I think we will all agree that traffic in Northern Virginia—ranked third-worst in the nation—is outrageous. Recently, I calculated that I spend 20 hours every week commuting to and from DC, most of which I spend in my car on I-66 en route to the Vienna metro. Every year, I—along with my fellow commuters on I-66—spend almost 3.5 weeks sitting in traffic just to get to the closest metro stop. Not only do we not recoup this lost time, but the stress of commuting takes a genuine toll on our physical and emotional health.

The good news is that there is consensus that we need to do something to fix this festering transportation mess with adequate long-range transportation funding for Northern Virginia. Two years ago, Virginia spent about $300 million for building secondary and urban roads, which we use to move about our community. Of that budget, $46 million was allocated to Northern Virginia. This coming year, there will only be $62 million for transportation spending for the entire state and Northern Virginia will get a paltry $1 million. You do the math. We weren’t keeping up with road maintenance and traffic congestion when Northern Virginia received $46 million. How will we even patch the potholes with only $1 million? This is a transportation catastrophe in the making.

Our roads have not kept up with the business development and population growth in our district. When I moved to the Centreville/Clifton area 10 years ago, there was much undeveloped land. Since then shopping centers and housing along Highways 28 and 29 have been built in nearly every open space. Lee Highway, for example, is the same four lane highway it was ten years ago, with almost double the amount of traffic. Failure to address these transportation bottlenecks affects people in terms of time, dollars, employment opportunities, and safety. Moreover, continued congestion will discourage economic growth and development in our District.

Investments in light rail and/or dedicated express bus lanes, in addition to linking communities to metro hubs, should be explored and implemented now. Other communities around the country are investing in such transportation options. New Mexico, for example, recently implemented an above ground train which parallels their major interstate highway connecting Santa Fe, Albuquerque and other cities in New Mexico and has become a popular commuter option. This technology is available; we simply must act.

As your Delegate, there are a number of strategies which I will promote to ease Northern Virginia traffic congestion and manage our transportation infrastructure.

• Encourage development of alternative mass transportation options such as dedicated lane express buses and high-speed light rail trains;
• Fund roads through a combination of gas taxes, tolls and vehicle registration;
• Encourage our Northern Virginia Congressional representatives to have the federal government consider moving more federal agency headquarters to Northern Virginia from Washington D.C. to lessen the commute of many Virginia federal employees, reduce traffic congestion, utilize already built but currently empty office space in the Dulles Corridor, and reduce the risk of a terrorist attack and pandemic disease by spreading out our federal government agency staffs;
• Encourage smart growth land use planning to concentrate future urban and suburban development near mass transit hubs to reduce future Northern Virginia highway congestion; and
• Offer tax credits for those Virginia businesses that develop widespread telecommuting operation options and alternative work schedules for their employees to reduce traffic on our major Northern Virginia highways during the rush hours, and provide a means to protect Virginia citizens and businesses from possible pandemics or disasters./li>