Currently, taxpayers subsidize development by building roads to serve new houses wherever they go. But poorly planned or unplanned development quashes the hope of improved traffic flow by pouring more drivers attempting even longer commutes onto the new or widened roads. As taxpayers, people can't afford to fund this failing system. VDOT estimates the cost necessary to sustain it for 20 years as $203 billon-$108 billion more than the state predicts it can spend without raising increasing taxes or cutting other programs. To raise this kind of money, the state would have to tax gasoline by an extra dollar per gallon, double the state sales tax, or require a $900 vehicle registration fee.

We can't afford this system as drivers, either. With gas prices going up, many people can no longer afford long daily commutes. A 2000 study, "Driven to Spend," found that in America's most sprawling locales, households spent 20% more on transportation than those in the least sprawling communities. On average, the study found that American devoted 18% of their household budgets to transportation, more than they spent on health care, education or food. And this conclusion was based on 1997-1998 data. In 1998, a gallon of gas cost $1.07!

As Virginians, we could struggle to maintain a system that costs taxpayers billions, drains family budgets, devours rural land, and ignores global warming. But increasingly, citizens are calling for change.

More Transportation Alternatives

Virginians who responded to a recent VDOT survey suggested an upended set of transportation priorities for the state. When asked, citizens said they would allocate only about $3 out of every $10 for roads and highways, while spending $2 for trains and other transit options and $1 for sidewalks and bike trails. Although VDOT ignored this advice and earmarked nearly $7 out of every $10 for roads and highways, it is the citizens' ideal of a network offering multiple alternatives that should lead Virginia forward.

Working with allies throughout the state, PEC has taken proactive steps to inform and advance a citizen-driven movement for transportation reforms. As part of this call for change, PEC supports an alternative vision of centering housing near jobs and transit stations, investing in the state's promising rail system, and giving localities the tools that can help them achieve both their transportation and their land use goals.

To help present this vision to a larger audience, PEC worked with the Coalition for Smarter Growth to create a blueprint for the D.C. region using transit-oriented development to ease traffic congestion, curb sprawl, and build vital communities. We invite you to explore this positive and practical Blueprint for a Better Region. PEC is also an active partner in Reconnecting Virginia (ReVA), which offers specific transportation strategies that can help Virginia more effectively utilize our transportation infrastructure, including the state's impressive rail network. Learn more about Reconnecting Virginia.

Recent Transportation Success

During recent General Assembly sessions, PEC has strongly supported measures to give localities tools to manage growth and improve transportation. In 2006, some of these measures succceeded, allowing localities to create Transfer of Development Rights programs and requiring VDOT to provide localities with traffic impact analyses for proposed rezonings.

A traffic impact analysis done as a pilot project examined a 34,000-unit proposal in Loudoun County, and produced dramatic while still understated results. This enormous bedroom community-Dulles South-was to be located 15 miles from Reston, 23 miles from Tyson's Corner and 35 miles from D.C. Still, VDOT based its calculations on a commute of only 13 miles for each resident. Using even this modest estimate, VDOT concluded that 291 miles of new lanes would be required to serve the sprawling development. At going costs of $6.5 million to $10 million per lane mile of new road, this one bad land use decision would have cost between $2 billion to $3 billion dollars. Such staggering results confirm the importance of linking land use and transportation. In fact, the VDOT traffic impact analysis was instrumental in helping Loudoun's citizens to defeat the Dulles South proposal--a landmark victory for smarter growth and smarter transportation.

Next Steps

As the state government responds to its mandate to provide localities with tools, it should pass legislation that clarifies localities' ability to deny rezonings based on road capacity. This common sense measure would empower localities to say no to developments that will strain local infrastructures. As the state fulfills its responsibility to provide localities with tools to improve local land use and transportation, it then falls upon local communities to use these tools effectively.

The state should also overhaul its system of planning, prioritizing and funding transportation projects in response to today's realities of high gas prices, global climate change, and the loss of needed farmland, forests and open space. The state's first priority in transportation planning should be to reduce the amount that current and future Virginians have to drive. For this reason, VDOT should concentrate on strengthening Virginia's rail system, expanding transit systems, offering opportunities for bikers and pedestrians, and improving urban roads rather than building or widening roads through rural areas.