My thoughs on I-81 (Part I).....

Transportation departments in other states have learned the hard way a lesson I hope will not be learned in the I-81 corridor: “if you build it, they [too many] will come”

The VA DOT points to the fact that traffic counts on I-81 through Augusta County are reaching 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles per day. The obvious solution, in their opinion, is to build bigger interstates. But the fundamental question has not been asked. Do the people of Augusta and Rockbridge counties want 100,000 vehicles passing through their counties belching exhaust every day? Speaking for myself, the answer is a resounding NO, and I am certain taht I am not alone in this sentiment.

The DOT makes several fundamental mistakes in their philosophy. The first is their emphasis on highway construction. Other states, such as Texas, Georgia, and California have attempted to resolve traffic issues by adding and adding lanes. The results have been uniform across the country. Gridlock on ten lanes instead of two, momentous cost overruns bailed out by the tax-payer, and uncontrolled urban sprawl and haphazard growth. The reason for a highway-centric tilt is that the DOT is managed and staffed by highway engineers and that traditional role of a DOT has been to build highways. As the short-comings of this approach have become evident, other DOTs have become just that, Departments of Transportation, with an understanding of and an emphasis on planning that encompasses the entire spectrum of transportation capabilities. The archaic monolith of the Virginia DOT needs to make this same transformation.

The second mistake is that the DOT has taken estimates of vehicle counts as gospel. As is so prevalent in planning documents, the figures that are used to justify an end are based on out-of-thin-air assumptions. The real fact before the DOT is that traffic counts MIGHT reach the 100,000 mark, and therefore we MIGHT have a need for more interstates. As the price of fuel continues the march toward $3 per gallon, traffic growth rates may stabilize or even decline.

But let us assume the figures are correct. We then reach the DOT’s third major mistake. If, given current trends, we will reach 100,000 vehicles per day, the first question that must be asked is do we want vehicle counts to get this high. The answer is not for the DOT to decide, but for us, and the answer should be NO. The DOT’s job then becomes the management of our total transportation infrastructure so those vehicle counts remain reasonable. How we choose to act on the prediction of vehicle counts determines whether those counts become reality.

The final mistake that the DOT has made is its failure to manage our infrastructure effectively. Current traffic counts on I-81 include 20,000 trucks per day, 12,500 above the design of the interstate. While trucking is an essential part of our economy and has its place in moving goods, it is the least efficient mode of transportation. The lack of a sensible state policy regarding the trucking industry has led to a proliferation of trucks as the primary mode of transport. It is the trucking industry that is the major contributing factor to traffic problems on I-81. To simply build bigger interstates is nothing more than a multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidy of the trucking industry. Since the DOT and the state political machinery are so wedded to this industry, little is likely to change.

The DOT must take the following steps to address this problem. First, the DOT must go through a complete needs-analysis that exhausts all possibilities of managing this traffic. Second, the DOT should have an independent consulting agency conduct a thorough environmental impact statement so that we may fully understand the impact of their plan. Third, the DOT should place an emphasis on improving rail capability in western Virginia. Fourth, the DOT should build road to rail facilities in all major cities served by the I-81 corridor. Fifth, the DOT should place an emphasis on public transportation. Sixth, the DOT should limit any road building on I-81 to passing lanes on steep grades, and improved on ramp access. And seventh, the DOT MUST work in concert with all states in the I-81 corridor, if not all states on the East Coast, to define a comprehensive rail plan to move goods from southern ports and southern points of entry.