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Throwing money at roads? Not the solution

February 3, 2009 12:35 am

UNFORTUNATELY, most of the people who live in the Fredericksburg area don't realize that there is a federally mandated process for picking which transportation projects get funded, much less understand how that process works. I'd bet most area elected officials don't understand how it works. A few may understand how it's supposed to work but even the top transportation officials I've talked with argue over how the final decisions are made.

Nevertheless, there is a process, and one of the foundations of that process is the creation of a regional 20-year transportation plan. For more than a year the elected officials and professional staffs of the city of Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania, Stafford, King George, and Caroline counties have been working with the transportation planners at the George Washington Regional Commission to create the 2035 long-range transportation plan. This is a detailed, comprehensive catalog of all possible funding sources for the next 20 years, and a listing of the most beneficial transportation projects that can be completed with these potential funds.

First, let me compliment the effort and talent that went into this document. Our elected and professional representatives worked long and hard to find every conceivable dollar, and to classify every proposed project as to its cost and benefit. Each project was rated according to dozens of criteria, from safety and congestion relief to environmental impact. After countless hours of meetings and calculations, and numerous public hearings, a list of almost $2 billion in projects was proposed.

By the year 2035, after this almost $2 billion is spent on improvements to our regional transportation network, the majority of our major highways will operate at a level of service of a D or an F rating. Everyone who has gone to school knows what D or F means. It's not good. And this is with the best experts working as hard and as smart as they can to make things better.

The obvious conclusion is that we cannot--absolutely, inarguably cannot--build our way out of the transportation congestion in the Fredericksburg area. If we keep doing what we're doing traffic is going to get worse, not better.

But that's if we keep doing what we're doing, which is putting up tons of houses in one place, stores in another, jobs in another; and then--after the roads are overcrowded by people having to drive all over the place to get things done--trying to make the roads big enough to handle the mess we've made.

Fortunately, there are solutions available to us, and they all depend on one simple point: reducing the number of vehicles on the roads. Just think what else we could be doing with that $2 billion if we didn't have to accommodate thousands of new vehicles every year. If we could somehow reduce the number of vehicles, then the roads we already have would work better.

One admittedly long-range way to make our transportation network more efficiently is to change the way we develop as communities, so that we don't have to drive so far every time we need something. The planners at GWRC are beginning to think in this direction, to make transportation a part of the development process rather than an afterthought. It's going to take a while, but they hope that future 20-year plans will show some progress.

There are also things we residents can do right now. We can urge our leaders to make transit more convenient and more available. One FRED or commuter bus, for example, keeps dozens of cars off the road. A single VRE train replaces 100 cars, and even van pools and car pools help a lot. These programs are available now, and if more people used them we could see an immediate improvement not only in the level of service on our roads, but also in our pocketbooks. Buses and trains are less expensive than roads and cars, and become even cheaper the more people use them.

If you'd like to learn more about the currently available transportation alternatives and the potential for the future, the Rappahannock Group Sierra Club is holding a free public forum on Thursday, Feb. 12, 7-9 p.m., at the Fredericksburg United Methodist Church (Charlotte Street entrance). Executives from VRE, FRED, Rideshare, and GWRC will discuss their programs, and what the future holds for transportation in the Fredericksburg region. An open question-and-answer period will follow, and refreshments will be served.

We can improve our transportation future, and save time and money in the process. Other localities have done it, and we have hardworking, intelligent people ready to make it happen here. Better yet, we have programs available now that can save you time, money, and sanity. Please join us on Feb. 12 and find out how.

Scott Howson is the transportation chairman of the Rappahannock Group Sierra Club.