Lowell vs. Teddy on Transportation

Having been a Realtor? in Northern Virginia since 1967, I know where people live and how they get to work. Here is some hard-earned knowledge:

First: Roads do NOT create automobiles and traffic. People do.  Northern Virginia creates thousands of new jobs every year, people come here to fill those jobs, and people here continue to have babies. All these people must live somewhere, and they have to get to work at those jobs, so we have traffic. Therefore, don?t listen to folks who say building a road will only create more traffic because we?ll have the traffic no matter what.

Lowell says: I completely agree that people create traffic.  If that were true, then densely populated cities like Tokyo would be completely impassible.  Instead, Tokyo has a world-class network of rail transportation, and manages to move millions of people around every day.  Same thing with New York City.  More people do NOT necessarily lead to more automobile traffic, but more roads certainly encourage a sprawling pattern of development and, ultimately, traffic congestion.  Simply stated:  you can't pave your way out of this problem; the answer is smart growth!

Second: It?s true that more intelligent land use and zoning will help ameliorate FUTURE congestion, but we have to start from where we are now, so what can we do to keep from strangling our local economy in gridlock?

Lowell: True, we are stuck with what we have now, but that doesn't mean we have to keep on perpetuating the same mistakes over and over again.  From here on out, let's vow to grow smart, not just contribute to mindless, never-ending sprawl to nowhere.

I strongly recommend the following, going from large to small:

#1) An absolute no-loophole lock on our transportation trust fund so tough that no legislature or governor can get their greedy little fingers in the till.

Lowell:  I agree to an extent with this, although frankly it sounds kind of gimmicky and political to me.  As an economist, my view is that money is "fungible," and that "lockboxes" don't work too well in real life.  Remember Clinton's "lockbox" on the Social Security trust fund? Well, there never really was one and there never will be, because the Federal budget is one big pool of money.  Moving that money around can simply become a political "shell game."  No thanks.

#2) With such a lock in place I want sufficient dedicated funds to flow into the trust fund.. There is no transportation solution I can see that is cheap, or can be funded out of ?extra? general funds, so set up the money from the getgo.

Lowell: I agree that we need to decide how much money to spend on transportation, and not siphon it out of education, health care, etc.  That means extra revenues, though, which people don't like paying.  Check. Mate.

#3) We absolutely must have two more bridges across the Potomac, one north, one south, and our Governor will have to negotiate hard with the sovereign state of Maryland. This means both an eastern and western ?bypass? and we need it not only to steer through truck traffic around the metro area but, yes, for inter-state commuters (Gaithersburg to Reston, for example), AND also for national security to evacuate our national capital.

Lowell:  Aside from costing a fortune and probably being very bad for the environment, more bridges across the Potomac River would simply contribute to sprawl, in my opinion.  I completely oppose this non-starter of a plan.  I also strongly doubt that any of this would really help "evacuate" our nation's capital in the event of a serious terrorist attack. For one thing, where would people GO exactly?

#4) We desperately need a Tri-County Connector similar to the existing Fairfax County Parkway. The Connector goes from Prince William County Parkway through northwest Fairfax County to link with the Loudoun County Parkway and ultimately Route 7.

Lowell:  See my comments to #3 above.

#5) More mass transit along the Dulles toll road while we are in the process of extending rail to Dulles and on out I-66 to Gainesville as well.

Lowell:  I basically agree with this, although I would look at all options for transit and not just the extremely expensive Metro option.

#6) Let?s make little improvements to soothe road rage, like: better synchronized traffic lights, longer left turn or de-celeration lanes, and even bringing back those traffic cameras that caught people running red lights. They worked, why get rid of them? And finally, a little fantasy...

Lowell: I agree with this.

#7) Innovate ways to relieve traffic that do NOT require expensive roadbeds and antagonistic condemnation proceedings. When we build a rail line, for example, it?s entirely possible the government will make it useless by, say, closing offices in Crystal City which is served by rail
lines, and transferring the jobs to Fort Belvoir, which has no rail. Let?s think about things like: encouraging telecommuting; possible hydrofoil ferries from Fredericksburg up the Potomac, and even running passenger dirigibles for commuters from Front Royal. Why not?

Lowell:  I think that we need to coordinate land use planning and development with transportation in a much more effective manner than we have done in the past.  We also need to think creatively and "outside the box."  I would support the return of trolley lines, monorails where appropriate, and a massive effort at increaing pedestrian and bicycling options for people so that they never have to get in their cars in the first place.  Also, we need to plan our communities so that people can walk to the grocery store, library, town hall, etc.

And finally, I want all this right away, we should stop ditzing around and get on with it.

Lowell: I agree that we need to "get on with it," but I think this debate alone demonstrates why we haven't.  People have VERY strong views on this subject, and it's difficult to reach consensus.  I wish Gov.-elect Kaine luck in doing just that.  So far, he's off to a great start by listening to the views of Virginians on this issue

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