THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Explaining his sponsorship in the Virginia General Assembly of a bill to ease the way for private companies to build, operate and lease roads, tunnels and bridges, Democratic state Sen. Elliot S. Schewel of Lynchburg said: There is no way (Virginia) can possibly build and finance all of the transportation infrastructure that is needed (in the commonwealth). And there are apparently almost unlimited funds available from private investors. This seems to be a very logical move to make.''
Senator Schewel does not envision a Virginia in which motorists would be tolled to death by private enterprisers. The overwhelming majority of roads and crossings would continue to be financed by federal and state fuel-tax revenue. But prudent legislation welcoming private investment would expand government planners' options for meeting increasing traffic demands.
Traffic congestion is worsening nationwide - in large part because workers commuting alone in their cars increased from 81.3 million in 1980 to 99.5 million in 1990 while the number of car-pooling workers dropped from 19 million to 15.4 million.
Of course, highways, some with high-occupancy-vehicle lanes, increased during that decade. Nonetheless, clogged tunnels and crawl-and-stop traffic on arteries are common phenomena. Public money for new roads and crossings here and elsewhere will be inadequate indefinitely, given general hostility to higher taxes.
Motorists are hostile to tolls everywhere. But tolls are another way of getting additional roads to speed traffic on its way. The privately financed Dulles Toll Road in Northern Virginia is the choice of motorists willing to pay to avoid the parallel public road. The arrangement seems to have benefited motorists on and off the private toll road - and Virginia taxpayers generally.
We prefer that roads be built with fuel-tax money. If that's not feasible because public funds aren't available, toll roads built by public authorities and paid for by the motorists who use them are an acceptable alternative. Without that option, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway and most of the bridge-tunnels linking Hampton Roads localities to each other would not have been built when they were.
Legislation to encourage some private roads and crossings in Virginia - projects that would not add to governmental burdens and that would generate tax revenue as well - could solve some traffic problems, as the Dulles Toll Road attests. by CNB