I wish I could say I have an answer for Virginia’s transportation woes but I don’t. People with far more knowledge and experience than I have yet to come up with a reasonable solution. By “reasonable,” I, of course, mean one that is politically palatable. Our elected officials have failed to make the hard decisions when it comes to facing the reality of our transportation problems. And there is no relief in sight.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell released a very detailed transportation plan. In an editorial Tuesday, The Virginian-Pilot wrote:

Many of the ideas in his 20-page plan ring familiar because they have been rejected multiple times by state lawmakers, and McDonnell has yet to explain how he plans to recycle these clunkers into a successful road plan – or why this time he expects passage.

The Roanoke Times was even more blunt:

What you’ll find is a patchwork that’s overloaded with complexity, chock full of wishful thinking and seriously flawed overall. It can best be summarized as “Booze, borrowing, tolls and BS.”

Lest you think that Democrat Creigh Deeds fares any better, the Pilot editorial takes him to task:

Democrat Creigh Deeds’ plan is devoid of details, a skeletal framework that asks voters to trust that he’ll come up with a meaningful strategy for relieving congestion once he’s in office.

Deeds’ transportation plan was included in the rollout of his economic plan. As The Daily Press reported:

… Deeds said his goal is to get a long-term, statewide transportation plan through the General Assembly, but he refused to get pinned down on the details.

“I’m running for governor. I’m not running for dictator. So I’m not going to tie myself to any one funding plan,” Deeds said. “The reality is that we tried lots of things in the past, and they haven’t worked.”

At the end of the day, I have to wonder just what it will take to get a transportation package through the General Assembly. Yes, we are going to elect a new governor, but the Senate will have the same makeup as before and the House will only change slightly. I have to agree with Brian Kirwin – the public isn’t going to clamour for increased taxes to pay for roads. As much as political pundits focus on the topic, I suspect that the average voter doesn’t rank transportation very high on the list. Unfortunately, by the time the public sees the problem, it will be too large to fix all at once.

And that’s where the elected representatives come in. What we need from our electeds is a quality they often claim to have: leadership. A leader has the ability to assess the situation and devise a solution. Leaders aren’t afraid to make the hard choices. Leaders don’t fear not getting elected/re-elected.

Our transportation problems didn’t happen overnight. Fixing them won’t happen overnite, either. But the longer we wait, the more difficult – and more expensive – it becomes. Might as well get started now.

How about our electeds walk the walk, instead of talking the talk, and demonstrate that they are the leaders they claim to be?

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