Category: Transportation
-
McDonnell Pitches Tax Plan
by James A. Bacon Addressing a friendly audience this afternoon at the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Governor Bob McDonnell plugged his transportation financing plan, arguing that it was “economically sound, politically viable” and will “fix the problem.” “Our problem is a math problem,” the governor said. “Revenues are on a downward path and the cost of…
-
Transportation Funding Car Wreck
Uh, oh, the anti-tax wing of the Republican Party was already getting cold feet about Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation funding plan yesterday. As Capital News Service quoted, Del. Ben Cline, R-Amherst, as saying in a press conference held by the General Assembly’s Conservative Caucus: “Conservatives want to see taxes kept low. They want to see…
-
Kings of the Road?
Who really establishes transportation policy for Virginia, the Commonwealth Transportation Board or the McDonnell administration?
-
How Bleak Are Virginia’s Ports, Exactly?
By Peter Galuszka Is there something fishy about Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s push to privatize the Virginia Port Authority? For months, state Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton, privatization-minded corporate executives and some consulting firms have been beating a drum about the supposedly bad if not fatal fiscal outlook for the VPA and Virginia International Terminals, a…
-
All Hail the Creeper Trail
The Virginia Creeper Trail is arguably the most beloved bicycle trail in Virginia. But it wasn’t always so. As Bill Lohmann reminds us in the Times-Dispatch, many landowners along the trail, which was built upon an abandoned railroad bed, opposed its development in the 1980s. Writes Lohmann: One group filed a lawsuit. Others placed logs…
-
An Expanded CTB Board: Long Overdue. But Nothing Will Change.
James A. Bacon Del. Thomas Rust, R-Fairfax, has introduced a bill, HB 2409, that would expand the representation of urban areas in the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the board charged with setting transportation policy and allocating transportation revenues. The Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia transportation districts each would expand the number of seats from one…
-
The Dumb and Dumber Transportation Funding Policy
by Randy Salzman If Virginia removes its meager gasoline tax, the state, economic history shows, will have more people driving more places more frequently, which will increase congestion, add to the nation’s oil import tab and force the United States to keep expensive military forces near foreign oil fields. It will accelerate the oil world’s…
-
One Mile Forward, Two Miles Backwards
Critics of Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation tax package, which would scrap the gas tax in favor of a higher sales tax, have focused on a perverse unintended consequence: Reducing the cost of driving will encourage motorists to drive more, thus making congestion worse. How much? Here’s what Mark Burris, an associate research engineer with the…
-
Express Lanes! Express Lanes! Get Yer Express Lanes While They’re Still Cheap!
The 495 Expressways on Northern Virginia’s capital beltway generated an average of nearly 18,600 daily trips and $828,000 total revenue in December 2012, reports concessionaire Transurban. That’s a drop in the bucket for the $2 billion project, which opened November, but the private-sector operator anticipated a long, slow ramp-up. As congestion increased, demand for the…
-
Washington Studies a VMT Tax. Where Is Virginia?
While Governor Bob McDonnell proposes to scrap the gasoline tax on the grounds that drivers are shifting to more fuel-efficient vehicles and alternate fuels, the state of Washington is heading in a very different direction — instituting a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. According to the Associated Press, a committee of transportation experts recently concluded…
-
Utt Says What’s What on Transportation Plan
Ron Utt, recently retired transportation scholar with the Heritage Foundation, has elucidated his concerns about Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan. In an op-ed published in the Bearing Drift blog, he makes some salient points: There is much that is wrong with this plan; chief among them is the end of the fuel tax – which…
-
Here Comes Cooch-ageddon!
—
by
in Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Water-waste waterHard right conservative Kenneth T. Cuccinelli has a very good chance of becoming the next governor. At least that’s my view 11 months out. I disagree with Cuccinelli on almost everything and will spare my readers the list. But I do agree on one thing: he has proved to be a wily politician. He’s turned…
-
Aargh! Argh! and Argh!
It’s long been a dream of mine that national conservative publications would one day take notice of Bacon’s Rebellion and my brilliant application of fiscal-conservative and free-market thinking to state and local issues. At long last, I have been noticed. The irony is that Jim Geraghty, author of National Review‘s Morning Jolt, has pegged me…
-
McDonnell Throws Virginia Transportation Policy into Reverse
by James A. Bacon Governor Bob McDonnell has submitted his proposal for overhauling the state’s antiquated transportation funding sources. Unfortunately, he has moved in precisely the wrong direction — rather than tightening the nexus between how much Virginians drive and how much they pay into the system, he would totally sever it. According to a…
-
Retaking Roads from Cars
Speaking of bicycles… Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, has introduced SB736, which would forbid drivers and passengers to open car doors on the side adjacent to moving traffic “until is is reasonably safe to do so.” Violators would be fined by up to $100. On his Ox Road South blog, Peterson defends the bill as a…