Annual Northern Virginia Joint Transportation Meeting (Comments)

Re: NoVA transportation needs to prioritize transit funding and service enhancement, roadway safety, alternatives to road capacity expansion, and climate action

Chairs and directors of Northern Virginia transportation agencies:

The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) appreciates your gathering together to hear from the public and stakeholders and share information on current projects and programs. CSG has worked on Northern Virginia transportation and land use for the past 27 years, advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, as the most sustainable and equitable way for the region to grow and provide opportunities for all. Please accept these written comments on behalf of CSG, as unfortunately we cannot attend in person.

Right now, Northern Virginia has four main needs in transportation. Residents and workers need you to:

Expand transit, and Increase Metro and local transit funding, both capital and operating. The region and the state’s prosperity depend on officials securing a dedicated funding source for this critical service and infrastructure. Our continued prosperity also depends on funding the necessary improvements that regional leaders are planning, such as the Metrobus visionary network, the DMV Moves action plans that are underway, VRE, and bus priority corridors.
Prioritize making arterial roads safer for Northern Virginia residents and workers walking, riding bikes and scooters, and accessing transit stops. The region has the funds, it just needs to shift money planned for hundreds of miles of new highway and arterial lanes to instead address safety. A secure transportation network must also fund climate resilience investments to deal with increased flooding, sea level rise, and heat, and to prioritize safer, less polluting modes of travel like transit.
Ensure that major corridor improvement projects – such as I-495 Southside – have objective studies that fully evaluate alternatives rather than starting with a conclusions-first approach. We should not be making multibillion dollar, 50-year decisions via poorly structured studies. We are disappointed that VDOT has decided – yet again – to only evaluate build alternatives for widening and HOT lanes, and not meaningfully consider a comprehensive transit, travel demand management and land use solution.
Follow through on your climate change commitments. Virginia transportation agencies oversee the largest source of planet-warming pollution in the state, yet residents do not see accountability in plans and policies – and little urgency in agency actions. VDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy, for example, sets no targets or performance measures. Statewide funding decisions have used the additional federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money to worsen the climate change impact of Virginia’s transportation system.

Recent analysis by the organization Transportation for America shows that Virginia will pollute 1.3 million more tons of carbon dioxide through 2040 as a result of state, local and MPO-level decisions to prioritize even more money for highway expansion. Meanwhile, a number of other states instead used this additional funding to address maintenance backlogs, fund cleaner affordable travel modes, and reduce emissions.

Numerous analyses show that electric vehicles – while essential – will not be enough to slash greenhouse gas pollution to safe levels. Northern Virginia localities and agencies must ensure that communities can meet their daily needs with less driving and more affordable, convenient and sustainable options. If Virginia did this statewide (e.g., a 20% decrease in per capita vehicle miles traveled due to more accessible communities and travel options), it would save households $1,280 per year in transportation costs, avoid 105 crash deaths, save 761 lives due to better health outcomes, reduce load on the electric grid, and slash GHG emissions.

CSG recently prepared a brief for regional officials of actions that you can take now, which we attach.

With the incoming federal administration, even more responsibility will rest on your shoulders to fund transit, provide safe streets, and reduce climate pollution. We ask you to act quickly on these four priorities.

Thank you,