Category: Transportation
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Bacon Bits: Your Tax Dollars at Work
The Big Dig ain’t got nothing on us. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) board has approved $250 million in additional funding to pay for cost overruns on Phase II of the Silver Line rail project, which, incidentally, was supposed to begin service in 2018, and Metro officials now hope will begin this fall. Fairfax…
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Unfair Competition for Uber, Lyft and Taxis
by Kerry Dougherty In its never-ending quest to meddle in the free market, the City of Virginia Beach on Wednesday will launch a gimmicky free ride-sharing service at the oceanfront, guaranteed to hurt local Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers. But who cares about those scrambling to make some scratch in the gig economy, am I…
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Dropping? Nope, Gas Tax Now Rises July 1
by Steve Haner Virginia’s gasoline and diesel taxes will rise 7% on July 1, about three more cents per gallon when all the elements of the tax are combined. This is the inflation-driven cost of living adjustment which Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) and most legislative Republicans tried to short circuit, but which was preserved by…
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California Proposing More EV Rules for Virginia
by Steve Haner Virginia’s auto industry overlords in California have a new set of proposed mandates for both electric and internal combustion vehicles which, once adopted, will automatically apply here in the Commonwealth. They do not advance the date for banning the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles earlier than 2035 but do increase…
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Only Part of the Gas Tax Would Be Suspended
by Steve Haner The gas tax in Virginia today is 33.8 cents per gallon and the diesel tax is 34.7 cents per gallon. The fresh proposal from Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) for a 90-day suspension of those taxes does not eliminate Virginia’s full fuel tax bite. The oft-ignored wholesale tax will remain while only the…
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A Budget Deal Emerges
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports there is an agreement on the state budget. There have been hints in the news about it all week, with the General Assembly announcing that it would come back to Richmond June 1 to take up various measures. All the details will not be available until late Sunday…
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Hey, Buddy, What’s Your Friggin’ Problem?
by James A. Bacon Based on anecdotal evidence, I have long thought that the rudest, most aggressive drivers in the United States resided in the Northeastern states. It turns out, based on insurance data, that Virginia has some of the worst drivers in the country. So much for our self-image as courteous ladies and gentlemen.…
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Talking Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths
by Dick Hall-Sizemore While perusing today’s edition of the Roanoke Times, I ran across an article that astounded me. It concerned a meeting recently in Southwest Virginia about the Coalfields Expressway. I remembered hearing about this proposed highway many, many years ago and thought that it had been dismissed as a pipe dream. It turns…
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Does This Highway Need to be Widened to Six Lanes?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There is a campaign underway to expand a stretch of I-64 from Richmond to James City County. Currently, the Interstate highway is a four-lane divided highway. The proposal is to add an additional lane in each direction. The Department of Transportation estimates the cost of the project at $750 million. The first…
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Mass Transit and Flying Machines
Real rebound or just a dead cat bounce? After bottoming out at around 21,500 riders a year ago, the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail service in Northern Virginia is experiencing a recovery in ridership, reports The Free Lance-Star. In February, VRE reports, monthly rider trips totaled more than 52,900. That’s a far cry from the…
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What’s That About Telecommuting?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For those who have predicted that the pandemic would result in a fundamental shift in commuting patterns and highway traffic, I invite you to get on I-95 at its junction with the Beltway at 3:00 on a week-day afternoon, driving south. Thursday afternoon, it took me more than two hours to get…
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Et Tu Miyares — Prosecuting “Price Gougers”?
by James A. Bacon What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I lambasted former Attorney General Mark Herring for touting his prosecution of gas station owners for “price gouging” — raising prices in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. Now the AG’s office under Jason Miyares has issued a press release…
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A Bag Of Oranges and Gas Tax Posturing
by Steve Haner The bag of mandarin oranges that was $4.99 last week was $5.99 this morning. Fruit trees aren’t getting raises – that is the impact of fuel prices, the cost to ship them to Virginia. As I’m fuming and pushing my cart to the next inflated item, the phone pings to announce an…
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A Perfect Storm
by James A. Bacon On January 3 and 4 of this year, a winter storm descended upon the Fredericksburg area and closed a large stretch of Interstate 95, trapping hundreds of motorists in freezing conditions for many long hours. The failure of the Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia State Police and other state agencies to…
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Rush Hour Will Never Be the Same
by James A. Bacon In fiscal 2018, the Commonwealth of Virginia budgeted $582 million to the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT). Spending on rail, buses and other forms of mass transit soared to $935 million in the current year (fiscal 2022), and is scheduled to recede somewhat to $865 million in the budget…