Sprawl and Traffic Congestion

Transportation corridors have affected the location of Virginia development at least since 1607. Proposals for economic development in Appalachia still start with "we need better roads," and the Coalfields Expressway in the Appalachian Plateau from Pound in Wise County to Interstate 77 at Beckley, West Virginia is just the latest attempt to jump-start local growth by reducing the costs of transportation. Nearly all residents of coal country are in favor of new roads - try driving though those narrow valleys someday, and see if your perspective doesn't begin to mesh with that of the residents.

But are costs actually reduced by roads, or just shifted? The Coalfields Expressway won't be built for free. Innovative financing may push the costs into future budgets, but the taxpayers of Virginia far from Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties will be paying for that transportation improvement. The local wildlife will also be affected - greater convenience for people usually involves impacts on the natural environment.

Investments in transportation are not neutral - they steer growth towards an area. Failing to build roads or interchanges, or failing to maintain/existing ones, will deter growth. It's no secret that housing and transportation are intimately connected - though the government agencies that deal with one often fail to coordinate effectively with the other.

Still, in the Housing Act passed waaaay back in 1961, the federal government assumed a role in financing mass transit so state and local governments could purchase buses, trolleys and trains. In theory, mass transit would enable low-income residents without a car to have access to jobs in the area. That requires mass transit managers to offer reasonable connections from the various housing developments to the employment centers. Since 1961, the character of many downtowns have shifted dramatically - and while the jobs may have moved to the suburbs, not all of the bus systems have been able to expand.

Chesterfield County has openly opposed the efforts of the Richmond-based bus system to offer service in the county. The opposition was blased in part upon the rivalry between the two jurisdictions, but illustrated more clearly the prejudices based on the income level and the racial makeup of inner-city vs. suburban residents.

Transportation is a hotly-debated issue across the state, and the predominant issue (along with schools) for local politics in Northern Virginia. The local business community (and the Washington Post newspaper in particular) constantly advocate greater investment in local transportation. Legislators in the region strongly supported increased funding for local (hey, all politics is local, right?) road improvements to be included as "priority projects," when the General Assembly's specifically directed funding for a six-year, $2.6 billion statewide transportation package in the 2000 session.

In Northern Virginia, as in Southwestern Virginia, new roads are also recognized as stimuli for new development. In the suburban counties of Loudoun, Prince William, and Fauquier, however, strong opposition has developed against proposed roads such as the Western Transportation Corridor. These are perceived as "developer highways" to stimulate new housing in rural areas, helping farmers convert fields to subdivisions - but not easing the clogged commutes of current residents. Talking points from the Voters To Stop Sprawl in Prince William County include:

• Transportation money should not be used to build roads whose major impact will be to promote sprawl development and to generate unaffordable infrastructure needs.
• Transportation money should be used to encourage livable, walkable communities that rely much more heavily on public transportation and telecommuting rather than reliance on private automobiles.
• Transportation money should be used to favor public transportation approaches within and connecting urban areas using such techniques as light rail in existing corridors, express bus lanes and other rail approaches such as the highly successful VRE which should be expanded.
• The future costs the use of the private automobile are certain to increase dramatically as a result of inevitably increasing energy costs, and the recognition of the environmental costs of the use of automobiles compared to the alternatives. Planning for these changes should be obligatory now rather than 20 years from now.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance highlights that more roads (and transit) are required where the people are actually living, not where the planners want them to live. An April 12, 2004 "NVTA Aliance Alert" put it clearly:

The Urban Mobility Study of the Texas Transportation Institute has examined the traffic congestion in the Washington, DC-Maryland-Virginia region. In 1999, that region had expanded to 1,000 square miles, with a population density of 3,465 people/square mile. The mobility report shows that traffic has increased far faster than the region's population in the last two decades:

To highlight the point that population growth was not the only reason for increasing traffic congestion, consider these changes between 1982-1997:

Primary source for the Texas Transportation Institute statistics: the Federal Highway Administration's Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) database (see also Highway Statistics 1997).

The cost of traffic congestion is not just a decrease in the quality of life, leading to "road rage." There's an actual pocketbook cost, increased taxes for current residents to provide the infrastructure to support new suburban residents. The costs of sprawl are somewhat hidden, and highly debatable. There is, after all, a reason that people choose the live in the suburbs. Typically a family can get a larger house, with more yard space for children to play, by moving away from the job center and commuting to work. Some commuters even enjoy the solo experience of driving in their cars, referring to "road zen" for the hours they get to be undisturbed, in total control of the radio, air conditioning, etc.

Links

• Congressional Research Service - Appalachian Development Highway Program (ADHP): An Overview (December 7, 1998)
• Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance
• The Shape of the Future columns by Ed Risse