Said Til Hazel, a NOVA developer with political throw-weight, to the Washington Post upon hearing Kaine’s transportation roll-out Thursday: “That is such a nothing plan it’s hard for me to even think or comment.”
Kaine joins Kilgore in “No Transportion” pledge
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Til Hazel is as pro-road as they get. It looks like he’ll have to look elsewhere for an ally…
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Hazel already has looked elsewhere. He’s contributed $20k to the old sage of Winchester, Gnat Potts.
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I’d like to reiterate Will’s question from another post. Barnie, does Kaine’s transportation policy make him a member of the “flat earth society,” too?
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Former Governor Gerald Baliles, speaking at the recent regional transportation summit: “The needs remain overwhelming. There isn’t any free lunch. Everything costs something in transportation . . . .The only thing you get for free is congestion.” From today’s T-D ‘Enough Said.’
And Jim, in answer to your question, and to Will’s: Maybe not a full-fledged flat-earther yet, but a card-carrying member of Virginia’s Flat Tire Society!
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Hmm… Mr. Faith-base morphs into Mr. Flat Earth???
Sounds like ‘Creationism Battles Evolution’ Part II?
The Kaine saga continues…
~ the blue dog
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Barnie, One day you ought to take a peak at the 2005 Urban Mobility Study, the ultimate word on traffic congestion in America. This annual report measures the extent of the problem and highlights strategies for dealing with it. Co-author Tim Lomax says it would be so expensive for a community to build its way out of traffic congestion that the only ones who’ve come close to doing it are communities that are either demographically stagnant or losing population. That may describe Danville, but it doesn’t describe NoVa, Richmond or Hampton Roads. Lomax insists that communities need to adopt a wide range of strategies, among which adding capacity is only one. Anthony Downs with the Brookings Institution, America’s most renowned transportation guru, makes much the same arguments in “Stuck in Traffic.” The guys who’ve dedicated their lives to studying transportation all agree that we need a multi-faceted approach to solving traffic congestion.
The people who are the true “flat earthers” — as in, those who choose to ignore the latest research and learning on the topic — are those who persist in believing that any community can build its way out of its traffic jam without restoring also to these other strategies.
The fact is, Kaine “gets it.” By contrast, your friend Mr. Potts has yet to indicate in a single utterance appearing in print that he is even tangentially familiar with the thinking in the 2005 Urban Mobility Study, much less Virginia’s own VTrans2025. He is the ultimate flat earther, profoundly ignorant, who spouts off on a topic he knows next to nothing about.
As for Gov. Baliles, you quoted only part of what he has to say. Sure, he’s lobbying for more money for transportation. But he also acknowledges that the land use aspects to the problem cannnot be ignored. (Read Bob Burke’s story in “The Road to Ruin”.)
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Jim: I do appreciate your knowledge of this issue, and your passion. But the problems in much of rural Virginia are just the opposite of those in NOVA. Congestion is not a problem out here. We don’t have the basic level of transportation infrastructure necessary for longterm economic survival. Absent money, there is no ‘strategy,’ no ‘multifaceted approach’ that will finish four-laning 58 from Stuart to Hillsville. Or build a third crossing at Hampton Roads. Or fix I-81. Or 64. Congestion is the trade we make for jobs. No, you can’t pave your way out of congestion. If you want to see the congestion in NOVA dissipate, run the jobs off. These same localities screaming the loudest about conjestion are working the hardest to attract new ‘economic development.’ If they would stop the proffer shakedowns on homebuilders and instead tax incoming companies $40,000 for every job they bring, conjestion would melt away overnight. That’s the real ‘linkage.’ But propose that and see how far you get. Until then, additional funding is the next best thing.
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Been out of touch for a couple of days (no congestion on Tangier Island this afternoon) and just now running through Kaine’s plan. Where’s the beef? Lay the two plans side by side, up and down, back to front, and the question for both of them is: where’s the beef? You get excited about a little rhetoric on coordinating planning? The U.S. Supreme Court just gave us all a glimpse of what that world is going to look like in that eminent domain case, and if it doesn’t give you shivers, you get a free membership in whatever flat-earth, no growth, tree-hugging association tickles your fancy.
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Have not read Kaine’s stuff in detail, but one aspect jumps out from the news coverage. He is pledging the insurance premium tax on auto policies. Ok, didn’t they do that this year already? About $100 mil a year? Isn’t that money already spent in the six year plan just adopted? Can you promise it and spend it TWICE? Think not. The news media will let you get away with that, but even they will catch on eventually.
Oh, and you may recall at the end of my last Rebellion column I said somebody needs to ask Tim if his comments on waiting for the constitutional amendment mean that nothing financial can be done for the entirety of his term. Broke the old rule about not asking questions you don’t want answered, didn’t I?
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