emergency appeal for blood donors.

Nationwide, blood donations are down about ten percent from last summer, meaning there are 50,000 less units on the shelves for use in hospitals.  Hatfield says the blood supply in Hampton Roads is at its lowest level in 15 years. Reasons for the downturn in donations are unclear, but Hatfield suspects the scorching hot summer we've endured could be keeping potential donors at home.

Another possibility is that many eligible donors talk themselves out of giving for various reasons.  Tattoos, cancer treatments, and anemia are most often cited for self-deferrals.  Hatfield says Red Cross rules for donors change regularly.  Cancer survivors, for example, used to be banned for life, but now they are eligible to donate after they've been cancer free for a year, she says.  Anyone with questions about eligibility should call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

The local Red Cross has partnered with various sponsors for giveaways to blood donors.  During August, blood donors in the Mid-Atlantic region will receive a coupon for a free hair cut at Sports Clips locations in Hampton Roads (I suggested that the Red Cross find a way to combine the blood donation with the hair cut...both require a person to be seated.  Hatfield said she would work on it.)

To encourage donors to give again, the American Red Cross has created Red Cross Rewards, in which donors earn points each time they give.  Those points can then be redeemed for merchandise.  People who give blood during the month of August will receive double points, Hatfield says.

For information about donating blood, visit www.RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE

Firefox, You're Letting Me Down

If I were writing this post as a Facebook update, it would look kind of like this...

Which is exactly how I'm feeling.  I'm getting aggravated that Firefox, my web browser of choice for over a decade now, is currently incapable of running Adobe's Flash Player, the engine that powers Youtube videos.  It has been going on for months with no resolution.

Any Flash object, be it a Youtube video, an animated web ad, or an online music player like Pandora, either shows up blank in Firefox or displays an error message.  The problem began a few months back when Firefox 13 and Flash Player 11 were released within days of each other.

I keep finding suggestions online that Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, and Adobe have released updates that fix the issue.  But I've had no luck yet, despite the fact that both Firefox and Flash Player are up to date.

I did find a fix that involved uninstalling Flash Player 11 and installing an older version, but that presents its own problems.  My wife, who usually uses Internet Explorer, was unable to view a page yesterday because it required the latest version of Flash.  So she updated Flash, leaving Firefox again unable to use the program.

I have been a Firefox user (and of its predecessor, Netscape) for many years.  I've always considered Firefox sleeker, quicker to load, and easier to use than Microsoft's bloated Internet Explorer software.  Until now, that is.  Firefox, which has been losing market share to Google's Chrome browser in recent months, may lose my loyalty, as well.