Category: Transportation
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Maybe Another Subsidy Will Finally Boost EVs?
By Steve Haner Yet another effort will be made in 2025 to get Virginia’s two major electric utilities deeper into the business of building and maintaining charging stations for electric vehicles, with their ratepayers – even those who have no interest in such vehicles – having to pay the tab. Given they are supposed to be…
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Bacon Bits: Lonely and Creepy
The loneliest Metro stop. The Loudoun County Gateway Metro averages 317 riders daily, according to The Washington Post. It’s the least busy of the Metro rail system’s 98 stations. Opened to much fanfare as part of the $3 billion Phase 2 of the Silver Line in Northern Virginia, it is a sad reminder of broken…
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Mandatory Vehicle Inspections Expensive, Burdensome, Unproven
By Joshua Devamithran Virginia’s mandatory vehicle safety inspection program is less than a decade away from its centennial anniversary. Established in 1932, Virginia’s inspection program is the oldest continuous program in the country. In 1975, thirty-one states and the District of Columbia had mandatory safety inspection programs. Today, Virginia is one of just fifteen states…
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Factoid of the Day: Toughest Driver Tests
Virginia has the toughest written driving tests in the country, according to a study by the Whitley Law Firm, a personal injury firm, and Journo Research. States the press release: Virginia is the state where it’s hardest to pass the written driving test, with an index score of 21.39 out of 100. To pass the…
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Fiscal Train Wreck
by James A. Bacon Think of the Washington Metro as a harbinger of the fiscal fate in store for the United States: it’s just a matter of time before the wheels fall off the subway car. Today The Washington Post reminds us that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is running out of money.…
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Income Redistribution Through the Back Door
by James A. Bacon The state and federal tax codes don’t do enough to redistribute income and wealth to make “progressives” happy. When 40 percent of U.S. households don’t pay federal income tax, what’s a lefty to do? The latest initiative: exempt lower-income people from tolls for the Downtown and Midtown tunnels in Hampton Roads.…
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All of the Camel is Almost in the Tent
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For more decades than one can remember, the policy of the Commonwealth, with one exception, has been to pay for road construction with money raised by gasoline and other transportation-related taxes. Money in the state’s general fund, consisting of revenue from income, sales, and other miscellaneous taxes, was not available for road…
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Virginia’s Interstate Hell Hole
At a meeting this week of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), reports Radio IQ, Director Justin Brown brought up what the radio station deemed a “troubling” point regarding the horrendous, worst-in-the-country traffic congestion on Interstate 95 between Northern Virginia and Richmond: the express lanes designed to alleviate traffic are run by a…
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An Alternative Interpretation of the EV Statute
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This is a follow-up to Steve Haner’s article on Gov. Youngkin’s announcement that Virginia will not be bound by California regulations on electric vehicles after this year. The Governor’s announcement is a lawyer’s dream. There are different ways to interpret the laws and regulations involved and, so, off to court we go.…
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Gas Tax Tops 40c Per Gallon, Up 150% in Four Years
By Steve Haner Virginia’s motor fuel taxes rise again July 1, finally breaching 40 cents per gallon for gasoline. Four years ago the tax was 16.2 cents per gallon, but former Governor Ralph Northam (D) signed 2020 legislation to both increase the tax and to begin automatic annual inflation adjustments. The tax becomes 40.4 cents…
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Freebees Aren’t Free
by Kerry Dougherty I can’t be the only Virginia Beach taxpayer sick of watching my real estate taxes climb every year while the city council wastes money on pricey gimmicks like “free” Tesla rides for residents and visitors to the city. For two years we’ve picked up the tab for a small fleet of Teslas…
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The Camel in the Tent
In 2022, the General Assembly disregarded two long-standing principles of funding transportation projects in the Commonwealth. Republican Gov. Youngkin followed down that path this year. The General Assembly has dedicated sources of revenue to be used for transportation, with general government functions being financed by general income and sales taxes and other special funds. The…
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But It’s Just a Little Bit of Money
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Ben Cline, the Commonwealth’s Republican member of the U.S House of Representatives from the 6th District, is very upset about the level of federal spending and the state of the federal deficit. Cline is chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force. In a press release last year, he…
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Surprise Findings About Metro Derailment
by Bill Tracy In Northern Virginia on Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board released a scathing final report on the Washington area Metro’s derailment problem with its newer. 7000-Series railcars. The NTSB’s media presentation by Chair Jennifer Homendy can be found on YouTube. NTSB also faulted Metro’s safety culture. My prior layman’s understanding, from local…
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Keep Carytown Safe for Cars
by Jon Baliles The debate about making Richmond’s Carytown a car-free zone is edging closer to the forefront in recent months with strong opinions, interesting suggestions, some good ideas, and some bad ones. The Times-Dispatch Editorial Board weighed in with its opinion, and it was vocal. It’s worth the entire read and filled with stats…