Stay Informed
Let Your Friends Know
Contact Your Legislator
Write a Letter to the Editor

When communicating about the transportation funding crisis, please feel free to use the messages below as a reference. When writing a letter to the editor, be sure to check the requirements of your local newspaper to ensure your letter fits the guidelines for submission.

• Transportation affects the quality of life of all Virginians.

• Transportation affects the time we get to spend with our families and friends, the time it takes to do our jobs and even our safety and health.

• In recent years, the highway maintenance budget has been balanced by withdrawing funds from highway construction and all other modes of transportation.

• Road maintenance costs are growing faster than available revenue, so road construction money is declining. Funding for other modes of transportation is also reduced. By 2018, all construction dollars will be used for maintenance (source: VTRANS 2025 Report).

• Twenty years have passed since Virginia made a long-term commitment to improve transportation and the largest revenue source – the 17.5 cents per gallon motor fuel tax – has not increased since 1987.

• The majority of the $848 million that the 2005 General Assembly added to the transportation budget represented the normal growth of existing revenue sources and one-time payments to reduce debt or establish new funds.  Only a small portion of the money represented on-going new funds.

• Multimodal solutions to the current transportation funding crisis would ease congestion from our roads.
  

  Every full bus could remove up to 60 cars from Virginia’s roads, but there is no long-term plan in place for public transit improvements (source: Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation v2004 Web site, http://www.drpt.state.va.us/).

• Multimodal solutions to the current transportation funding crisis save families time and money.
  

  • Drivers in Northern Virginia lose 72 hours of their lives, which is equivalent to nine working days, stuck in traffic each year.
    
  • Drivers in Virginia Beach lose 28 hours of their lives, which is equivalent to three and half working days each year, stuck in traffic.
    
  • Drivers in Richmond lose nearly 16 hours, or two working days, stuck in traffic.
    

(source: Information in a speech delivered by former Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Philip Shucet).

• According to the VTRANS 2025 Report, more than 3,000 of Virginia’s bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete. It’s only going to get worse without long-term, multimodal solutions.

• In Virginia, every day, almost 900,000 children are transported to and from schools and on field trips usually nearly 14,000 buses across the state. Students must rise too early and arrive home later than necessary – losing valuable family time due to an outdate road system (source: Information in a speech delivered by former Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Philip Shucet).

• Unless improvements are made, by 2025, 100 percent of the interstate lane miles and 72 percent of the primary road lane miles in Northern Virginia will be characterized by stop and go traffic, poor travel times and decreased safety (source: VTRANS 2025 Report).

• Contact your elected officials and tell them how you feel about the transportation funding issue and how it affects you – your time, your family, your job and your quality of life.

• It’s time for comprehensive, long-term solutions to the Commonwealth’s transportation funding problem.