September 18, 2022

Honorable Phyllis Randall
Chair
Northern Virginia Transportation Authority
3040 Williams Drive, Suite 200
Fairfax, VA 22031

Re: Recommendations to improve TransAction

Chair Randall and NVTA board members:

We write to you today in support of regional transportation planning that identifies cost-effective, sustainable, and equitable solutions to improve mobility and helps inform investments through NVTA’s 6-year program. The draft TransAction plan has many good ideas – like a regional Bus Rapid Transit network – and useful analyses, but it fails to provide a better framework for regional decisionmaking about transportation. NVTA has simply collected every project wish of every member jurisdiction and agency, and added dozens of new projects on top of these. This is not a plan. We call on NVTA to create a new approach that addresses land use and housing, keeps us safe from climate catastrophe, leverages innovative demand-management strategies, and prioritizes a network of vibrant walkable, bikeable, inclusive transit-oriented communities. An improved TransAction would better inform the identification of candidate projects for NVTA regional funding and would make the selection process more transparent, methodical, and responsive to regional needs.