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Vanpool riders may be counted
Vanpools could translate into new transportation money for the Fredericksburg area
Date published: 10/28/2009
By KELLY HANNON Counting the number of Fredericksburg-area residents riding to work in vanpools could add up to $5 million a year in new federal transportation funding. The Fredericksburg area intends to apply for the money, distributed by the Federal Transit Administration to agencies that count their vanpools and other forms of public transit. Nationally, about 600 transit agencies already submit these commuter numbers to the FTA's National Transit Database, which serves as a central place for U.S. transit statistics. To participate, the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board voted Monday night to use $100,000 in federal funds to design a counting program for the region's vanpool and private-bus riders. The start-up costs are $200,000, but FAMPO is splitting the bill with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, which will also start to submit vanpool numbers. Approximately 350 vanpools are based in the Fredericksburg area. The $5 million a year the program could generate--an average of $15,000 per vanpool--could be used for subsidizing vanpools and regional public-transit projects and services, such as commuter parking, FREDericksburg Regional Transit and Virginia Railway Express. Commuter-related funding is currently at a premium in the Fredericksburg area. Nearly $200 million in transit funding connected with the High Occupancy Toll lanes project on Interstate 95 is on hold as Virginia and the private partners contend with a tough credit market, a lawsuit filed by Arlington County and community concerns over traffic. "This program holds great promise for our region," said Lloyd Robinson, director of transportation planning for the George Washington Regional Commission and FAMPO administrator. A slate of improvements to Lafayette Boulevard were approved by FAMPO's board Monday night, following a multi-year study of the road that runs from Sophia Street in downtown Fredericksburg to Four-Mile Fork in Spotsylvania. The study's recommendations call for $86.1 million in improvements between 2010 and 2035. It calls for sidewalks lining the road, crosswalks, bus stops, roundabouts in key locations to help drivers emerge from the side streets without impeding traffic flow, and landscaped medians. The Blue and Gray Parkway intersection at Lafayette would become an overpass/underpass for better traffic movement. Board members asked to see a list of inexpensive improvements that could be culled from the study's larger list of possibilities, with changes that could be executed more rapidly. The quicker, cheaper list of improvements are concentrated in the downtown area, scheduled between 2010 and 2016. That list calls for bicycle and pedestrian crosswalks near the train station, streetscape improvements, new angled parking between Sophia and Caroline streets, where drivers would reverse into spaces, and a "modern roundabout" where Lafayette, Prince Edward Street and Kenmore Avenue currently converge. The shorter list also calls for a $1.4 million bicycle/pedestrian bridge over the Blue and Gray Parkway. Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Date published: 10/28/2009
Bouncing Ball 3
(posted by
MGWork
, Oct. 28, 2009 2:59 pm)
From a very limited perspective, it appears the FLS has taken a vote and is now in the process of abandoning its larger blog site space for the 512 character count ans sound bite news transmissions. Not sure, but if I didn't know any better the reporting staff are increasing their "news version comment count" 5 fold. Interesting math model.
If Larryg has indeed become KING, please let him rule with the assistance of our silence. Maybe FLS will return after the election.
Bouncing Ball 2
(posted by
MGWork
, Oct. 28, 2009 2:39 pm)
to...CONTINUED-the Spotsylvania County Board Room YEARS AGO?
Larry: as Kelly Hannon has reported...FAMPO is splitting the cost difference with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission who is in partnership with VRE. So, after everything is said or done, Spotsylvania County will pay its participation and proportionate share of the total cost of the "counting mechanism" being put into place to secure $5M in "projected" receipts for REGIONAL PUBLIC-TRANSIT PROJECTS...incxluding VRE, aka District 16.
The Bouncing Ball
(posted by
MGWork
, Oct. 28, 2009 2:23 pm)
Matt / Larry: No offense intended but when are you guys going to stop playing off one another.
You're asking questions you already have the answers to. What part of Monday's FAMPO meeting did you miss.
Why don't you just share FAMPO Resolution 09-39; 09-40 and 09-44 with the public.
FAMPO is a REGIONAL PROCESS, made up of City and County elected officials who plan, postulate, project and spend from a Regional perspective. How does anyone think VRE and its Master Agreement ever made it to...CONT
Ask FAMPO - not the Feds
(posted by
larryg
, Oct. 28, 2009 11:26 am)
Hey Matt - Okay, I give credit to FAMPO for doing the Press
Release and it would have been EVEN BETTER if they
had also released the news via their web site, RSS and
email but it would have been supersplendiferous if they
had better/further explained what the "counting" is about
and why and how and put that info in a FAQ on their
website and offer a way for folks to ask more questions
about it on their website- oh.. and promote that fact in their
press release also.
You and FAMPO have well, but more to do
Ask the Feds
(posted by
MattKelly
, Oct. 28, 2009 11:11 am)
Larry--Its a Fed program. They make the rules.
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