Time after time over the past ten years, Johnny Joannou has voted against every reasonable proposal aimed at easing traffic congestion and providing sorely needed funding to improve roads and mass transit. First, he opposed Gov. Mark Warner's plan to let the citizens of Hampton Roads decide for themselves how to finance transportation improvements. He even appeared in a TV ad with Republican Del. Tom Gear to denounce Gov. Warner's plan.
Then, when Gov. Kaine proposed a plan last year to help jump start vitally needed regional projects like expansion of the Midtown Tunnel between Portsmouth and Norfolk, Joannou again joined House Republicans in killing the bill.
But don't just take our word for it. Even while Joannou was claiming to agree with other lawmakers that something needs to be done to break through the traffic bottleneck, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot aptly noted late last year that Joannou was "alone in resisting every reasonable plan to pay for it."
Why? Because when it comes to solving traffic woes, Johnny Roadblock's first order of business is... well, to put up roadblocks. Over the years, he has offered a variety of excuses to avoid addressing critical transportation needs in Hampton Roads. First he opposed the 2002 regional transportation referendum, deriding it as a "hodgepodge approach" and called on the General Assembly to approve a statewide plan. But then, he opposed statewide proposals to fix traffic congestion, contending that they weren't "really necessary." Using bonds to fund new roads is even worse, he has argued, prompting the Virginian-Pilot back in 2002 to criticize his "half-truths" and wonder whether he was counting on voters' ignorance to serve his own political interests.
In fact, Joannou has one of the worst records on transportation of anyone in the entire Virginia Assembly. He has been taking up space in the Virginia General Assembly, off and on, since Gerald R. Ford was in the White House. But while Johnny has been offering roadblocks instead of solutions, traffic in the real world outside has reached crisis proportions.
So next time you're sitting in traffic while idling car exhausts pollute the air around you and economic development opportunities choke on the gridlock, remember who deserves the credit - Johnny 'Roadblock' Joannou.