Category: Transportation
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Cuccinelli Hints at New Formula for Road Construction
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli has yet to roll out his promised comprehensive transportation plan, but he hinted in a Washington Post op-ed Friday that he won’t mince around with baby steps when he does. Instead of political reasoning, my administration would rely on a statewide traffic congestion index to determine how new construction is…
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The Back Story on the Transurban “Relocation”
by James A. Bacon The governor’s office issued a press release yesterday touting the fact that Transurban, operator of the 495 Express Lanes and 95 Express Lanes, has relocated its U.S. headquarters from New York City to Fairfax County. The two express lane projects have been highly beneficial to Virginia, said McDonnell, supporting 16,000 jobs,…
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Higher Speed Limit Could Give Express Lanes a Lift
by James A. Bacon 495 Express Lanes has increased the speed limit on the I-495 express lanes in Northern Virginia from 55 miles per hour to 65, giving riders a significant new time-saving inducement to use the tolled lanes. The change took effect after the Virginia Department of Transportation released a study confirming that raising…
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Norfolk’s Cruise-Line Gamble Could Turn up Snake Eyes
by James A. Bacon Norfolk city officials are worried that Carnival Cruise Lines, the only cruise line serving Hampton Roads, may not schedule any departures from the port in 2014. The Miami-based company confirmed that it is reviewing the 2014 deployment of several ships, including the Carnival Glory, the only ship with scheduled sailings from…
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Automobiles, Import Substitution and Regional Development
The theory of economic development known as “import substitution” argues that substituting locally produced goods and services for those purchased from the outside (whether outside the country, outside the state or outside the metropolitan region) stimulates growth of the local economy. For example, burning American-produced natural gas in buses instead of diesel fuel refined from…
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Best State for Business? Tell It to Tesla!
Tesla Motors, manufacturer of the premier-priced Tesla electric car, has opened a gallery at Tysons Corner. Too bad would-be buyers can’t actually purchase a car there. It turns out that Virginia law prohibits car manufacturers from operating their own dealerships. Writes the Washington Post: “The California-based company is using the Tysons Corner location as a…
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More Evidence for Peak Car
The number of cars, vans, SUVs and light trucks on the road in the United States peaked in 2008 at 236.4 million, dipping as low as 230 million in the aftermath of the recession. That number will likely be surpassed as the population continues to grow, says Michael Sivak, in “Has Motorization in the U.S.…
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McDonnell’s Baloney Sandwich
by James A. Bacon Do they really believe this stuff, or do they just think we’re too stupid to see through it? Here’s what Governor Bob McDonnell had to say in a press release issued yesterday to tout Virginia’s updated Six-Year Improvement Program for transportation spending: Each dollar invested in transportation yields significant benefits, sustaining…
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Six-Year Improvement Program: a Blueprint for Failure
by James A. Bacon With the adoption of the new Six-Year Improvement Program, the details of Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation priorities plan are coming into clearer focus. There are some worthy elements to the plan but glaring deficiencies guarantee that Virginia will see minimal benefit from the billions of dollars dedicated to new construction. On…
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CTB Authorizes New Transportation Spending Plan
by James A. Bacon With no debate over spending priorities, the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) affixed its stamp Wednesday to the Six-Year Improvement Plan submitted by the McDonnell administration. Drawing upon a revenue influx from the transportation tax package passed earlier this year, the commonwealth will increase spending on rail and highway projects from $11.4…
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Bad Bridges
by James A. Bacon Virginia supposedly prioritizes road and highway maintenance over new construction but the condition of the state’s bridges doesn’t appear to reflect it. According to a new report by Transportation for America, 9.1% of the bridges in the Old Dominion were rated “structurally deficient” in 2013. That wasn’t as bad as the…
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A Conservative Case for Mass Transit
by James A. Bacon A new paper published by the conservative Free Congress Foundation makes the connection between mass transit and the economic vitality of American regions. Author Michael S. Bronzini, with George Mason University, argues that mass transit is needed to support a population shift back to walkable urban communities, which is being driven…
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Dude, Where’re My Cars?
by James A. Bacon In 2008 the Washington Department of Transportation converted 10 miles of HOV lanes in the Seattle metro region to tolled HOT lanes. If the experiment was successful, the state planned to expand the HOT lane concept around the state. After four years of experience, the verdict is in: People aren’t willing…
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Dude! WaPo Columnist Ventures Look at Downstate Road Project!
Robert McCartney, a Washington Post columnist, has done a remarkable thing: He has taken a look at a transportation project outside the Washington region and decided he didn’t like what he saw. Not only is the Charlottesville Bypass ill conceived, it is part of a pattern in which the McDonnell administration “relentlessly pushes a major…
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Yet Another Owner for Richmond’s Unwanted Road
By Peter Galuszka Richmond’s “Road to Nowhere” is about to get yet another owner, showing again how the public-private partnership craze can result in unneeded transportation projects while denying resources elsewhere. Australia’s Transurban which owns Route 895, otherwise known as “Pocahontas Parkway” is dumping the tollroad it picked up in an emergency financial deal in…