Transportation and Land Use Reform in Virginia
©Charlie Shoffner
SELC is working with citizens to protect natural landscapes and resources through better transportation planning.
Current transportation policies and land use patterns in Virginia are exacting a tremendous toll on our environment, health and economy. As a result of decades of poor planning, we have increased air and water pollution, record traffic congestion and ever-longer commutes, worsening health of many citizens, loss of farmland, open space, and historic resources, and a declining Chesapeake Bay.
As more and wider highways lead us farther out from urban cores, the number of miles and the amount of time we spend in our cars escalates. People in Virginia drive a total of some 205 million miles each day - the distance to the sun and back. The resulting sprawling development chews up farms and open spaces. Over three-fourths of a million acres were developed in Virginia between 1982 and 1997. If current trends continue, more land will be developed in Virginia in the next 40 years than in the previous 400 years.
Citizens are beginning to demand change. Although some progress has been made to promote more sustainable transportation and sensible land development, much more needs to be done.
SELC and our partners have helped drive these issues to the forefront of Virginia's political agenda. Through our efforts to educate and inform decision makers and elected officials, we have established a firm place at the table in discussing the future growth of Virginia. SELC's top priority is to promote reforms, largely within the Virginia Department of Transportation, that fundamentally alter transportation policies and practices in the state. Among our goals:
- a much stronger consideration of the link between transportation and land use, and how they affect each other
- increased funding for road maintenance, as part of a "fix it first" strategy, and for transportation alternatives; and
- improved measures to engage and involve citizens.
