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Want to fix the roads? Fix VDOT Date published: 1/31/2007
AS YOU READ THIS, your Notwithstanding the huffing and puffing about money, what's missing from the debate is a coherent plan and process to remedy the increasing problems in Virginia's transportation system. Correcting this should be the highest priority of our elected officials, and not a penny more of our money should be spent until they do. Virginia's chief problem is not so much the volume of money on the table, but how it is spent by an unfocused VDOT that misdirects the billions of dollars it receives each year from motorists and other taxpayers. If motorists in the Fredericksburg area were asked to identify the worst transportation deficiencies in the region, they would likely cite the horrendous and worsening congestion on State Route 3, U.S. 17, and U.S. 1, as well as the now largely dysfunctional Interstate 95 passing through the area. Had they been asked the same question five years ago, they would probably have answered the same, yet nothing has been done to alleviate these obvious bottlenecks, and not much will be done in the future. But this is not to say that our local VDOT officials haven't been busy. Over the past few years they have used our scarce tax dollars to extend Cowan Boulevard to better access a retail center, and will also use VDOT money for a down payment on a replica slave ship as an attraction near the same center. And how about that new six-lane bridge taking White Oak Road over the tracks, the costly redo of Deacon Road (with its two new bicycle lanes!), or the $50 million interchange to serve a handful of private pilots at the underutilized Stafford airport (a monument to trickle-up economics at its most bizarre)?
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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