First the bad news: State transportation revenues are falling short of projections — $387 million less than planned over the next six years, Reta Busher, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s CFO, told the Commonwealth Transportation Board yesterday.

The federal government has a similar problem. The feds are spending more money than they are taking in. Without an increase in the federal gasoline tax, the $910 in federal funding that accounts for half of all new highway construction dollars in Virginia could fall in half by 2010, warned Quintin C. Kendall, the federal transportation department’s deputy assistant secretary for management and budget.

Here’s the good news: One of the main reasons for the lag in revenues is the fact that people are driving a little less.

Question: If people are driving less, shouldn’t that translate into less congestion? And doesn’t that obviate the need to build new roads? Just asking…

Peter Bacque has the story for the Times-Dispatch.