From the Chamber Chief: October, 2015

Transportation: The Money Just Isnt There!

If Ive heard this once, Ive heard it a thousand times.
Though we have been the fastest-growing region in
the Commonwealth for more than 40 years,
transportation experts, engineers, and politicians tell
us our transportation woes are simply
insurmountable. Heres how it works: to get road
improvements throughout Virginia, the state is using
new formulas to prioritize transportation funding per
2014s House Bill Two (HB2). The prioritization process ranks road projects
based on congestion mitigation, economic development, accessibility, safety,
environmental quality, and land use/transportation coordination. Localities
rank their own projects and submit them to the Commonwealth
Transportation Board to vote for project funding based on scores. The
process is supposed to be transparent, non-political, and able to favor areas
that have more urgent needs. But heres the kicker. Even if we rigged the
entire formula to shift all available funds to only our regionyou guessed it.
Wed barely skim the surface of our regions needs.
Now that you know how it works, how do you think this reality sits with all of
the folks sitting in I-95 gridlock every day, week after week, month after
month, year after year? This is no longer just about the workers commute to
Washington D.C. If youre simply trying to move around the region lets say,
like J.F. Ficks drivers, attempting to deliver goods to vendors forget about
trying to do it during traditional business hours. Those trucks have to hit the
road in the middle of the night. This isnt an option for businesses like
PermaTreat Pest Control who literally make scheduled house calls during
daylight hours. Today, PermaTreat associates service less than half of the
locations they once were able to visit in one day due to continuously clogged
roads. Yet another local business, LifeCare Medical Transports, is on-call 24
hours a day. Their drivers have spent an uncountable number of stressful
moments trying to transport an ailing person from their home or the scene of
an accident to one of our three local hospitals. In addition, they are unable to
move on local roads such as Route 1, 3, or 17 due to I-95 traffic that has
once again been rerouted. As evidenced, the clogged roads are a severe
hindrance to business and general public safety.

So what is the general consensus? I can answer that for you. We are
disgusted, furious, frustrated, and exhausted. We are tired of wasting time
and money sitting in clogged roads. So whats a Chamber to do?
First things first we need to understand the process. Weve done that, now
we need to convey the process to the business community and to the
broader community so everyone can understand the issue and help us to
facilitate change. We have been doing this for several years now by hosting
meetings and events focused on transportation solutions. Our most recent
effort was the August 17 Transportation Summit that featured local elected
officials, our VDOT Commissioner, Charlie Kilpatrick, and our CTB
representative, Hap Connors. Led by members of our Regional Transportation
Action Committee (RTAC), the Summit was an opportunity for us to once
again shine light on the worsening issue.
We were told at this event that we have incredible needs quickly becoming
the worst in Virginia and amongst the worst in the entire country but again,
the money just isnt there.
We can no longer accept this. We must be the driving force that demands
action. We must be willing to support our leaders as they make the difficult
decisions that are required in order for us to have relief. We must also seek
private sector solutions and public-private partnerships that can further
improve our infrastructure. We believe this issue is bigger than us; indeed,
we consider it a matter of national security. We will have serious discussions
with our federal delegation about our I-95 corridor and our regions incredible
chokepoints. We are not opposed to raising the federal gas tax. If a new
regional transportation authority needs to be created, we will facilitate the
discussion that leads to it. These are small potatoes compared to the hours
wasted sitting in traffic. This is a crisis for our regions future economy and
quality of life. The Chamber will continue to lead the discussion. I sincerely
hope you will join us.

Susan Spears is President & CEO of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of

Commerce.