Last year's sales tax referendum seemed to be on a lot of people's minds Monday night, as transportation advocates and officials from around the region crammed into a George Mason University conference room to discuss Northern Virginia's transportation problem.
State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, who organized the event, said his intent was to help educate citizens about the region's transportation problems.
"One of the lessons of last year's sales tax referendum was the critical importance of educating voters," he said.
When he talked to people about their concerns on the referendum, he said, "they inevitably involve funding. They inevitably involve environmental issues. They inevitably involve, 'Where's the road going to go?' NIMBY issues, if you will."
As a result, he said, one of the goals was to "come to some conclusion about how we should proceed."
In light of last year's referendum defeat, transportation issues have become a major campaign issue this election year.
But Roger Stough, director of the transportation policy program at George Mason University, said that politicians will probably not offer any solutions.
"High-end leadership rarely comes from government officials or elected leaders," he said. Rather, it comes from citizen or advocacy groups, he added.
"It's part of our American ethos," said Stough. "We have very weak government institutions in the United States."
CHRIS MILLER, a smart-growth advocate, who heads the Piedmont Environmental Council, said the first step in dealing with traffic congestion has to come from the land-use side. Development that spreads farther and farther away without any of the necessary infrastructure is only going to cause more congestion, he said.
"We have to deal with the land-use problem or we won't be able to apply innovative ideas like telecommuting in an extended way," he said.
But it's difficult to tie the transportation plan to the land-use plan over the long term because the transportation plan changes so frequently depending on funding and political will, said Hobie Mitchell, a member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the state's policy-making body for transportation.
"One of the problems in transportation is consistency within the plan," he said.
And it's becoming more difficult to embark on new transportation projects as more and more of the state's resources are used for basic maintenance, he said.
As of last year, Virginia spends more on maintenance than on new construction, he added.
THE MEETING also addressed the questions of HOT Lanes on the Beltway, and Dulles Rail.
Last month, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a plan that would allow the private firm Fluor Daniel to build and operate additional lanes on I-495 that would be free for carpools but that would charge single drivers a toll. In October, Fluor Daniel will formally present its proposal. State officials will then determine whether the project is feasible.
Bill Hellman, Maryland's former secretary of transportation, said that Maryland transportation officials had studied HOT Lanes on Route 50 between Annapolis and Washington but that citizen opposition had led then-Gov. Parris Glendening to kill the project.
Kenneth Orski, a transportation analyst, said that to be successful, HOT Lanes have to be sold to the public as a realistic, affordable alternative to traffic congestion.
"I think we'll have to work at it, and we'll have to have a lot of agreement among the leadership in the region," he said.
Rick Volk, of Koch Performance Roads, which was involved in the improvements to I-81, said HOT Lanes are attractive to private building firms because they can take on the cost of the project and be repaid through the tolls.
"HOT Lanes oftentimes can fund a program with little or no state and federal monies and no