Transportation - 3 Priorities

Transportation has assumed extraordinary importance in this area, because at best it helps us work and live our lives and encourages commerce and at worst controls our lives determining when and even sometimes if we are able to do as we choose. Among all of the interrelated questions, three regional issues, in particular, demand our attention. Thanks to you, the citizens, and the Council, as your representative and voice, I am in a position to help shape the progress on each of them.

The most immediate priority is the security and safety of the region’s transportation system and its users—us. We are pursuing this through the Council of Government’s Emergency Preparedness Council on which I serve. Since 9/11 the region has engaged in comprehensive and detailed planning and has cross-functional and cross-jurisdictional capabilities it didn’t have, with officials now used to inter-jurisdictional cooperation. Unfortunately, sometimes the region works well together (Hurricane Isabel and the WW II Memorial Dedication) but sometimes, especially when time crunched, it doesn’t (Tractor Man). This inconsistency cannot stand, so efforts are going forward to fill the public education and information gaps (an initiative led by former City Council Member Merni Fitzgerald, the Fairfax County PIO) and to advocate the establishment of a dedicated regional transportation staff to assure that coordination and communication happens to the maximum every time.

Another current priority with long term aspects is assured funding for Metro’s capital needs. It urgently requires commitments for a new $1.5 billion, including money to order rail cars this fall, which if not done, will cost nearly $100 million more in the future. Another Falls Church resident, Rob Puentes authored the critical Brookings piece that argues for a dedicated funding source for Metro. This is the region’s highest transportation funding priority in and both the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA, which I chair) and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC, on which I serve) are moving on this issue with options to be aired this fall.

The third priority is the revision of Northern Virginia’s long term transportation plan. This, too, is being coordinated by NVTA with NVTC involvement. It must be a plan that almost everyone can buy into, that benefits everyone, at least to some degree—that actually improves things for most highway and transit users—and that aids us in protecting our environmental and historic resources. The plan should provide choices, maximize system performance by using better what we already have, and increase the safety and security of the system.

Thanks to your support, the direction of the Council and back-up by staff, we are well positioned to play a leadership role on all of these matters. Now, let’s get on with it.