VA Transit Mess

It seems that the somewhat odd and definitely complicated compromise transit funding plan that Virginia finally adopted after a lot of legislative wrangling has been thrown out by the courts. The black hats here are really the dead-ender conservative faction of the Virginia GOP which seems to believe that the state's growing population just doesn't have any infrastructure needs whatsoever. It was their intransigence that forced more reasonable parties to adopt a byzantine approach.

That said, Virginia transportation policy debates tend to be a depressing thing to watch. Basically, you get a lot of arguments between anti-tax fanatics who think the government should have no revenue whatsoever and then people who want to build more roads. There's very, very little consideration given to smarter anti-congestion measures like congestion pricing, expansion of the state's very rudimentary commuter rail system, etc. It's a bit of a mess and with local governments all now seeing budget shortfalls thanks to the housing downturn, I don't imagine we'll see any more imaginative thinking in the near future.

Comments

The problem is that the white trash legislators who represent the part of Virginia south of the Occoquan couldn't care less about the transportation problems in Northern Virginia. The only solution is the secession of Northern Virginia from the rest of the state to form the 51st state of Northern Virginia. It was unfortunate that this wasn't done at the same time West Virginia split off.

Posted by SLC | March 2, 2008 5:49 PM

I guess I am too Judeo-centric and tribalist in my thinking: when you said "black hats", this is what came to my mind. ;)

Posted by DAS | March 2, 2008 6:11 PM

I'm going to guess that the indifference of "white trash legislators" to Nova's infrastructure has at least a little bit to do with the undisguised scorn so many of my fellow Northern Virginians seem to have for the rest of the state. Northern Virginia is already the most prosperous part of the state - we don't have to be assholes about it.

Posted by Katie | March 2, 2008 6:30 PM

Katie, that just reinforces the legislators as being crybabies who throw temper tantrums.

Seriously, though, however, that's true. The Southern Way is about "showing respect" and "defending one's honor." The cleaner, more modern, more prosperous will always be suspected of "looking down" on southern parts of virginia, and legislators from that region will feel the need to spite them for that sentiment, real or imagined.

Posted by Tyro | March 2, 2008 6:32 PM

You should have been there during the run-up to building the Metro many years ago. Republicans delayed funding it for years, causing yearly increases in cost estimates for the complete system. The result was lengthy GOP delays, plus them piling on with complaints about the cost over-runs.

Posted by Hedley Lamarr | March 2, 2008 6:33 PM

I would not use Maryland as an example of good transportation planning. The beltway between New Hampshire and the 270 split is stop and go most of the day. The stop and go heading north from Virginia starts at Tysons and does not east up until past Germantown. No public transportation system is going to help the commutes who commute from Maryland to Reston/Dulles.

It has taken Maryland over a decade to even start building the inner county connector due to Democratic opposition. Virginia has a better HOV system and hs the slug lines that Maryland does not have.

Posted by superdestroyer | March 2, 2008 6:46 PM

The cleaner, more modern, more prosperous will always be suspected of "looking down" on southern parts of virginia, and legislators from that region will feel the need to spite them for that sentiment, real or imagined.

IS the sentiment imagined? I don't think it is at all. "White trash legislators" is hardly an ambiguous term, and this comments thread is not the only place I've seen it. And isn't it just as true that Northern Virginians, as the "cleaner, more modern, more prosperous" part of the state, can always dismiss any objections raised by the rest of Virginia by thinking, "Oh, they're just jealous hicks."

Posted by Katie | March 2, 2008 6:46 PM

Perhaps an illustration of how economic conflicts and culture conflicts go hand in hand. We are much, much less of a population center, but I was struck reading the post about how it mirrors the Northern Maine/Southern Maine divide. We also have these issues rear their heads when it comes to transit policy.

Posted by Sefrankel | March 2, 2008 7:07 PM

Katie, these tensions don't exist in most other places that have a similar urban/rural dynamic. Sure, in California, SF and LA have tensions with the Central Valley and parts further north, and NYC has tensions with NY State, but it does not get elevated to the same level of ire and spite and refusal to invest in infrastructure that happens in Virginia. I don't think it's because northern Virginians are bigger snobs that NYers or SFers. I think it's because southern Virginians are bigger crybabies and more spiteful when it comes to dealing with their own population centers.

Posted by Tyro | March 2, 2008 7:18 PM

You think Virginia's bad? Try living in Southeastern Michigan.

Posted by Matthew | March 2, 2008 7:23 PM

Re Katie

The problem with the situation in the State of Virginia is that only 30% of the revenue collected by the state in the form of sales, gas, and income taxes in Northern Virginia is returned to Northern Virginia. If it wasn't for this revenue, the rest of the state would be a basket case like Mississippi or Alabama. My solution is that Northern Virginia secede from the rest of the state which can go take a long walk on a short pier as far as I am concerned. If 100% of the revenue raised in Northern Virginia was spent here, taxes would be lower and services better.

Posted by SLC | March 2, 2008 7:26 PM

Southern Virginia legislators aren't interested in anything that will promote "growth" because growth, inevitably, will occur in Northern Virginia, which simply hasten the day when the Virginia Yankees take over. The obvious solution: move to the District.

Posted by Alan Vanneman | March 2, 2008 7:38 PM

Alan,

Moving to the district is not an answer if you have children and cannot afford a million dollar home and private schools.

For all of the whinng, I have not read anyone propose a real solution that requires extra money. There is no public transportation that will get people from Charles County Maryland or Germantown Maryland into their jobs in Virginia.

Posted by superdestroyer | March 2, 2008 7:42 PM

For all of the whinng, I have not read anyone propose a real solution that requires extra money. There is no public transportation that will get people from Charles County Maryland or Germantown Maryland into their jobs in Virginia.

Um, yes there is. Hop on the metro at Shady Grove and take it into Virginia.

Posted by WillieStyle | March 2, 2008 8:41 PM

Um, yes there is. Hop on the metro at Shady Grove and take it into Virginia.

Um, practically the whole point of this post is to point out that there is no way to hop on the Metro in Shady Grove and hop off in Tyson's Corner/Reston.

Which is why I am praying hard that I can find a job somewhere outside of NoVa and get the fuck out of the most dysfunctional metro area I have ever lived in.

And I grew up on Long Island and lived in Moscow for a while.

The willingness of the rural legislators in VA to screw over the engine of growth in VA is just jaw droppingly stupid.

After living here for five years, a yahoo like George Allen all of a sudden makes a lot more sense.

Posted by calipygian | March 2, 2008 9:21 PM

Lost in all this arguing between the Damnyankees in NoVa and the Rednecks in Tidewater/South/Southwest Virginia is this non-trivial problem: an unelected body was levying taxes.

Our supreme court, properly, called foul: a regional transportation authority is not a government body for the purpose of levying taxes.

Hey, Richmond -- do it right.

Posted by John Rich | March 2, 2008 9:25 PM

Um, you are bit out of date, as Northern Virginia has crept south of the Rappahanock as we far commuters really suffer from 30 years of neglect of the I-95 corridor. Yes, that idiot Howell is from Stafford, but both Tidewater and Northern Virginia suffer from predominance in the rest of the state of Virginia declinism. (A great book on birth and the development of the unwillingness of the Virginia elite to tax itself for the public good is: "Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and The Decline of Virginia.")

A simple 15 cent increase in the gasoline tax, phased in over five years would expand roads, build car pool lots, develop high speed HOV/bus corridors, and telecommuting centers that would ease congestion and revive growth in the "Old Dominion." Unfortunately, to many of my fellow citizens expect Christ to return next year so why should they tax themselves as the move along in their big pick-up trucks.

Posted by Rickstersherpa | March 2, 2008 9:30 PM

Under the current system, it would take more than one hour to get from Germantown to tyson's.

first you have to drive with traffic from Germantown to Shady Grove in Gaithersburg. You had better get there early because the parking lot fills up around 07:30. After the long ride to Metro Center you change subways and take the Orange line to Dunn Loring. There you catch the buy up Gallows Road to Tysons. Time for a one way trip about 90 minutes. The metro is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Try designing a system that gets people from Waldorf Maryland to NOVA.

One of the problems in the DC metro area is that people do not move when they change jobs. If you quit, are fired, laid off, or your employer goes out of business, no one will limit their job hunt to what can be reached with public transportation.

Posted by superdestrpyer | March 2, 2008 9:39 PM

Katie, I'm failing to see your point. What does it matter if we NOVians look down our noses at the rest of the state? The southern half is making off like bandits with our tax revenues. I can't wait for the day that the population in NOVA overwhelms the rest of the state.

Posted by eriks | March 2, 2008 11:07 PM

Not to relate *everything* to the Democratic primary... ...I'm a Hillary supporter, but the one great hope I have for an Obama presidency is a commitment to improving America's cities. Honestly, his rhetoric, background in community organizing, and yes, his race, could really be focused into a comprehensive effort, which may even happen if he is less committed to "universal health care" as a concept than the average Democratic primary voter (which I suspect he is). My dream would be for him to spend his potential capital on "controversial" issues like prison reform, the War on Drugs, and all of the other issues related to urban policy. From a cultural standpoint, I'm tired of hearing about how the "heartland" is the true America. I don't buy it for a second and an unabashedly pro-city president would do us a world of good.

Posted by Ryan | March 2, 2008 11:27 PM

Katie, these tensions don't exist in most other places that have a similar urban/rural dynamic. Sure, in California, SF and LA have tensions with the Central Valley and parts further north, and NYC has tensions with NY State, but it does not get elevated to the same level of ire and spite and refusal to invest in infrastructure that happens in Virginia.

I have a question for other non-Virginia readers - one of the hugest problems (I think) in Virginia, is that *everything* is centralized in Richmond - all authority for revenue, all authority for decision-making as to how (and where and when) that the revenue is spent, etc. is totally controlled by Richmond. Because of antogonisms between NoVa and the rest of the state - cultural, and economic (why should NoVa get another road, when a highway might do wonders for development elsewhere), the rest of the state gets to exert a political stranglehold on NoVa growth.

Is this a normal situation - does this sort of centralization exist elsewhere or is it unique to Virginia? Virginia already has a fairly unique system in that once a town "incorporates" into a city, it must seceed from it's surrounding county and be an "independent city" - a situation that only exists elsewhere in Baltimore and St Louis.

So I'm wondering if a lot of this particular problem isn't exacerbated by a weird form of centralization that is unique to Virginia that doesn't exist elsewhere and that happens to already compound the economic and cultural differnces between NoVa and the rest of the state. If counties and/or cities in other parts of the country want to built their own roads or provide for their own transportation, how dependent on their state governments are they?

That isn't uncommon. What is uncommon is that the big city thats is creating the wealth is outside the state. While perhaps New Jersey and Northern Kentucky have similar issues, there isn't a beggar thy neighbor thing as with Virginia where they hope if they wait long enough the Feds or Maryland will bail them out.

Add in the hillbillies in the west and the southern elites along the coast (the First Families of Richmond do exist and believe they still should rule)and you have lots of people fighting over their fiefdoms.

Posted by Rob | March 3, 2008 8:02 AM

For all the complaining about Richmond, the hillbillies, and how NoVa taxes pay for everything else in the state, there is a solution here that no one (suprise!) has mentioned: why doesn't Fairfax, Loudoun, Arlington and the other NoVa counties that want to improve their transit problems take the initiative themselves?

Cut out the state, raise local property taxes to pay for the roads and do it yourselves. Oh wait, seems like they want the rest of the state to pay for their pet projects just as much as the yahoos in the Shenandoahs.

Posted by Civilized Crank | March 3, 2008 8:28 AM

Oh wait, seems like they want the rest of the state to pay for their pet projects just as much as the yahoos in the Shenandoahs.

How do you think that money "from the state" gets to "the state" in the first place? Think, man, think!

Posted by Tyro | March 3, 2008 8:46 AM

Re Civilized Crank

Mr. Crank apparently has a reading comprehension problem. If all the taxes raised in Northern Virginia were spent in Northern Virginia, the transportations problems therein would have been solved a long time ago. When only 30% of them are spent in Northern Virginia, we end up with the current mess. Why should property taxpayers in Northern Virginia have to raise their already high property taxes when the rest of the state is stealing 70% of their sales and income taxes.

Re Rickstersherpa

Delegate Howell is not the only problem. Attached is an article from todays' Washington Post about a whackjob named Robert Marshall, who is from Prince William County, which is north of Stafford, who is running for the Rethuglican Senate nomination to replace John Warner. If anyone thinks that Howell is a right wing nutcase, Marshall makes him look like a flaming liberal. This is in addition to another schmuck named Ken Cuccinelli who, by the way, represents a Fairfax County district in the State Legislature. Believe it or not, Marshall and Cuccinelli think that the other Rethuglican candidate, former governor Gilmore is too liberal!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030202217.html?sub=AR

Posted by SLC | March 3, 2008 9:09 AM

Crank--

NOVA tried to set up their own taxing authority, the state wouldn't let them. This also ties into to the incredibly stupid term limits VA governors have where long term projects have no political payoff but raising taxes has immediate political costs. If you spend your entire term running for Senate, things like this happen.

Posted by Rob | March 3, 2008 9:15 AM

Rob's answer was the one I was looking for.

The other responses boil down to "we are for economic redistribution except when we aren't". I am all for local taxes paying for local projects; it is just ironic when redistribution offends its biggest proponents.

Posted by Civilized Crank | March 3, 2008 9:33 AM

Ethel To Tilly,

That's roughly the dynamic in Maine. Decision making power is relatively centralized in Augusta, the state capital, which is in "central" Maine roughly between the semi-populous, economically active South and rural, less economically active North. The counties in Southern Maine 'float' the rest of the state with their tax revenues, but wind up getting the shaft when it comes to getting the kinds of specific infrastructure that we need (i.e. transit) because (as an elected official once described it to me) in Augusta the legislators from Northern Maine think we're all crazy for thinking about anything besides private automobile style roads. It's relatively friendly, but still there's no chance of Southern Maine getting a consensus from the state's lawmakers, so our transportation planning gets shut down.

Posted by Sefrankel | March 3, 2008 9:52 AM

Civilized, in some cases redistribution is wise, and in some cases it isn't. I have no attachment to local taxation authorities on principle alone. In fact, I don't think that NoVa's local taxation authority was necessarily the best solution. What I do think is that Richmond was purposely starving NoVa of needed infrastructure because they wanted that money for themselves.

Liberals, you see, are much more pragmatic that you are and think money should be spent wisely, rather than attaching ourselves to fanatical religious philosophies regarding the distribution of public tax dollars.

Posted by Tyro | March 3, 2008 10:00 AM

The other responses boil down to "we are for economic redistribution except when we aren't". I am all for local taxes paying for local projects; it is just ironic when redistribution offends its biggest proponents.

The other responses do not boil down to what you say. You were looking for a certain answer, and you've read into the answers what you want.

Posted by Rambuncle | March 3, 2008 10:19 AM

I have a question for other non-Virginia readers - one of the hugest problems (I think) in Virginia, is that *everything* is centralized in Richmond - all authority for revenue, all authority for decision-making as to how (and where and when) that the revenue is spent, etc. is totally controlled by Richmond. Because of antogonisms between NoVa and the rest of the state - cultural, and economic (why should NoVa get another road, when a highway might do wonders for development elsewhere), the rest of the state gets to exert a political stranglehold on NoVa growth.

"Stranglehold" is a pretty strong word. Northern Virginia is still growing at a pretty ferocious pace.

SLC

When only 30% of them are spent in Northern Virginia, we end up with the current mess. Why should property taxpayers in Northern Virginia have to raise their already high property taxes when the rest of the state is stealing 70% of their sales and income taxes.

Funny how "progressives" begin sounding like Republicans when it's their ox that's being gored. Taking from the rich to give to the poor is great, except when you're rich, and the poor are church-attending white people, I'm sorry, toothless white trash.

I'm stuck in NoVA for the time being - though I've lived here far longer than most of the people here, it seems, and have seen it turn from a nice place to live to the mess that it is today. I am thankful the rest of the state has the ability to keep the Fairfax County Board from turning Fairfax into Massachussetts on the Potomac, though I tremble for what will happen when there are so many people here that they can wrest control of the Commonwealth from downstate. Maybe then I can finally persuade my wife to move to West Virginia. Or Idaho. Until then, I strongly encourage all of you who detest those "yahoos" to move to Montgomery county, where the politics will be much more to your liking. Though, they haven't fixed their transportation problems, either. The natives here don't want your "uplift" any more than the colonized natives of any other benighted part of the world plagued by missionaries. If things were so great back home, why did you come here?

Posted by TheOtherCyrus | March 3, 2008 10:24 AM

TOC, it would seem that a "Massachusetts on the Potomac" situation would mean that there would be multiple commuter rail lines, a large number of towns build around their historic centers, and much less political tension between different geographic regions of the state. The problem with that is what, exactly?

All of the DC metro area has similar problems with transportation infrastructure and development patterns. VA's problems occur for a specific reason, distinct, however, from Maryland's. I do suspect that the temptation to "do nothing and wait for the federal government to bail us out" mentality is endemic in both cases, but Anapolis never seems to be downright pissed off at its the DC-metro portion of the state, as though it didn't really "belong" there.

Posted by Tyro | March 3, 2008 11:47 AM

Thirty two comments, many calling for raising taxes, and not one concrete suggestion of what to do with the money.

The traffic is caused by a huge number of NOVA residents working in DC and a huge number of Maryland residents working in Virginia. If you watch the daily traffic jams in northern virginia, they are caused by Marylaners coming into Virginia in the morning and leaving in the Evening. That is something that Maryland does not face.

Maryland had more railroad right of ways than Virginia and the Maryland Railroad connects to Balitmore.

The worst problem seems to be some very poorly designed roads like the Mixing Bowl that was just fixed, the Albans exist on 95 south, the 66/498 interchange, and the toll road.

However, there is probably more stop and go in Montgomery County Maryland than in Fairfax Virginia.

Posted by superdestroyer | March 3, 2008 12:23 PM

I think the reason MC MD is so stop and go is because people would rather live in MC MD with its high taxes but great schools/amenities than in NOVA. Now, NOVA is getting much better about schools and quality of life, but it is also impossible to get anywhere. We moved into the area and found somewhere to live with not too terrible a commute, but like the other man posted- after reorgs, lay offs and recontracting we now have a MC to DC and a MC to Alexandria commute. Whenever we think about moving closer we are stuck with the need to have the same time-length commute to go half the distance or the need for private schools for our two kids to live in DC. Neither is a good solution so instead we stay in MC driving an hour each way.

Posted by cminmd | March 3, 2008 1:14 PM

Re TheOtherCyrus

"I am thankful the rest of the state has the ability to keep the Fairfax County Board from turning Fairfax into Massachussetts on the Potomac, though I tremble for what will happen when there are so many people here that they can wrest control of the Commonwealth from downstate"

I wish Northern Virginia had the university education system that the Boston area has. Instead of Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College, UMass Lowell and UMass Boston, Northern Virginia has George Mason.

As for Mr. TheOtherCyrus moving to West Virginia or Idaho (home of closet fag Larry Craig), how about Utah. The politics there should be sufficiently Caucasian for his liking. I would dearly hope that the assholes who vote for Robert Marshall and Ken Cuccinelli follow him there.

Posted by SLC | March 3, 2008 1:32 PM

TheOtherCyrus,

Have you ever actually lived in Massachusetts? Because, you see, I do, and taxes here are quite low. Boston is a very compact city, with good public transportation. Housing is not cheap, but last time I checked, neither is housing in NOVA. And here's the kicker - property taxes in Boston are 5%, with an initial $250,000 exemption for primary residence, and state income tax is 5%. Sales tax is 5%, except for the things that you buy the most (food and clothing), which are not taxed at all.

The only reason I've been able to find for the legend of "Taxachusetts" is a high rate (10%) on short-term capital gains, which I'm sure is just killing your average working-class citizen and small business owner.

Posted by Reality Check | March 3, 2008 2:07 PM

I wish Northern Virginia had the university education system that the Boston area has. Instead of Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College, UMass Lowell and UMass Boston, Northern Virginia has George Mason.

It doesn't, but then neither does any other city. And it doesn't have much to do with local taxing authority.

As for Mr. TheOtherCyrus moving to West Virginia or Idaho (home of closet fag Larry Craig), how about Utah. The politics there should be sufficiently Caucasian for his liking. I would dearly hope that the assholes who vote for Robert Marshall and Ken Cuccinelli follow him there.

I was born in UT, but my parents left before I was a year old. I see no reason to go back, and don't believe I'd fit in. As for the {expletive deleted} who vote for Cuccinelli, Marshall, Virgil Goode, et al. (sadly, I am in Moranistan), they were, generally speaking, here first. Why should they move?

Reality Check:

And here's the kicker - property taxes in Boston are 5%, with an initial $250,000 exemption for primary residence, and state income tax is 5%. Sales tax is 5%, except for the things that you buy the most (food and clothing), which are not taxed at all.

The exemption sounds nice, but property taxes in Fairfax and Arlington counties are around 1%. The sales tax was 4.5%, then raised to 5% under Governor Warner, supposedly to pay for roads that didn't materialize, and which would, as Yglesias has related in other posts here, not help much anyway with the congestion. Cars expand to fill the available space. Food and clothing are subject to sales tax. State income tax is 5.75% over $17,000.

Someone who has been more involved in the local transportation debates could provide a great deal more detail than I can, but, as has been pointed out, even with the money, there is little to no agreement about what to do with it. Arlingtonians have fought widening I-66, Metrorail expansion to Dulles is foundering, and the ICC still hasn't been built. At least the mixing bowl was untangled, for which I am duly thankful.

Posted by TheOtherCyrus | March 3, 2008 5:00 PM

Re TheOtherCyrus

I am certainly thrilled that Mr. TheOtherCyrus brought up Virgil Goode, a schmuck of the first order. Representative Goode embarrassed himself and the State of Virginia (equaled only by the embarrassment caused by George Macacawitz Allen in the last election) with his attack on the Muslim Congressman elect from Minnesota whose ancestors have been in the US longer then Mr. Goodes' have. It will be recalled that the Minnesota Congressman elect took the oath of office on a Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson, after idiot Goode complained about using the Muslim holy book instead of a Christian bible. It just so happens that Representative Goode represents the City of Charlottesville where Jeffersons' home is located. It would appear that fucktards like Goode, Cuccinelli, and Marshall are the types of representation desired by Mr. TheOtherCyrus so I am sure he will be happy in Idaho represented by Larry Craig, et al.

Posted by SLC | March 3, 2008 6:51 PM

Reality Check and TheOtherCyrus -- Reality Check is wrong about the Massachusetts property tax rates. In Boston, they're 1.11%, or a tad higher than in NOVA, although the residential exemption is far higher ($135K, not $250K, as Reality Check wrote). And Boston is about average for the state (some towns have far lower rates, and they generally get higher as you head west in Mass, and get more rural). So property taxes are about the same in Mass than in NOVA (if not lower). Income taxes are a tad higher, and sales taxes are lower. What, again, would be so bad about being "Massachusetts on the Potomac"? It's not the taxes. Is it those funny chowderhead accents? I know, those kill me, too.

By the way, before you move off to WV or Idaho, check out the tax rates there. I think you may be in for a surprise or two.

Posted by pilgrim | March 3, 2008 8:13 PM

Yes, I just noticed that rather significant typo that I made about property taxes! They are of course around 1%, much the same as NOVA. The residential exemption was over $200,000 in Boston in 2006, although I live in Cambridge, so I haven't kept up (it's also over $200,000 in Cambridge currently, which has excellent city finances, but the situation in Boston may have worsened).

Now it is true that gas taxes are higher here than Virginia, but this is one of the most overstated expenses of our modern discourse to begin with. The average American with a car drives less than 20,000 miles per year, which costs about $2500 in gas at $3.00/gal in a 24 mpg car. Not insignificant, but how does that compare to a mortgage, for example?

Posted by Reality Check | March 3, 2008 11:09 PM

Yes, I just noticed that rather significant typo that I made about property taxes! They are of course around 1%, much the same as NOVA. The residential exemption was over $200,000 in Boston in 2006, although I live in Cambridge, so I haven't kept up (it's still currently about $200,000 in Cambridge currently, which has excellent city finances, but the situation in Boston may have worsened).

Now it is true that gas taxes are higher here than Virginia, but this is one of the most overstated expenses of our modern discourse to begin with. The average American with a car drives less than 20,000 miles per year, which costs about $2500 in gas at $3.00/gal in a 24 mpg car. Not insignificant, but how does that compare to a mortgage, for example?

Posted by Reality Check | March 3, 2008 11:10 PM

Up to 41 posts and still no one posts any idea on what additional tax dollar would be used for if one does not want to build more highways. The railroad track west of Manassas is single track and no approved for passenger rail service. The is additional talk of adding a spot in south of Fredricksburg but that would do little to ease traffic in Fairfax County.

There is no good ride of way to build light rail/metro to Leesburg. The studies have shown that putting Metro stations in Tysons would make traffic worse instead of better in the area unless new commercial traffic is forbidden.

Posted by superdestroyer | March 4, 2008 7:40 AM