transportation

Mid-Atlantic resorts are hoping gas prices spiraling toward $4 a gallon and a cooling economy won't keep vacationers at home this summer -- but they're bracing for shorter stays and less spending on restaurants and entertainment while people holiday.

"People are staying less time,'' said innkeeper Vicki Barrett, who runs a six-room bed and breakfast in Ocean City. "They're not staying for five days or seven days -- they're staying for two days or three days.''

Anyone spending the day this summer in Rehoboth Beach will not have to fish eight quarters from their pockets to pay for an hour of parking in the city's most sought after spaces.

After vocal opposition from property and business owners about a proposal to double the rate for some parking meters - taking them from $1 an hour to $2 - city officials have opted for compromise.

The new meter rate structure, which takes effect the Friday before Memorial Day, creates three parking tiers among prime spaces -- those on Rehoboth Avenue and the ocean blocks -- costing $1.50 an hour.

For the second consecutive year, city officials are looking to take more quarters out of tourists' pockets as a way of adding to Rehoboth Beach's revenue stream and managing downtown parking.

As part of preparing this year's budget, the mayor and city officials are considering doubling the current parking rate from $1 to $2 per hour. Also being considered are rate increases for parking permits and extending the paid-parking season an additional two weeks into the fall.

Visitors to Rehoboth Beach who want to park near the beach will have a new option this summer: credit cards.

The second draft of the 2008-09 city budget also calls for a 19 percent increase in refuse rates and a 50 percent increase for seasonal parking permits.

The city is planning to use a credit card system on all the Reino parking meters on the first two blocks of Rehoboth Avenue. The city also proposes to raise parking meter rates from $1 an hour to $2 an hour. The increase would bring the city around $415,000 in projected revenue, which the commissioners agreed to put into a capital improvement pool that would help fund various projects such as Boardwalk refurbishment, the city municipal complex and wastewater disposal.

Many people are convinced John G. Griffith would be alive today if something as simple as rumble strips were in place along the Route 1 corridor in coastal Sussex.

Griffith, 44, of Timonium, Md., was killed early last July 28, as he worked on his bicycle off the shoulder near the Indian River Inlet bridge. Police said the driver apparently fell asleep, drifted onto the shoulder and hit Griffith, director of Johns Hopkins Fibroid Center for the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He died at the scene.

There is a dividing line cutting Delaware's resort coast almost in half -- the Indian River Inlet.

Keeping those two halves connected is a bridge the Delaware Department of Transportation is working to replace. But shifting soils, cost overruns and close inspections by legislators are complicating and extending the effort.

The Indian River Inlet Bridge is not just used by tourists traveling between beaches, but also for home and business deliveries, emergency and law enforcement agencies and commuter traffic.

The 2.7 miles of white concrete barriers placed along Route 1 between Five Points and Route 24 have become motorists’ worst nightmares.

With work beginning on the median of the Route 1 expansion project, traffic in the southbound lanes has been restricted to two lanes since the second week of August. Three lanes are available northbound.

Business owners along the busy corridor are feeling the pinch caused by traffic problems during the crest of the summer season.

For hundreds of international student workers who come to the Cape Region for summer jobs, bicycling is not recreational; it’s serious business. It’s their only way to get to and from work or go shopping for life’s necessities.

Each summer, as increased traffic creates greater hazards on the roads, the International Student Outreach Program of the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches helps coordinate the efforts of many church volunteers, businesses, organizations and agencies to help promote cycling safety.

Several Sussex County agencies teamed up to keep bicyclists safe on the roads.

It's all a part of the Bike Safety Fair in Rehoboth Beach. People of all ages came to the tents and came out with free helmets and lights for their bicycles. Everyone who attended also received a quick refresher-course on basic bike safety tips. Children were told to stay on the right side of the roads and also schooled on proper hand signs when cycling.

June

4th (Monday) 7:00-9:0 AM @ All Saints
7th (Thursday) 5:30-7:00 PM @ Our Savior
13th (Wednesday) 7:00-9:00 AM @ All Saints
13th (Wednesday) 5:30-7:00 PM @ St. Edmonds
18th (Monday) 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM @ Ocean Atlantic
25th (Monday) 8:00 AM @ All Saints
25th (Monday) 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM @ SR1 Safeway
28th (Thursday) 2:00-5:00 PM @ SR1 K-Mart
28th (Thursday) 5:30 PM @ Our Savior