Spring 2019 Transportation Public Hearing Statement

Statement of Allen Muchnick at the

Spring 2019 Transportation Public Hearing for Northern Virginia

May 13, 2019

I'm Allen Muchnick, a City of Manassas resident, speaking on my own behalf.   

Thank you for this combined public hearing for Northern Virginia Transportation Projects.  In the future, please include the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board at these combined public hearings, since the TPB is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for Northern Virginia, and funded projects in our region should reflect and advance the TPB’s planning studies and objectives.

In particular, projects funded in Northern Virginia should advance the seven aspirational transportation initiatives in Visualize 2045, our adopted regional transportation plan; namely:

·         Expand the express highway network

·         Expand bus rapid transit and transit ways

·         Move more people on Metrorail

·         Bring jobs and housing closer together

·         Increase telecommuting and other options for commuting

·         Improve walk and bike access to transit

·         Complete the National Capital Trail

In recent years, our region has seen a welcome evolution toward objective evaluations of proposed transportation projects, to cost effectively move more people, in an effort to cease the endless cycles of highway widening, induced driving, and suburban sprawl, which are wasteful, render our communities less livable, and contribute to our climate crisis.

Thus, I support the general methodology and the recommended funding awards under both the Smart Scale and Commuter Choice Programs.

The establishment of a regional network of HOT lanes that will soon include all the interstate highways within Northern Virginia will create premier express-bus transit ways along the I-66, I-95/I-395, and I-495 corridors.   While the Commonwealth must promptly address the difficulties with manual HOV enforcement and toll cheating by solo motorists throughout the HOT lane network, the outer suburban localities should enthusiastically embrace this high-speed bus way infrastructure because it can finally provide effective commuting alternatives to solo motoring in crippling congestion.

It’s long past time to stop adding limited-access lane miles in urbanized areas for toll-free travel by solo motorists.   All new and widened freeways, including the Godwin Drive Extension, the Bi-County Parkway, and expansions of the Fairfax County and Prince William Parkways, should be built as congestion-priced toll roads, to provide an effective express bus and rideshare alternative and to ensure that these roads never become congested.  

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