The
ongoing debate on transportation has centered on
how much building we should fund. Virtual “wish
lists” have been established by practically
every agency that would have a role in planning or
building, from VDOT to the various local
metropolitan planning organizations (MPO). Given
the current transportation stalemate one question
remains to be asked: Do we need it all? Do we
really need to build everything the planners say
we need?
As
the General Assembly struggles with the new
budget, this is an important question that
deserves an honest answer. What if we could solve
our congestion woes by building only half what the
planners tell us we need to? Or even a quarter? One
thing is certain: We need more roads and highways
to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century
- but do we need every penny that the planners say
we do? Could these wish lists be just that: wish
lists that include projects that will do little
for congestion relief?
Too
often we spend our limited resources on projects
that will do little if anything to ease
congestion. If we spent the resources we have
today in the right way, and build transportation
projects in the right places, we could relieve
congestion for far less than what the
“experts” are suggesting.
One
of the worst commutes in Virginia is Fredericks-
burg to Washington, D.C. While the MPO has made
some calls for widening I-95 and other choke
points within their planning area, much of the
$2.1 billion the MPO wants to spend over the next
20 years would be spent on transit and other
non-road capacity projects including bike paths
and pedestrian facilities.
Given
this one example, we should be taking a deeper
look at our long-range plans throughout the state.
What do these plans actually expect to accomplish?
How do the experts decide which projects make the
cut? Is the plan more of a wish list or a
legitimate approach to removing congestion? We
ought to focus on the critical and necessary
projects and let the “nice to haves” wait for
another day or simply left on the shelf.
Relieving
congestion needs to be the highest priority when
considering projects and options. Among the many
considerations that VDOT uses to rank projects and
decide which ones to move forward with include
putting projects in “economically disadvantaged
areas” to stimulate economic development. In
addition, VDOT identifies “recommendations that
include provisions for other modes of travel such
as bicycle/pedestrian facilities” and notes that
these are “favored” because “they reduce
reliance on single occupant vehicles.”
When
was the last time a commuter from Fredericksburg
walked or rode their bike to Arlington for work?
While
economically depressed areas need roads too, we
shouldn’t spend limited dollars in areas that
won’t help relieve the Commonwealth’s
congestion burden. Furthermore, we should choose
only projects that will have a real, measurable
impact toward congestion relief. This generally
means no bicycle or pedestrian paths.
There
is precedent for this move. Atlanta, with one of
the nation's worst congestion problems, launched a
“Congestion Mitigation Task Force” that, among
other things, passed resolutions raising the
weight placed on congestion relief from 11 percent
to 70 percent in project selection. Further,
Texas’s state and local governments are
assessing the impact of congestion on their
economies and setting specific congestion
reduction targets—using project selection as the
primary driver to achieving those ends.
The
Commonwealth’s limited resources need to be
spent where the benefits are the greatest—where
we move more people and goods. Current
transportation plans place too much focus on
projects that do little to relieve congestion. Too
much money is poured into transit-related
activities that are unlikely to affect growing
congestion; except perhaps only make it worse as
money is diverted away from road building.
Upwards
of half the transportation dollars spent in the U.S.
are spent on transit, which serves about five
percent of the commuters. Significant progress can
be made if we simply altered our spending
decisions — more funds should go to projects
that benefit more commuters.
Given
this and the continued need to reform or “fix”
VDOT, one must seriously question the need for
additional taxes. If relieving congestion is the
real goal in the current budget battle, we can
come a lot closer to solving that problem for a
lot less money than what the “transportation
experts” are saying. Relieving congestion for
less should be the goal that everyone can support.
--
April 3, 2006
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