“A
review of northern Virginia transportation and growth politics, and campaign contributions,
over the last two decades reveals a short list of powerful developers and business
leaders who have played a strong role in setting the region’s agenda. Many
of the developer contributors to ‘Citizens’ for Better Transportation
are the same people who have dominated politics behind the scenes in northern
Virginia for decades and have used campaign contributions to hold inordinate sway
over regional decision-making.” - Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter
Growth
Traffic congestion
in Northern Virginia is caused by out of control development - development that
is scattered and forces us to drive everywhere for everything. Widening highways
and building more, while approving more and more development like a Tyson's Corner
at Gainesville will only make things worse.
Better Land Use First
Before spending billions of dollars on new transportation projects, let's
rethink the way that we are growing in the region and find more effective, less
expensive solutions to our traffic woes. Prince William County has already set
aside many more acres for development than it needs and most of the development
is poorly planned. Instead of building yet another strip shopping center, the
County should build real town centers where people can walk and bike, have access
to transit, and if they drive, they can park once to complete their errands. The
County should protect open space through enforcing the Rural Crescent.
Transit-Oriented Development
We can make better use of our existing investment in transit stations by creating
mixed-use transit-oriented communities with shops, housing and offices. These
communities are walkable and bikable and give people an array of choices to get
where they need to go. Creating such communities at places like the Woodbridge,
Manassas and Innovation VRE stations would help cut the amount of driving, increase
transit use, and protect open space.
Make Developers Pay A Fairer Share of their Transportation Costs
Major developers have repeatedly evaded paying a fair share of local and state
infrastructure costs generated by their new development. A flexible system that
charged more for development where there is inadequate infrastructure would help
generate more funding for transportation.
Contributed by the Coalition for Smarter Growth
