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This article is trying to make some good points but it needs a little clarifying. It’s easiest to just take on the commonly held myths about NOVA transportation:

Myth #1: Virginia has the right transportation strategy, they just need to provide funding for the plan.

For years, Virginia’s strategy has been to prioritize roads over other transportation modes and to minimize regulations on land use. Clearly, there is something wrong with this strategy because traffic has been getting far worse and sprawl is eating away at us from the inside. By comparison, traffic in Maryland (where they coined the phrase “smart growth”) isn’t quite as bad. Clearly, it’s time to revisit our strategy rather than continue to do the same things over and over.

Myth #2: The 85/15 roads/transit split of funding is the right split.

See Myth #1. What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working and as Einstein said: insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome.

Myth #3: Car driving is going to be the dominant form of transportation in NOVA for the foreseeable future so there’s no point in increasing funding for other transportation modes.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you spend all your money on roads, then car driving will be how people get around because they won’t have other options. Whenever we’ve provided people other transportation options in Virginia, they’ve used them to the point of going over-capacity.

Myth #4: Virginia state IS spending lots on transit because they’re building the Silver Line.

Virginia state is only funding 5.2% of the Silver Line. The majority is coming from Dulles Toll Road revenue. Here’s how the funding breaks out:

Sources of Capital Funds:
Federal-FFGA $900,000 17.1%
Commonwealth of Virginia $275,000 5.2%
Airports Authority $215,484 4.1%
Loudoun County $252,273 4.8%
Fairfax County $846,167 16.1%
Dulles Toll Road Funding $2,766,771 52.6%
Total Sources of Funds $5,255,695 100.0%

Myth #5: No high returning multi-modal transportation projects have been identified.

There are many transit/pedestrian/bike projects out there that would be worth the money and should be prioritized but let me focus on just the highest priority, the Tysons Metrorail Access project. This project will provide pedestrian, bike, and bus access to the four Silver Line stations, which is critically important since there will be NO PARKING at any of those stations. So, if anyone is going to use those stations, they will need to bike, bus, or walk there. VDOT’s Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan provides for $19M of the requested $56M for this project through 2017. In 2012, $14M is needed for preliminary engineering (the stations open in 2013) and VDOT is providing $4M. That’s right, we’re spending billions on new stations but not funding a relatively small project to provide people with access to the stations (Tysons' sidewalks and trails are notoriously hyphenated, so the current infrastructure won’t work). This is like building a multi-billion dollar highway but not putting in any access/exit ramps.

by Falls Church on Apr 27, 2011 12:14 pm • link • report