October 7, 2009 1:27 PM
State Leaders are Missing the Boat on Transportation
I listened to an interview with the Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor of Virginia last night. One of the hot topics in Virginia (and many other states) is transportation infrastructure. All states have been hurt by the recession, and most also face the twin budget challenges of how to expand their transportation infrastructure to serve increased future demands, and a deteriorating transportation infrastructure. I was disappointed by what I heard.
Both candidates are missing a great opportunity to address Virginia's transportation gridlock. Both are currently focused entirely on how to pay for more road and transit projects rather than on how to reduce the need for those projects. The biggest problem is peak capacity. Traffic on major roads in the Washington DC area (rt.66, 495, 95, etc.) isn't bad during the middle of most weekdays. During rush hour those roads turn into parking lots. Many of Virginia's proposed transportation projects are mainly about widening the parking lots in urban/suburban areas. There is a better solution to spending all that money on widening those parking lots in Virginia and many other states, which in many cases would be creating capacity that is unneeded except during rush hours.
On August 3, 2,286 federal and private sector employees as well as 1,765 state employees participated in Telework Day in Virginia. Those teleworkers saved approximately $113,000, avoided driving 140,000 miles and removed 75.89 tons of pollutants from the air on one single day. If all eligible Virginia employees teleworked one day per week for a year, teleworkers in the Commonwealth would collectively avoid driving 602 million miles, remove 360,800 tons of pollutants from the air, and save $807 million in commuting costs. Over the course of a year this would equal a $1,822 annual raise for every teleworker in Virginia, and save 46 hours a year in commuting. A survey of Virginia's teleworkers also showed that 69 percent felt they accomplished more than a typical day at the office and 91 percent said that they would be more likely to telework again as a result of their experience.
Similar experiments in other states have also showed similar favorable results. The federal government has adopted policies to encourage telecommuting. Today an estimated 7% of federal workers telecommute. If we reduced the average number of daily commuters in Virginia and other state cities and suburbs by 20% (by letting them work at home one day a week), rush hour gridlock would probably end or be substantially reduced in most areas. The pressure on the state transportation infrastructure would thus also be greatly reduced. We need to move from Governor Kaine's worthy experiment to concrete permanent state teleworking policies to reduce rush hour traffic. The need for transportation infrastructure investments in Virginia can be substantially reduced by enacting permanent policies and incentives such as tax credits for homeowners and their employers to encourage teleworking. Both candidates should redirect some of Virginia's transportation budget to directives and incentives that would enable more Virginians to work from their homes, which in turn will reduce the need for many of the transportation infrastructure investments.
Both candidates are missing a great opportunity to address Virginia's transportation gridlock. Both are currently focused entirely on how to pay for more road and transit projects rather than on how to reduce the need for those projects. The biggest problem is peak capacity. Traffic on major roads in the Washington DC area (rt.66, 495, 95, etc.) isn't bad during the middle of most weekdays. During rush hour those roads turn into parking lots. Many of Virginia's proposed transportation projects are mainly about widening the parking lots in urban/suburban areas. There is a better solution to spending all that money on widening those parking lots in Virginia and many other states, which in many cases would be creating capacity that is unneeded except during rush hours.
On August 3, 2,286 federal and private sector employees as well as 1,765 state employees participated in Telework Day in Virginia. Those teleworkers saved approximately $113,000, avoided driving 140,000 miles and removed 75.89 tons of pollutants from the air on one single day. If all eligible Virginia employees teleworked one day per week for a year, teleworkers in the Commonwealth would collectively avoid driving 602 million miles, remove 360,800 tons of pollutants from the air, and save $807 million in commuting costs. Over the course of a year this would equal a $1,822 annual raise for every teleworker in Virginia, and save 46 hours a year in commuting. A survey of Virginia's teleworkers also showed that 69 percent felt they accomplished more than a typical day at the office and 91 percent said that they would be more likely to telework again as a result of their experience.
Similar experiments in other states have also showed similar favorable results. The federal government has adopted policies to encourage telecommuting. Today an estimated 7% of federal workers telecommute. If we reduced the average number of daily commuters in Virginia and other state cities and suburbs by 20% (by letting them work at home one day a week), rush hour gridlock would probably end or be substantially reduced in most areas. The pressure on the state transportation infrastructure would thus also be greatly reduced. We need to move from Governor Kaine's worthy experiment to concrete permanent state teleworking policies to reduce rush hour traffic. The need for transportation infrastructure investments in Virginia can be substantially reduced by enacting permanent policies and incentives such as tax credits for homeowners and their employers to encourage teleworking. Both candidates should redirect some of Virginia's transportation budget to directives and incentives that would enable more Virginians to work from their homes, which in turn will reduce the need for many of the transportation infrastructure investments.
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