As part of its effort to clean up the congested U.S. 29 North corridor, Charlottesville and Albemarle County leaders have made a commitment to build a more robust bus system. Next year, they plan to ask the General Assembly to give them authority to create a regional transportation authority that can float bonds and levy fees. The money would help create a bus network linking downtown Charlottesville, the University of Virginia and the regional airport by way of the 29 corridor.
The big question now is whether to go a step further and create dedicated lanes for moving the sleek new buses faster and more reliably, reports the Daily Progress. Such a Bus Rapid Transit system would cost an estimated $138 million. That’s a lot of dough for a region the size of Charlottesville-Albemarle. Albemarle Supervisor David L. Slutzky thinks that future presidential administrations will be more transit friendly and willing to subsidize the project.
Bacon’s bottom line: BRT might be a good idea for the Charlottesville area: I would like to see an authoritative analysis. But relying upon the federal government for hand-outs is not. If BRT makes sense, the region should find a way for riders, property owners, employers and other beneficiaries to pay the tab. Taxpayers from Dubuque, Iowa, should not pay for Virginians’ regional transportation projects any more than we should pay for theirs.