Long commutes can be dangerous to your health, reports Eric Weiss with the Washington Post. He leads his story with this anecdote: For seven years, Gail Ennis has been spending up to three hours a day behind the wheel of her Subaru, commuting between her law office in Washington and her home on Gibson Island…

Mike Toalson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, vows to fight the impact fees permitted by The Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007. The metropolitan dailies have overlooked this obvious follow-up to the legislative duel of the decade. Fortunately, we have the Culpeper Star Exponent to report the story.…

As road-building action in Northern Virginia shifts to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, Eric Weiss with the Washington Post profiles that long-obscure body now finding itself in the limelight. The organization’s main accomplishment to date has been to publish “TransAction 2030,” a $16.6 billion wish list of road, transit and trail projects for the region.…

I found early reports and analyses of The Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007 to be so confusing that I assigned journalist Peter Galuszka to summarize the land use components of the bill. The thrust of his story filed today: Very few people, not even developers or local government officials, fully appreciate how…

“Generally, in politics, when you change your positions or your image, the only people who believe you have changed are the ones who used to like you and don’t anymore. The people who used to dislike you, who you are trying to appease by your metamorphosis, don’t think you’ve changed at all and generally still…

Arthur C. Nelson, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, has re-written one of the most commonly used “rules of thumb” used by the planning profession: the idea that pedestrians are willing to walk no more than 10 minutes, or a quarter mile, to reach a transit destination. For years planners have argued that…

Local elected officials in Northern Virginia say they are likely to approve a regional transportation financing package that could raise more than $400 million a year for local improvements, according to Timothy Dwyer with the Washington Post. Two-thirds of the nine NoVa localities must approve granting the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority power to impose a…

Mayors and council chairmen representing seven of 12 Hampton Roads localities say they support, or lean toward supporting, creation of a regional transportation authority to raise taxes and fees for transportation projects, reports Tom Holden with the Virginian-Pilot. At least seven of 12 municipal governments representing at least 51 percent of the area’s 1.5 million…

Controversy is brewing over a $75.6 million project that would expand westbound Interstate 66 in Arlington from two lanes to three over a 10-mile stretch. The main foe of the project: Arlington County. As Eric M. Weiss reports for the Washington Post, project supporters say the roadway has become a regional chokepoint. Widening the road…

Except for the mutual backslapping, the lawmaking is over. HB 3202, the Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007, is now law. House Speaker William J. Howell is touting the bill, not without reason, as the most significant legislative initiative on transportation introduced since 1986. The Republican caucus came into the session desperately needing…