Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce

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Transportation

Alarming Report About Regional Transportation Crisis:

May 2005. The Texas Transportation Institute 2005 Urban Mobility Report shows the Metropolitan Washington region ranks -

RankCategory
#3Average hours lost sitting in traffic (69 - 3 hours more than previous year)
#3ongestion cost per commuter ($1669 - $80 more than previous year)
#4Excess fuel consumed per commuter due to congestion (42 gallons/year - 2 gallons more than previous year)
#5Total excess gallons of fuel consumed due to congestion (88 million gallons - 4 million more than previous year)
#7Total regional congestion cost ($2.465 billion/year - $209 million more than previous year)
#7Total delay due to congestion (145 million hours/year - 9 million more than previous year)

The Alliance Alert is a free online update on regional transportation issues and public involvement opportunities provided by the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. For more information please visit www.nvta.org.

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Transportation Organizations

Other organizations with information on transportation advocacy include:

Online information resources:

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Chamber Posistion on Va. Transportation Policy

Excerpt from the Chamber's 2005 POSITION PAPER delivered to the General Assembly

The Dulles Regional Chamber strongly endorses the Northern Virginia position statement adopted in the past by the Northern Virginia business community that forcefully stresses that the Virginia General Assembly must take an aggressive leadership role in coordinating the federal, state, regional and local responsibilities in resolving the Northern Virginia transportation crisis.

Dulles Airport is the economic engine for much of Northern Virginia. It is absolutely critical to the long-term well being of Dulles Airport and its environs that it is served by an efficient and effective system of access and supporting transportation facilities. The Dulles Regional Chamber strongly urges the Virginia General Assembly to invest the resources necessary to develop a comprehensive multi-modal transportation system to effectively serve our area. In particular, we support the following initiatives:

Transportation Partnership Act

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce supports the Governor s Transportation Partnership Act, that provides $824 million in new funding to jump-start promising public-private partnerships, promote greater use of rail and transit, encourage local oversight of road projects and eliminate deficits on completed projects in Virginia s six-year transportation program.

Transportation Trust Fund

We support legislation that will make the Transportation Trust Fund established in 1986 a permanent fund and receive all revenues generated by the 1986 package of tax and fee increases and any later enactments dedicating additional revenues to the Fund. The amendment limits the use of Trust Fund moneys to purposes of highway construction, maintenance, and improvements, public transportation, railways, seaports, and airports. The General Assembly may use fund proceeds for other purposes only by a two-thirds vote of the members in each house. However, fund proceeds used for other purposes must be repaid to the Fund within three years.

Abuser Fees

We support the concept of “Abuser Fees” proposed by Delegate Tom Rust to punish chronic traffic law breakers by charging them an additional fee, with that money going directly into the Transportation Trust Fund.

New Revenue Sources for Transportation

Even though current state revenues are constrained, additional funding is essential to finance critically needed transportation infrastructure improvements in Northern Virginia and throughout the Commonwealth. Current statewide transportation funding is simply not adequate to meet essential capital facility needs for today’s and for future demands.

We ask the General Assembly to find a workable comprehensive plan for transportation facility financing that is based on sustainable, long-term transportation funding sources. Significant portions of the future tax revenues that the Commonwealth will be deriving from the revitalized Northern Virginia economy must be reinvested to finance the essential transportation system improvements that make continued economic growth possible.

Mass Transit

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce strongly urges the Commonwealth of Virginia to commit to its funding of, and support for, the extension of Metrorail from East Falls Church into the Dulles Corridor and then on to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County. This project must remain the number one transportation priority in Virginia.

We salute the leadership of the Governor and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation commencing preliminary engineering of the Metrorail Dulles Corridor Extension Project and urge adoption of a policy to assure that a workable long-term funding plan is immediately put in place to insure the expeditious construction and on-going financial viability of the entire rail extension. Reliable long-term funding sources and revenues must far exceed the current very limited Federal funding infusions and the redirection of excess Dulles Toll Road revenues.

Additionally, the Commonwealth, working closely with the local jurisdictions surrounding Dulles Airport, must in the short-term continue the development of an affordable bus transportation system to make the Airport and the Udvar-Hazy Dulles Center of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum more accessible for both employees and the general public.

We support immediate planning for the eventual extension of a permanent transit connection to the Town of Leesburg. We support the extension of the current Metro Orange Line from Nutley Street to Centreville and beyond via the I-66 right-of-way, and its eventual extension to Manassas and into Prince William County. The Committee supports the development of a future transit connection between the Dulles Corridor rail line and the I-66 rail system to the south via Route 28.

Western Transportation Corridor and Potomac Bridge Crossings

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce urges the Virginia General Assembly, VDOT and local government officials to continue planning for this vitally important transportation facility. Northern Virginia will continue its dramatic growth in the years ahead regardless of any short-term government land use policies. The Western Transportation Corridor will be absolutely essential to sustaining the associated economic growth of the region. We urge the Commonwealth to intensify efforts to maintain a productive planning and implementation dialogue with affected local governments and the State of Maryland relative to additional bridge crossings of the Potomac and other regional transportation concerns.

We support the Western Transportation Corridor as absolutely essential to the long-term well being of Dulles Airport, Northern Virginia and the Commonwealth. Local governments and VDOT must be directed to proceed immediately to carry out those steps that assure the reservation and acquisition of right-of-way. Although full construction of a specific transportation facility may be deferred until funding is available, rapidly escalating land costs, declining land availability and land use planning issues dictate that the right of way must be acquired as soon as possible.

Other Regional Transportation Improvements

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce supports other key regional transportation improvements that are essential to providing accessibility to Washington Dulles Airport:

  • Final completion of the Fairfax County Parkway to I-95, including the grade-separation of currently at-grade intersections;
  • Expeditious conclusion of the Route 28 improvements, including each of the 10 grade-separated interchanges planned between I-66 and Route 7;
  • Continued planning, design and construction of the Dulles Connector (Route 234 Bypass Extension / VA Route 659 relocation) between I-66 and the Dulles Greenway;
  • Construction of the Tri-County Connector serving Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties;
  • Upgrading of VA Route 606 as a high capacity connector from the Town of Herndon on the north to US Route 50 on the south;
  • Improvement of the carrying capacity of the Capital Beltway Corridor between Springfield and the American Legion Bridge

Use of New Transportation Technologies

The Virginia General Assembly should direct state transportation officials to give high priority to research relating to new developments in transportation management technologies. If they are found to be effective, VDOT should incorporate these new Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies such as the development of High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, into agency operation standards. Virginia should be in the forefront of transportation innovation worldwide, not lagging behind.

Airport Expansion

As the Airports Authority undergoes its major capital facilities development program to sustain the growth of passenger and cargo services at Dulles, the on-going support of the Virginia General Assembly, local governments, and the entire Commonwealth will be essential to assuring the successful realization of this work. The special support of the Commonwealth and its agencies will be required especially during the planning and construction of the third north-south runway and the second east-west runway.

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