Virginia needs a cleaner, more equitable transportation system that offers more options to get people where they need to go. For decades, funds have primarily gone to new road projects—to the detriment of safer, healthier, and greener choices. As a result, transportation is Virginia’s largest source of carbon pollution, many roads and bridges require repair, and there are limited alternatives to driving—especially in under-resourced communities. Despite some recent progress, transportation planning and funding continue to focus heavily on highway expansion and construction. We must defend recent progress and continue to transform our transportation approach to favor cleaner, healthier mobility options that reduce traffic, strengthen our communities, and protect our environment.

Significant transportation reforms have been adopted in recent years, including increases in funding for transit, rail, and highway maintenance, the groundbreaking Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, and the development of SMART SCALE to provide a more objective and transparent basis for selecting projects for funding. Yet too much of our transportation funding continues to be spent on wasteful and damaging highway projects. Even accounting for recent transit and rail funding increases, over 75% of the final FY2023-28 Six-Year Improvement Program is allocated to highways.¹ And efforts to weaken or sidestep SMART SCALE persist, including using the budget process to funnel even more money to highway projects. Decades of studies and experience have proven that new and wider highways incentivize sprawling development and encourage more driving, and thus fail to provide long-term congestion relief.²

This asphalt-centered approach has profound effects on our communities and environment.

Transportation generates over half of all statewide carbon pollution.³

Communities of color and under-resourced communities bear a disproportionate share of the health burdens from transportation-related pollution.⁴ Moreover, new and expanded roads destroy natural resources—such as forests and wetlands—that absorb carbon and increase communities’ resilience to sea level rise and flooding. They also add to the maintenance costs taxpayers must cover. And they often do little to nothing to improve mobility and access for the hundreds of thousands of Virginians who do not own a personal vehicle.

Meeting the climate crisis; spending tax dollars more wisely; and improving the health, equity, and mobility of Virginians requires moving away from a transportation paradigm focused on ever-increasing asphalt. It requires focusing funding on existing infrastructure through a “fix it first” approach and shifting substantial amounts of our state and regional transportation budgets from highway construction to mass transit, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities. This shift is essential for the Commonwealth to remain economically competitive. Transit and other alternatives to driving can provide critical access to jobs, healthcare, and essential services — all while reducing Virginians’ dependence on expensive fossil fuels. Furthermore, today’s businesses increasingly seek to locate in walkable communities with good access to public transportation.

As federal funding makes its way into Virginia under the new federal infrastructure law, we need to seize the moment to pursue those competitive grants available for cleaner, more equitable transportation. SMART SCALE must be defended, but we also need to strengthen consideration of the climate change effects of transportation plans, proposals, and funding decisions and ensure that state and regional plans serve to reduce—rather than exacerbate—emissions of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants. Lastly, the Commonwealth should set a specific goal for reducing vehicle miles traveled and step up efforts to accelerate the electrification of vehicles and expand charging infrastructure for the driving we continue to do.

¹ Kimberly Pryor, “Final FY 2023 – 2028 Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP),” Virginia Department of Transportation, June 21, 2022, www.ctb.virginia.gov/resources/2022/june/pres/7.pdf.

² Todd Litman, “Generated Traffic and Induced Travel: Implications for Transportation Planning,” Victoria Transport Policy Institute, June 3, 2022, www.vtpi.org/gentraf.pdf.

³ “Energy Related CO2 Emission Data Tables, Table 3,” U.S Energy Information Administration, www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state.

⁴ “The Road to Clean Air: Benefits of a Nationwide Transition to Electric Vehicles,” American Lung Association, www.lung.org/getmedia/99cc945c-47f2-4ba9-ba59-14c311ca332a/electric-vehicle-report.pdf.