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Do you want to fix the roads? Then fix VDOT

January 31, 2007 12:50 am

AS YOU READ THIS, your elected officials are meet- ing in Richmond and probably still debating the future course of the state's transportation policy. But haven't they done this already, twice? They have, with little to show for the effort. This session marks the third time in twelve months they've come together in a fiscal fandango over how much to spend on roads and buses.

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)?

Our local transportation commissioners no doubt mean well, but the misallocation of state transportation money is a state-wide phenomenon and underscores the point that a new management and performance system is desperately needed at VDOT.

So what to do? Let's first recognize that merely throwing more money at a problem is not a solution--if it were, the D.C. public schools would be among the finest in the region. Rather, it is how you spend it that counts, and in this regard VDOT suffers because none of our elected leadership has ever bothered to hold it accountable to meaningful performance standards. Its projects are therefore based as much on whimsy as on need, hence the airport interchange and replica slave ship.

In fairness, VDOT is not alone in escaping performance standards and accountability. Most state departments of transportation have, but this is beginning to change as states such as Maryland, Texas, Georgia, and a few others impose quantitative measures of performance on their DOTs to get them better focused on safety, mobility, and congestion relief.

To remedy this deficiency, why not mandate that VDOT reduce traffic fatalities by 5 percent per year and travel delays (congestion) by 50 percent in 10 years? Other quantitative goals could relate to road surface quality, emergency evacuation plans, and the speed with which a pothole is repaired (within 48 hours?).

Among the important benefits of setting explicit goals is that VDOT would now be required to use its limited financial and employee resources in a more cost-effective manner to meet its mandated goals of safety and congestion mitigation. If VDOT had been tasked with the goal of reducing the notorious travel-time delay on the stretch of I-95 running south through Fredericksburg, it never would have wasted the $50 million on the airport interchange, or on the unused bike paths on Deacon Road.

The need to meet these goals would also deter officials from endorsing Tom Davis' multimillion-dollar taxpayer bailout to subsidize Metro fares for a small fraction of his constituents. A more sensible approach would have been to raise fares on Davis' Metro riders--who are among the wealthiest in the nation--and use the money saved to add capacity where congestion is at its worst.

As challenging as these changes may seem, keep in mind that a little more than a decade ago Virginia was one of the first states to adopt a performance-based system for its public schools when then-Gov. George Allen convinced the legislature to enact his Standards of Learning program. Since then a focus on accountability for results has dominated most state education debates, and it is about time to extend that benefit to transportation.