Virginia’s transportation crisis an opportunity to improve

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“We can accept the status quo of transportation in America, thereby allowing us to be outstripped technologically by other nations and hampering our economic development, or we can use this transportation crisis as an opportunity to change our current infrastructure.”

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Illustration by Hannah Swann

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

If you’ve driven for more than 30 minutes on I-95 or just down Broad Street, you’re well acquainted with Virginia’s crumbling infrastructure. Road surfaces are uneven, potholes are aplenty, and the fading paint on some roadways leaves drivers questioning whether they’re in the right lane. Even around VCU, some crosswalk lights do not work, and maneuvering down some streets to avoid potholes and dips requires creativity.

Illustration by Hannah Swann

To give you an idea of how bad the situation is, according to VDOT, 1,116 lane-miles of Virginia Interstate highways, 5,032 lane-miles of the state’s primary highways and 34 percent of the state’s secondary roads are in poor condition. VDOT also found that 1,730 bridges are structurally deficient and in need of repair.

Added to the maintenance issue is the fact that building new roads and bridges is nearly impossible to do now because the construction fund is being drained by maintenance. Gov. Bob McDonnell has plans to stop that drain, but Virginia needs to revamp the current transportation policy that is too heavily reliant on the oil industry, unstable politics and a changing transportation climate.

By 2017, when the funds for building new roads are drained completely, a significant portion of the cars on the road will be hybrids, electrical or solar-powered vehicles. But alternatively fueled vehicles aren’t currently paying their fair share of highway maintenance because they aren’t subject to gas taxes that make up two-thirds of Virginia’s transportation funding. In fact, Dominion Power offers discounts to people that drive electric cars.

If no plans are made to adjust this inequality, those wealthy enough to purchase electric or solar cars will be driving on the roads paid for by those that couldn’t afford the switch. While I do advocate for the use of cleaner and environmentally sustainable fuels for cars, it’s not reasonable that plans to tax their usage haven’t been discussed or debated by the state legislature yet. Just as we would encourage billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, if gasoline-fueled cars have to pay an additional tax at their gas pumps, electrical cars have to pay an additional tax on their electric bill.

According to a 2010 survey by “Transportation for America,” a coalition of organizations dedicated to changing transportation policies on the local, state and federal level, 58 percent of Americans are in favor of allocating funds to improve public transportation (buses, trains, rail, ferries and bicycle/walking paths).

While we’re considering the future of public transportation in the state of Virginia, we should deeply consider draw up plans to incorporate inter-regional and inter-city railways into our infrastructure. Anyone from Northern Virginia, D.C. or Virginia Beach that’s driven home for break will tell you that the amount of traffic on the way to their destination is unbearable. By investing in rail stations, faster train technology and expanded bus routes, we’ll be able to clear up much of that traffic congestion, making it easier and safer for people to commute.

There’s two directions that we can go: We can accept the status quo of transportation in America, thereby allowing us to be outstripped technologically by other nations and hampering our economic development, or we can use this transportation crisis as an opportunity to change our current infrastructure.

Instead of investing in more roads for gas-powered cars, we can figure out ways to make alternatively fueled cars pay their fair share, make high-speed rail a possibility for travelers and commuters alike and promote an expanded public transportation industry.

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