Connaughton's Eight-Point Plan
Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sean T. Connaughton has sent Gov.-elect Tim Kaine his proposals for the state's transportation system and the Gainesville Times posted it today. You can read it here, and see Connaughton's eight points below. He's a Republican sitting in one of the country's fastest-growing regions. At least he's staking out a position:
-Develop a long-term method to ensure that adequate and reliable funding exists to finance current transportation projects and accelerate new projects;
-Increase state involvement in planning and funding for the expansion of transit in this region and beyond;
-Reward localities that have stepped forward to invest in transportation infrastructure by developing a large-scale cost-sharing program that supplements existing programs;
-Promote real progress on a bypass to redirect I-95 "through" traffic out of this region;
-Increase capacity of regional road facilities such as I-95, I-66, I-395, I-495 and Routes 1, 7, 28, 29, 50, 123 and 234;
-Expand the ability of localities to link transportation and land use, as well as deal with stale zoning;
-Examine and adjust the current management and budget system for transportation, include the role of the CTB, the VDOT central office, the funding formulas, and the responsibility and boundaries of the NOVA district; and
-Forbid the use of transportation funds for non-transportation purposes and increase efforts to restore trust in the transportation program through continued financial and budget reforms.
posted by Anonymous @ 11:01 AM
4 comments
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4 Comments:
Expensive. Very expensive. Lots of new roads and lane miles. And just as bold in identifying the sources of money as the Chamber statement posted just prior.....
My point is I'm tired of people offering plans that involve spending money we don't have and they won't support raising. Taxes or tolls baby, those are the choices.
Well, at least here is a set of milestones that you could use to outline a plan. There may be a lot of other milestones that could be added, like some kind of telecommuting goal. We would still need to put these milestones on a schedule, and come up with the resources. We also need some final overarching goal that the milestones point to: some goal like reduce regional average travel times by 2%.
At least if we come up with a list of projects and say, look, obections be damned, this is what we need to do, then people will come to accept the plan and find a way to move forward. Maybe instead of fighting the I-95 bypass, they'll work to find the least disruptive way to do it.
A big part of the problem we have now has to do with bickering over who benefits from what or whether what we do will have adverse consequences. Of course they will, but the question we have to face now is whether continuing doing NOTHING or at least doing far to little won't pretty obviously have even worse adverse consequences.
Yeah, it's expensive. So is sitting in traffic picking your nose.
In today's USA today, the Urban Land isntitute is quoted as saying that gas prices are finally having an effect on auto useage. More people are taking transit, sharing rides, and combining trips (you mean there are people that DON'T combine trips?).
As a result our VMT increased only one percent over the same monthly period last year.
But it still increased.
ULI also pointed out that it was the slowest increase SINCE THE LAST RECESSION. We can say that the increase in VMT is do to scatteration or some other nonsense, but it is more closely related to increased wealth and prductivity.
Not spending the money could very well cost more than spending it.
The point must be made that Prince William County is spending hundreds of millions in road and transit improvements with its own tax dollars. Next November it will ask its citizens to approve another $180 million in road bonds and the County has committed to a plan to spend $1.6 billion in road and transit improvements over the next 15 years. They are putting their money where their mouths are, when will the General Assembly do the same?
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