Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Bacon Bits: Guns, Tolls, Evictions

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by

James A. Bacon
in , ,

You’ll have to pry my gun from…

More than 90 governing bodies in Virginia have voted to declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, reports WDBJ. Ninety! Unbelievable. Thousands of citizens have appeared at board meetings across the state to demonstrate their support for the resolutions. Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave said the sanctuary movement is unlike anything he has seen in his years of advocacy. “It’s like the difference between driving a car and being in a rocket ship.” Sigh. I personally don’t have a problem with these resolutions. But if only rural Virginians cared as much about pocketbook issues.

More transportation cross subsidies in the works. Virginia officials and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission are negotiating a proposal to dedicate a portion of toll revenues on Interstate 66 inside the Beltway to construction of new Metro facilities near Rosslyn and construction of a second freight/commuter rail span between Virginia and Washington, D.C. The toll revenues would back the issuance of bonds to pay for construction of the rail projects, reports WTOP. Virginia drifts further and further away from a user-pays transportation funding system. This idea can be justified only on the grounds that mass transit can provide more mobility than a comparable investment in other road projects. I wonder what light VDOT’s Smart Scale ranking system could shed on this.

Evictions down. Since a New York Times article highlighted the high rate of evictions in Virginia cities, state and local officials have been allocating resources to reduce the number. Through September of this year, the incidence of evictions has dropped about 19% in the City of Richmond, where it was the worst, and 14% across Virginia, according to a Capital News Service analysis of court data. This is encouraging news… as long as it doesn’t have the unintended consequence of dampening the supply of low-income rentals.

— JAB

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8 responses to “Bacon Bits: Guns, Tolls, Evictions”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    re: ” I wonder what light VDOT’s Smart Scale ranking system could shed on this.”

    Smart Scale frowns on projects that primarily serve SOV – single occupancy vehicles:

    Projects receive points based on
    features than enhance multimodal
    access (Max 5 points)
    • Transit
    • Park and Ride
    • Bike
    • Pedestrian
    • HOV/HOT
    • Real time traveler info or wayfinding
    • Scaled by the number of anticipated
    Non-SOV users
    • Transit Users + Bike Users + Pedestrians +
    HOV/Park and Ride

    • Air Quality/Energy
    • Non-SOV
    ▪ Points awarded based on:
    –Providing bicycle or pedestrian facilities
    –Improvements for transit
    –New or expanded Park and Ride lot
    –Provisions for hybrid/electric vehicles or energy efficient infrastructure
    ▪ Points scaled based on number of non-SOV users

    https://www.fampo.gwregion.org/wp-content/uploads/VA-Smart-Scale-Prioritization-Process_FBurg-Workshop_April-2017.pdf

    Smart Scale incentivizes moving people not cars – even for money that comes from cars !

    Smart Scale has been around for years now and people still do not realize how it has changed the way we fund transportation!

  2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    I agree that moving people should be the key goal. And transit, bike and pedestrian issues need to be considered and valued. But at the same time, these can be over-weighted, especially bike and ped.

    For example, Maryland DOT has approved a plan to replace the Governor Nice Bridge over the Potomac with a toll bridge. The plan does not included physically separated bike lanes due to a cost of $57 million more to widen the new bridge, which will be funded only by tolls. Despite calling for the bike facilities, no one, including Maryland state legislators, offered to add a dime for the additional construction costs. While I have to believe something could be done (maybe an under-deck facility) for less than $57 million, this seems to me to be an example of a big subsidy from motor vehicles to bikes. And, if in Virginia, not focusing on moving people.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      This is going to be a shocker – but I totally agree with TMT.

      They need to have another lane – either on the new bridge or re-use
      the old.

      Their rationale was/is (I think) that car should not have to pay extra tolls to fund bike/ped … but buildling any bridge like that without a spare lane means when maintenance time comes that takes a lane – there will be major bottlenecks…

      This is another example of what happens when we do not charge a high enough gas tax to pay for projects… wait years to do something – then up against the wall on the cost of the project then we penny-pinch.

  3. Anonymous3444 Avatar
    Anonymous3444

    Adding myself to the chorus:

    “This idea can be justified only on the grounds that mass transit can provide more mobility than a comparable investment in other road projects.”

    This is a bad category mistake, that I’m surprised to hear someone as smart as JAB make. Let me suggest:

    “This idea can be justified only on the grounds that mass transit can provide more ACCESS than a comparable investment in other road projects.”

    Here’s a nice Strong Towns article expounding the difference and why it matters:

    https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/10/17/the-difference-between-mobility-and-accessibility

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    re: ” “This idea can be justified only on the grounds that mass transit can provide more ACCESS than a comparable investment in other road projects.”

    Okay, agree.. but will point out that the opponents/detractors claim that Mass Transit – depending on the origin/destination takes far move time than an auto trip.

    That issue is what fuels (pun intended) the advocacy for more roads.

    So if you live in Loudoun and work at Crystal City- is transit your best option?

  5. Anonymous3444 Avatar
    Anonymous3444

    “So if you live in Loudoun and work at Crystal City- is transit your best option?”

    That depends entirely on what “best” means, and that’s not something that we can pre-determine for all travelers in advance. Insofar as we can, we ought to leave it up to the last minute for the traveler to make the decision.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I live down Fredericksburg way where we have somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 daily commuters to NoVa.

      Yes, we have VRE but two things:

      1. – It’s heavily subsidized – about $20 per trip
      2. – It only “works” for those whose job is near the station.
      For instance, folks who work in Tysons – say that by the time they ride VRE and then transfer to Metro – it can take twice as long as a solo car trip does.

      VRE, by the way, is funded from a 2.1% tax on gasoline… on top of the regular gas tax.

      VRE has been around a while and that’s how it was funded to start with – so that’s where the idea that motorists could pay for mass transit through taxes or tolls…

      I’m no defender/supporter of daily solo commuting.. it’s a pox on society but if we want to change the incentives we need to look at what might get them out of their solo cars and VRE -> METRO simply makes for a way too-long commute.

      Of course, one could argue (and I would agree) that when you move to the exurbs to commute to your NoVa job – that’s a decision you made – and the consequences also belong to you; unfortunately – everyone else all up and down the East coast trying to navigate through the Washington METRO region also get those “consequences”.

      1. TBill Avatar
        TBill

        The VRE extra 2.1% gaso tax addon is regional (NoVA) right?

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