Without a Long-Term, Sustainable Transportation Plan in Place, Virginians Will Pay
Without a Long-Term, Sustainable Transportation Plan in Place, Virginians Will Pay By Rick James
You’ve probably heard about the transportation funding crisis facing the Commonwealth in the news during the past six months, but it may be difficult to understand how it will personally affect you – your time, your family, your safety and your quality of life.
The fact is there will be a high price to pay if we do not make a serious investment in transportation, and the longer Virginia goes without a long-term plan in place, the higher the price will be for its residents.
We’ve already waited too long to address the problem as there hasn’t been significant funding improvements in transportation for nearly 20 years. It takes time and planning to implement transportation projects and that’s why it’s so important that we address these issues now.
Though transportation funding is a complex issue and has many layers, one thing is very clear – Virginia has reached a crisis point.
There are 7.3 million people who live in Virginia. By 2020, our state population is expected to have grown by 25 percent. Without a long-term transportation funding proposal, there will be limited funding available to support this increased population. This means more congestion and time spent on our roadways and less multimodal options available to meet the demand.
In fact, over the next 20 years, transportation needs are expected to exceed $203 billion, according to the VTrans 2025 study. It is estimated that Virginia has $95 billion, resulting in unmet needs exceeding $108 billion. The Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) has reviewed this study and believes the numbers are valid and not overstated.
To explain further, transportation in Virginia is a specially funded program. It does not currently compete for general funds with education, public safety, and health and human services. It’s funded by the motor fuels tax, titling taxes and a percentage of the sales tax.
Though Virginia has the third largest state maintained road network in the country, residents pay less than $150 per year to the state of Virginia to help fund transportation maintenance, improvements and new projects. This is just not enough to sustain increased demand.
Eventually the lack of significant funding options will result in fewer changes in our transportation infrastructure. It will be difficult to fix potholes, add lanes to roadways, maintain our public transportation system (buses, rail), provide adequate security at our airports, transport goods and services in and out of our ports and build new roads. These are only a few of the drawbacks Virginians will begin to experience in the near future without solutions.
The transportation funding crisis will also hit us hard at home. We already spend, on average, more than 22 hours a week sitting in traffic. According to information in a speech delivered by former VDOT Commissioner Philip Shucet, nearly 70 percent of working parents say they don’t have enough time with their children; 63 percent say they don’t have enough time to spend with their spouses; and 55 percent say they don’t have enough time for themselves. Without long-term solutions, we will spend more time in traffic and less time with our family and friends.
In addition, this crisis could hit us just as hard in our pocketbooks. In 2003, in the Commonwealth’s metropolitan areas alone, Virginians wasted 254 million gallons of gasoline sitting in traffic (VTrans 2025 Summary of Final Report). And it’s only going to get worse.
Inadequate road conditions also raise safety concerns and vehicle operating costs. Virginians spend an additional $248 a year to repair damage to their vehicles caused by inadequate road conditions like potholes. Without solutions, in all likelihood, there will be an increase of accidents, causing insurance costs to rise and most importantly, more lost lives. These costs, both tangible and those that you cannot put a price on, could be reduced with a dedicated investment in our transportation infrastructure.
Virginia cannot afford to wait any longer. Without long-term, multimodal solutions to the transportation funding crisis, residents of Virginia will be faced with some major headaches and inconveniences. We simply cannot maintain our quality of life if we allow our transportation system to fall behind for too long.
It’s timeVirginia, to demand long-term, dedicated and sustainable solutions to the Commonwealth’s multimodal transportation funding crisis. We cannot base transportation planning on the hopes of having a budget surplus. Please consider this issue as critical as it is.
In addition to his roles with Virginians for Better Transportation (VBT) and the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance, Rick James is also the executive vice president of Adams Construction Company. For more information about the transportation funding crisis or VBT, please visit www.itstimevirginia.org.
