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EDITORIAL: Special Education
(Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 22--Tomorrow Virginia's General Assembly convenes in special session to address -- once more -- its ongoing transportation dilemma. In recent weeks we have devoted considerable space to discussing the subject from angles both narrow and wide. To recap:
Virginia faces not one transportation crisis, but two. The second is minor, fiscal, and quickly fixable. It is a funding shortfall created by repeal of the abusive-driver fees and a court decision overturning taxing authority for regional transportation districts in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
The Assembly needs to plug the fiscal hole for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that Virginia has nearly run out of money for new construction. What's more, the state gasoline tax, which is not pegged to inflation, has lost nearly half its value in the past couple of decades, and rising fuel-economy standards (along with changes in consumer buying habits brought about by high gasoline prices) will erode its contribution to state coffers even further.
Assembly Republicans seem reflexively opposed to hiking taxes, and given the kudzu-like growth of state government in recent years they have understandable reason to be. But the commonwealth clearly needs new money, at least in the short term, for transportation -- and this has put them in a bind (hence the ill-conceived abusive-driver fees, for instance).
The gasoline tax is the most logical place to look for it. The gasoline tax amounts to a user fee on driving. Like higher prices at the pump, it creates an incentive to drive less -- thereby easing congestion pressure and roadway deterioration. Since all taxes ultimately come out of the citizen's left pocket or his right, the Assembly should offset the gas-tax hike elsewhere, as we urged in the editorial, "Parallel Tracks" -- perhaps by completing the phase-out of the property tax on cars. That tax break might subsidize car ownership, but the effect on roads will be zero if higher gasoline taxes reduce the number of miles driven.
Along with hiking the gasoline tax, lawmakers should revisit the local-option tax hikes struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court. This too is an easy fix: Simply restore the original legislation's language that gave taxing power to elected local officials instead of unelected authorities. There is no need for a one-size-fits-all policy when the problems confronting Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads differ so markedly from those in more rural realms.
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A new infusion of cash for road construction, however, only kicks the can down the road. As we explained in the editorial, "Road Math," road maintenance inevitably consumes a larger and larger slice of the transportation pie not only without tax hikes, but even with tax hikes. Just as an addition on a house imposes maintenance costs for heating, cooling, cleaning, and so on, every new mile of road imposes new maintenance costs as well. Over time the maintenance costs rise, until no money is left for construction. A new infusion of cash only starts the cycle over again -- it does not change the underlying fundamentals at all.
As we noted in "Moving Forward," the first piece in the series, Virginia cannot build its way to paradise. Consider the case of Atlanta, where development consumed more than 100 acres every day -- for the course of nearly two decades. By the turn of the century Atlanta had more highway lane miles per person than any other city in America except for Dallas. And yet, between 1992 and 1999, the average length of time an Atlanta resident spent in traffic doubled -- and congestion grew worse.
Endlessly repeating the cycle might please the special interests that have been agitating for more road construction -- such as the Virginia Ready-Mixed Concrete Association, the Associated General Contractors of Virginia, the Heavy Construction Contractors Association, and the Old Dominion Highway Contractors Association, all of which joined real-estate and other business lobbies in writing to Gov. Tim Kaine last month urging tax hikes for roads. (See the editorial, "Go Redskins!")
. . .
But doing the same thing over and over again will only produce results similar to these:
--From 1997 to 2007, Virginia's population grew from 6.7 million to 7.7 million (a 15-percent increase); during the same period, the total budget for the Virginia Department of Transportation grew from $2.2 billion to $4.9 billion (a 123-percent increase).
--While population growth has slowed down, the rate of land consumption has accelerated. Between 1982 and 1992, the pace of development in Virginia averaged 120 acres per day; by the late 1990s, the pace of development consumed 188 acres per day.
--Between 1980 and 2000 the number of vehicle miles traveled in Virginia rose nearly three times as fast as population.
Virginia simply cannot afford to extend such trend lines forever upward in an asymptotic approach to infinity. Something has to give.
That something is land-use policy. The commonwealth already has taken some baby steps away from current policies that subsidize sprawl, such as its assumption of responsibility for maintaining roads built by developers in new residential subdivisions. The state also has begun requiring traffic-impact studies for new development. But it needs to do more.
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One of the easiest things the state can do is encourage telecommuting, a subject explored in the series editorial, "It's Tele-Working." Telecommuting is not feasible for every occupation or even every economic sector. But it is feasible for far more businesses than currently encourage it. In combination with flexible work schedules, telecommuting can ease congestion, save gas, improve air quality and highway safety, expand opportunities for the handicapped, and even improve worker productivity: Analysis by J.D. Edwards and American Express found that workers who telecommute increase their output between 20 percent and 43 percent. That alone should provide a substantial incentive for businesses to explore the practice -- and for Virginia to encourage it as much as possible. For more information, visit the state's Web site, www.Teleworkva.org.
Ultimately, though, Virginia has to change the way it looks at land use. It will have to encourage smart growth and more flexible zoning so that simple tasks such as grocery shopping do not require long trips in the car. A study of traffic in Northern Virginia several years ago found that motorists spent the bulk of their driving time attending to the ordinary business of life -- school events, shopping, and so on -- not commuting. Rather than subsidizing sprawl, the state should require new development to pay for itself. This will require legislators to stand up to some of the most powerful business lobbies in the commonwealth -- a task true leaders ought to be able to meet.
Containing sprawl also will redound to the benefit of mass transit, which has limited utility for much of the state. In order for commuter rail and similar alternatives to succeed, they require a critical mass of population density. That won't happen so long as the commonwealth cheerfully pays to build roads wherever developers want to put houses.
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Finally, Virginia needs to start pricing its roads. This might sound esoteric, but it really isn't. Cell-phone companies and electricity utilities do much the same when they charge peak prices during periods of peak demand. On the road, however, the price to drive a mile is the same whether you are tooling down a country lane at 2 a.m., or creeping along Hull Street Road at rush hour.
A better approach would impose prices for driving that vary from moment to moment as demand fluctuates. (Such congestion pricing differs substantially from the "cordon tax" approach used in places such as London and Stockholm, where you pay a flat rate to enter a restricted urban center.) As one state transportation official has observed, the result is almost counterintuitive: Priced roads can handle more traffic, not less, by distributing the volume of traffic more evenly throughout the day.
Congestion pricing is not currently feasible except at toll booths, but Virginia can start there -- and do what it can to encourage the concept elsewhere. Although drivers already adjust their commuting times and travel routes slightly to reduce congestion, more rational road pricing would act as a force multiplier and encourage them to do even more (such as telecommute).
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We will stress, once again, that the proposals above are intended as jumping-off points for discussion, not a miracle cure for everything that ails Virginia's transportation network. We invite interested parties to submit their own ideas for consideration on The Times-Dispatch's opinion pages. And we hope legislators will ponder all of the proposals, from every source, with open minds.
To see more of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesdispatch.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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