Transportation

One of the biggest hair-brain schemes by the bureaucrats who brought you things like the instruction manuals for the IRS tax rules is the ONE-WAY STREET.  If a road is physically wide enough to accomodate two lanes of traffic, the one-way street adds to congestion, burns extra gasoline, and adds to frustration.  Cars must travel 3 sides of a square block to get where they are going instead of only 1 side.  That equals 3 times as much traffic (distance traveled per number of cars), adding to congestion.  Because cars must go around and around to get where they are trying

The failure to design Virginia roads intelligently is costing the country tens of thousands of barrels of wasted oil.   Roads that are GUARANTEED to cause traffic jams by creating choke points  (e.g., 6 lanes merge into 2 within a one-half mile stretch where the Dulles Toll Road 267 merges into I-66 in Arlington, Virginia) are costing Virginians thousands of wasted hours but also wasting tens of thousands of barrels of precious oil, and causing pollution of the air.  If VDOT does not take their jobs seriously, maybe we could start fresh with a new batch.

Over the course of the last century, the automobile has greatly facilitated the development of suburbs, long commutes and sprawl.  This has had major and damaging impacts on old urban core areas, especially in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.  This sprawl and flight from center cities and massive daily movement of people on Virginia's highways needs to be mitgated somehow, if not actively reversed, in areas of greatest population density.

Stop all highway maintenance and construction - let gas tax increase or tolls pay for these activities. There has been little outcry when gas prices soar, but when a tiny gas tax increase was suggested, it was greeted with great disapproval. Think about it - the taxpayer will benefit from gas tax - he/she won't from paying more to an oil company or overseas oil supplier.

Vehicles that are farm use do not have to be licensed or inspected.  Safety concerns of uninspected vehicles on the highways.  Any vehicle that travels on the highway should be inspected and registered. There can be some reduction in the rates based upon the actual use of the vehicle. A large truck that only goes back and forth to sell produce/grains could have reduced rates.  However, a vehicle such as a pickup should be registered without reduction. I have seen "farm use" pickup truck deer hunting. 

Expand VRE to Richmond, Virginia Beach and Charlottesville at a minimum.  This is easily done, as Amtrak serves these locations already.  Implement a local VRE for Virginia Beach areas and another for Richmond. 

Expand service frequency for the DC metro area - buy two new trains, and let them go from their endpoints to Arlington (but not into DC).  This should enable hourly service.  Provide service  on the same schedule as Metro - 7 days per week.

Build the Metro through Tyson's Corner below ground.

With the price of gas going up and the government pushing the car pool or using mass transit. I think that adding and improving the bike trails would be a great investment. What's 3 feet on the side of the road to make it safe for a biker.

Thank you

Under Virginia law, a motor scooter with an engine that has a displacement larger than 50 cubic centimeters must be titled as a Motorcycle. DMV staff need better training on this. We had to go to 3 different DMV office locations before we found a DMV office willing to title the 250cc Scooter as a Motorcycle.  Please give better training to DMV staff.