Around the corner today;
Last night’s Vienna transit meeting for the future Fairfax Connector routes in and around Tysons was a lot more productive than the one in McLean. The generational gap was far less and included many different people of many different backgrounds providing their opinion on where service is needed, and in some cases, where it is not wanted. In general the crowd last night came prepared with specific information which in my opinion always makes for a more fruitful discourse. We made our case for more robust service along Route 123 connecting Tysons and Vienna not just during rush hour but 7 days a week and night time service as well. JJ Madden as well as a few of our readers living north of 123 fought for better access to the Wolf Trap community, where the 432 is currently proposed.
The Fairfax Connector meetings will continue all this week, including an online session today for anyone who is unable to come in person, and ultimately lead the FCDOT team back to the planning room to implement final tweaks to routes and timing. They will provide updates of their plans sometime in late February or early March and will be holding more sessions for final consideration in April. Ultimately the plan will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors in May.
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Yesterday the House of Delegates (of Virginia) voted to pass Governor Bob “Make Businesses In NOVA Pay For It” McDonnell’s transportation plan. Some elements were tweaked in the house approved plan, including the removal of the $100 Alternative Fuel spiting fee. The plan proposes to remove the 17.5cent gas tax, a user fee that closely matches behavior of road use to cost for road maintenance, with a 16% increase in the State wide sales tax on all products.
Although the House passed the bill last night, the senate is almost assured to reject the bill as is. A popular alternative plan currently in talks with Democratic and Republican senators is removal of the flat gas tax fee and replacing the revenue by applying the State’s sales tax to gas (currently the sales tax for the state is exempt on gasoline). Ultimately if a resolution of the bill can not be found Bob McDonnell’s bill could be dead in the water. If that is the case it could be premonition for a long year in bipartisan stagnation in Virginia. (WJLA)
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Sequester fears are looming large on the NOVA Contractor horizon as Senator Kaine met with several defense representatives Monday in a round table to discuss the issue. Many understand that some cut back in spending will be occurring but believe the indecision and bickering is causing far more damage than the ultimate cuts will. As is the case with the broader economy, companies are hesitant to invest in expanding holdings, personnel, and new markets until it is determined what the future conditions will be. As long as brinksmanship and this cycle of quarterly disaster avoidance called the House of Representatives continues to hold the economy hostage we will remain in a stagnant pattern. In other words, just make a choice and go with it, we the people will adapt and make it work. (Patch)
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Urbanism Concept of the Day
A lot of talk about buses in the past two weeks. One of the things that has been disappointing to me is the reluctance of Fairfax County, who now is in a position to update their bus fleet to be more efficient, is talking about purchasing the same kinds of buses (30′, 35′, 40′ standards). We are a county of innovation with economic strength, and more importantly the political will, to invest in our future. As gas prices continue to rise over the next 10 years wheel-based transit operations will continue to run further and further in deficit, unable to recoup the high cost of fuel without removing service. Every mile a bus drives costs $3 to $5 dollars today… and do you think that gas prices are going to come down anytime soon? With $5 gas, a figure that most analysts believe will be the new normal within the next 10 years, that cost increases to $7 per mile for buses.
By comparison the operator of a bus, based on a running speed of 15 mph including stops and a total salary including benefits of $80,000, costs $2.25 per mile. We need to be talking about how to invest the capital funds we have now to decrease our per mile energy cost in buses from $7 to $3 with natural gas or, heaven forbid, $0.50 with smaller more agile 100% EV buses. A typical Orion bus costs anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000 for this size operation. EV vehicles would cost 50 to 60% more but would make up the additional capital investment by reduce operation cost within the first 75,000 miles. Imagine a bus system that actually runs in profit at today’s fare price instead of in constant deficit. We have the ability to attain bonds at historic lows with our impeccable economic record, we should be leveraging that to reduce our liability in future economic conditions by investing in smart initiatives today.