Margi Vanderhye on Transportation

I will sponsor and vote for legislation that

• Provides honest statewide transportation funding sources that involve all drivers
• Promotes projects that support alternatives to auto travel and reduce pollution
• Encourages integrated decisions about growth and transportation infrastructure
• Offers incentives for providing workforce housing
• Revises the guidelines for Public Private Transportation Act projects.

Traffic congestion is the number one issue in our district and our region – and rightly so. Nothing affects our collective quality of life so substantially as our inability to get to our destinations in a predictable, timely fashion whether it be to work, recreational activities, or just running errands. In this region, our loss in worker productivity due to lengthy commute times is over $1000 per commuter annually. The cost to individual business owners who cannot deliver their goods and services runs much higher. We cannot even measure the loss of personal wellbeing from missing a school play, important interview, or departing airplane, but the cost is much too high for all of us.

As a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, I worked hard to develop and implement a transportation funding and policy program that will deliver about $400 million annually to our region – the first such program in over 20 years. Though it provides only a portion of the $700 million annually that we need in northern Virginia, the money raised here stays here, and as part of a compromise solution, gives us a way to begin to reduce congestion – especially at critical “choke points” in traffic. After extensive outreach to the public, we identified dozens of specific transportation improvements that would make the most difference to people in this region. Road, transit, rail, bicycle and pedestrian projects are all included. Our “TransAction 2030” plan will serve as a blueprint for future funding decisions.

Dedicated funding for statewide infrastructure remains woefully insufficient. Trying to solve the problem with punitive fees on bad drivers is shortsighted and ineffective. While habitually bad drivers should be held accountable, public opposition to this attempt by Republicans in the General Assembly to substitute abuser fees for honest transportation funding solutions has been justifiably loud and clear.

We need dedicated, sufficient, and sustainable transportation funding, and we need to make sure our decisions about growth and our decisions about transportation infrastructure relate to each other in a deliberate, coherent manner. Here is what I propose:

• Provide a funding source that involves all drivers – not just Virginians – and eliminate the reliance on punitive fines to provide statewide transportation dollars. The transportation legislation was a compromise solution, but it does not go far enough to improve our transportation system statewide. We need a funding stream that will do so. Virginia is a primary destination for tourists. In addition, many of our business and workforce commuters come from other states. They all use our transportation system, and they all should share the cost of maintaining it.
• Prioritize regional transportation project funding. The criteria for funding projects should reflect their ability to reduce the number of cars on the roads, lessen air pollution, promote mass transit, and address the needs of the communities they are intended to serve.
• Give localities the legislative tools to make growth and transportation improvements work together. I recently worked with legislators on an initiative to allow developments to have higher housing density near transit centers and to address regional clean air requirements. The initiative was passed by the legislature and is now a “pilot project” in Arlington. We need to expand that program regionwide to encourage compact densities around transit served communities while deciding where we want to protect open space.
• Increase the availability of workforce housing. We can reduce sprawl and help retain our area public servants such as teachers, public safety workers, and health employees by providing them the opportunity to live in or near the communities they serve. We all benefit from well-planned development that integrates commercial, residential, and infrastructure elements so we don’t have to get into our cars for every trip we make. In the case of our own public servants, it may make the difference between retaining great employees and losing them to jurisdictions with less expensive real estate. Reducing the commute for any of us has a substantial benefit for all of us.
• Revise the Public Private Transportation Act. In 2005 I served on a transportation task force for the Virginia Senate Finance Committee. We recommended revising the requirements for the current “PPTA” to demand more accountability from private sector solicitors and partners on their costs and risks for each project. The recent negotiations over the Dulles Rail extension highlight why these revisions are necessary. Our task force recommendations should be implemented as part of the business of the next session of the legislature.