Category: Transportation
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Mass Transit and Flying Machines
Real rebound or just a dead cat bounce? After bottoming out at around 21,500 riders a year ago, the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail service in Northern Virginia is experiencing a recovery in ridership, reports The Free Lance-Star. In February, VRE reports, monthly rider trips totaled more than 52,900. That’s a far cry from the…
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What’s That About Telecommuting?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For those who have predicted that the pandemic would result in a fundamental shift in commuting patterns and highway traffic, I invite you to get on I-95 at its junction with the Beltway at 3:00 on a week-day afternoon, driving south. Thursday afternoon, it took me more than two hours to get…
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Et Tu Miyares — Prosecuting “Price Gougers”?
by James A. Bacon What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I lambasted former Attorney General Mark Herring for touting his prosecution of gas station owners for “price gouging” — raising prices in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. Now the AG’s office under Jason Miyares has issued a press release…
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A Bag Of Oranges and Gas Tax Posturing
by Steve Haner The bag of mandarin oranges that was $4.99 last week was $5.99 this morning. Fruit trees aren’t getting raises – that is the impact of fuel prices, the cost to ship them to Virginia. As I’m fuming and pushing my cart to the next inflated item, the phone pings to announce an…
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A Perfect Storm
by James A. Bacon On January 3 and 4 of this year, a winter storm descended upon the Fredericksburg area and closed a large stretch of Interstate 95, trapping hundreds of motorists in freezing conditions for many long hours. The failure of the Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia State Police and other state agencies to…
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Rush Hour Will Never Be the Same
by James A. Bacon In fiscal 2018, the Commonwealth of Virginia budgeted $582 million to the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT). Spending on rail, buses and other forms of mass transit soared to $935 million in the current year (fiscal 2022), and is scheduled to recede somewhat to $865 million in the budget…
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One of the World’s Stupidest Inventions Now Illegal in Virginia
Who says Virginia’s polarized legislature can’t get anything done? Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed a bill banning the vehicle modification known as “Carolina Squat.” The law was inspired by the death of Virginian BJ Upton in a car accident involving such a vehicle. The modification raises the front of the vehicle significantly higher than the…
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What Virginia Can Do to Temper Inflation
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin has proposed using $437 million in unanticipated transportation revenues, much of it generated by the wholesale tax on gasoline, to give Virginians a three-month break on the 26-cent retail gasoline tax. During his campaign, Youngkin ran on a platform of addressing Virginia’s high cost of living and reversing…
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Remembering Til Hazel
by Ken Reid Northern Virginia is the object of admiration and contempt, in Republican circles, and even among some liberals in economically stagnant Maryland and Washington, D.C. In the last few years, Loudoun County, where I had a political career as a Republican, has gone “blue” as has Prince William and much of Fairfax counties.…
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Metro Not Getting Back on Track Any Time Soon… Says Metro
by James A. Bacon The pre-pandemic financial model for the Washington Metro, the largest mass transit system in Virginia, is not sustainable, and it’s time to re-envision the system to recognize the new traffic patterns, General Paul J. Wiedefeld testified to a Congressional oversight committee yesterday. Metro officialdom is scrambling to plug a another $500…
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Miller Appointed as Transportation Chief
by James A. Bacon Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has appointed Hampton Roads businessman Sheppard “Shep” Miller III as the next Secretary of Transportation. Youngkin’s press release offered no clues on how his transportation policy goals might differ from those of the outgoing administration. “Shep will be an invaluable leader as Secretary of Transportation as we fulfill…
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Stuck in a Snowstorm: Better to Have a Gas- or Electric-Powered Car?
by James A. Bacon Hundreds of motorists were stranded on Interstate 95 in freezing temperatures last night after two tractor-trailers jackknifed in a snowstorm and triggered a chain reaction as other vehicles lost control. Both lanes of the Interstate were closed. As night fell, reports the Associated Press, motorists posted messages on social media about…
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Tony Downs — an Influencer
Editor’s note: Anthony “Tony” Downs, long-time Virginia resident and scholar at The Brookings Institute, died in October. His thoughts about the economics of transportation had a profound effect on many. by Philip A. Shucet Tony Downs didn’t need social media to be an influencer. Tony published “Stuck in Traffic” in 1992, and in that book,…
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Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035. The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders…
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Welcome to Loudoun – Just Avoid Route 7
by James C. Sherlock Saw this headline in the Washington Business Journal. “Toll Brothers pushes big residential plans in Ashburn — and a tribute to enslaved people who once lived there.” Behind the headline: This is to be a development of 1,300 residences in a project named Mercer Crossing. Since it is being built by…