HD38 - VTrans 2025: Virginia's Statewide Multimodal Long-Range Transportation Plan (Phase Two)


Executive Summary:
At the direction of Governor Mark R. Warner, Secretary of Transportation Whittington W. Clement is spearheading a long-range statewide multimodal planning initiative that includes all state agencies involved with transportation and a strong public involvement effort. For the first time, Virginia’s top-level transportation policy leaders are engaged in a formal planning effort that analyzes the future trends and needs of highway motorists, rail and transit passengers, freight shippers, airline travelers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Called VTrans2025, the plan is being developed by the Secretary of Transportation through the four state transportation modal agencies: the Department of Aviation, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Port Authority, and the Department of Transportation. A summary of transportation issues facing the Commonwealth and an evaluation of transportation policies will be used to develop a well-balanced plan that will reflect the interests of all parts of the Commonwealth.

Six major goals have been identified to guide the development of VTrans2025:

1. Provide a safe, secure, and integrated transportation system that reflects different needs of the Commonwealth.

2. Through technology and more efficient operations, preserve and manage the existing transportation system.

3. Facilitate the efficient movement of people and goods and expand choices and improve interconnectivity of all transportation modes.

4. Improve Virginia’s economic vitality and provide access to economic opportunities for all Virginians.

5. Improve the quality of life for Virginians and the coordination of transportation, land use, and economic development planning activities.

6. Improve program delivery.

These goals will serve as a blueprint for future transportation investment decision-making, and the degree to which transportation improvements meet these goals will influence funding priorities.

With this effort, Virginia has embarked on a new journey in transportation planning - a formal planning effort that starts with a vision of where Virginia would like to be in 2025 and identifies the policies and procedures necessary to achieve it. VTrans2025 will create a more integrated, convenient, and efficient transportation system for all of the Commonwealth’s travelers.

VTrans2025 Three-Phase Approach

VTrans2025 will be completed in three phases. Phase 1 began in 2001 with stakeholder discussion groups across the state and the establishment of long-range goals and objectives. These efforts established the foundation upon which the rest of the plan is being built. Phase 2, described in this report, involved developing a vision/policy plan that builds upon the broad goals and objectives established in Phase 1 to include performance measures; an implementation plan; an inventory and evaluation of the existing system; a trend analysis; and an evaluation of policies, practices, and procedures that impact transportation. Phase 3 will involve completion of the modal needs assessments, application of multimodal needs assessments, and application of multimodal prioritization criteria to develop the final plan.

The VTrans2025 Final Report, to be published in the summer of 2005, will include (1) a vision plan that establishes broad multimodal transportation policy goals, objectives, and performance measures, and (2) a multimodal transportation needs assessment and prioritization that will identify and prioritize large-scale systems of multimodal projects of statewide significance.

Organization of Current Phase 2 Report

This report details the progress achieved during Phase 2 and lays the groundwork for evaluating and developing the transportation policies to be included in the final report. The graphic shows several issues of strategic importance. Addressing these issues in VTrans2025 will be critical to ensuring the development of an integrated transportation system that meets the needs of all Virginians.

Chapter 1 presents background information on transportation-related trends in Virginia and describes the legislative basis for VTrans2025. Transportation demand is expected to continue to grow because of increasing population, employment, and personal income, further taxing the Commonwealth’s transportation system.

Chapter 2 is a detailed inventory and assessment of Virginia’s existing transportation system. In general, Virginia has an extensive transportation system that is based primarily on highways and, in many parts of the state, is largely composed of an aging infrastructure at or near capacity.

Chapter 3 discusses seven policies affecting all transportation modes: technology, economic development, intermodal connectivity, environmental quality, accessibility for people and freight, transportation security and safety, and revenue sources and availability. This chapter establishes a basis for developing policy recommendations. A number of strategic implications for VTrans2025 were identified and are summarized in the next section of this Report Summary.

Chapter 4 describes the progress each agency has made on its objective analysis of transportation needs. These assessments will serve as the basis for each agency’s modal long-range transportation plan from which multimodal and intermodal needs will be identified for prioritization. The results of each assessment will be presented in terms of the cost of transportation needs, at the system level, for each agency.

Chapter 5 provides a summary of the strategic implications for VTrans2025 of the transportation policy issues considered in Chapter 3, looks ahead to Phase 3, and describes the work plan and efforts already underway by the Technical Committee and Policy Committee. Stakeholder and public involvement activities, including anticipated future meetings and a statewide telephone survey are discussed. In addition, the performance-based planning system being tested for establishing multimodal priorities is described.

Strategic Implications of Considered Transportation Policies for VTrans2025

Technology

• Operating a multimodal transportation infrastructure is as important as constructing that infrastructure and increasingly, technology is used to preserve the operational efficiency of the transportation system. The Federal Highway Administration reports that every $1 invested in metropolitan intelligent transportation system infrastructure yields an $8 benefit. Technology holds an enormous potential for ameliorating many current and future transportation problems, such as congestion and traveler fatalities, but implementation of state-of-the-art technologies will require financial investments and experimentation. Also, in the case of automatic tolling and vehicular safety systems, equity issues may arise due to increased costs for the traveler.

Economic Development

• Virginia is within a day’s drive of 50 percent of the nation’s population and has enormous potential for attracting both business and leisure travelers. Because of its strategic location, Virginia can attract business, but it can only do so if there is a transportation system to conveniently access the appropriate markets. Additionally, tourism ranks as the third largest retail industry and the third largest employer in the state, generating $35.3 million in spending on an average day. Improvements to the transportation system that will enhance tourism will substantially add to the vitality of the Virginia economy.

Intermodal Connectivity

• Means of creating the most effective multimodal planning and regional cooperation need to be encouraged. All too often, there are inadequate incentives for municipalities to cooperate with one another and the state on transportation, land use, and economic development issues.

• The comprehensive multimodal system envisions providing travel choices and ensuring connections between and among the modes. Transit and passenger rail will have a significantly increased role in meeting the mobility needs in the future. In addition, as the amount of freight shipments increase, freight rail capacity must increase as well. To develop an integrated transportation system, increased attention needs to be focused on upgrading intermodal facilities, providing access to them, and improving connectivity to all the modes and locations in the Commonwealth.

• Virginia will continue to be a major north-south truck freight route and an east-west route for rail and truck. In fact, freight movements at the Port of Virginia are expected to increase significantly each year and more than double by 2025. Similarly, air freight tonnage is expected to increase by almost 300 percent by 2020 and occupy approximately 12 percent of the value of the market for freight shipped. Since most freight transfers to trucks before final delivery, planning for connections between highways and other modes is critical to eliminating intermodal bottlenecks. Furthermore, the trend towards just-in-time delivery of products and services may place even more pressure on the transportation system to facilitate the efficient and seamless movement of people and goods. There is a great potential for both economic growth and improved transportation system efficiency through improved connectivity between transportation networks and modes. Accomplishing this, however, requires a new way of transportation planning. Transportation planning at the state level must give priority to projects or groups of multimodal projects that are of statewide significance and serve a common purpose for transportation in the Commonwealth. Planning must consider the “complete journey” – movement of passengers and goods from start to finish and all links in between – to facilitate construction and operation of a transportation system in which all of the modes interconnect to provide efficient travel throughout the state.

• Across the state, there are both physical and institutional barriers to better integrating transportation modes. Institutionally, better coordination of the individual transportation agencies, at the state, local, and regional level as well as increased consultation with stakeholders and the general public would provide means to achieve integration.

Air Quality

• Transportation systems affect where people choose to live and work. Patterns of living and working, in turn, influence the distribution, capacity, and convenience of transportation services. Many argue that transportation infrastructure and services should not only be compatible with the communities they serve, but also help shape the communities in a way aligned with community values. Major regional or statewide transportation and economic development investments may not be consistent with a community vision. In order to foster a high quality of life for all Virginians, there will be a need to more closely coordinate transportation planning, land use planning, and economic development.

Accessibility

• Virginia is a dynamic state made up of many distinct regions, ranging from highly urbanized to very rural. The state is expected to be home to an additional two million people by 2025 and support almost 2 million more jobs. Most of this growth will occur in already heavily populated areas, resulting in ever increasing levels of congestion and air quality problems. Congestion, however, is not limited to the highly urbanized areas; several other regions of the state are expected to see rapid growth and are likely to face unique challenges in accommodating the associated transportation demand with the limited transportation infrastructure.

• In contrast to growth areas, there are parts of the Commonwealth that are, at best, barely maintaining population and employment. Yet, there too, the demand for transportation infrastructure and services will remain high as transportation is seen as a way to stimulate economic development. The Commonwealth’s transportation system must be able to support the diverse needs of different regions of the state by supporting economic development and mobility goals along with the need to address congestion and air quality issues.

• The tension between local and state or regional needs presents difficulties in determining the vision of the state system. For example a locality might prefer not to have a commute route through its boundaries, but the regional or state interests are to locate one within the town. Other issues, such as concern for property rights may conflict with interests in preserving and protecting natural, cultural, and historic resources. The relative importance of environmental quality and quality of life issues will arise in different ways throughout the Commonwealth and new strategies may be needed to develop consensus.

• Over the past thirty years, the service sector of the state’s economy has doubled and now represents one-third of the state’s employment. Because of the irregular work hours, the population will be more difficult to serve with traditional transportation options, in particular with existing transit service and traditional carpooling.

• By 2025, almost one in five Virginians will be of retirement age. The growing number of seniors in the state has significant implications for the future transportation system. Physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments present special mobility challenges for the elderly. In fact, 18 percent of all vehicle-related deaths in Virginia occurred in persons over the age of 65. Further, nearly two-thirds of the elderly population lives in rural and suburban areas, where specialized transit services are limited, even nonexistent, and where traditional transit services are not well suited. Additionally, there will be a need to encourage land uses that reduce automobile dependence and to design transportation systems that accommodate the needs of older drivers. Transit usage by the elderly today is low; future usage is likely to face challenges. High quality transit services will be needed to entice older individuals who are likely to require transportation services that are reliable, flexible, comfortable, responsive, and that offer door-to-door service and longer service hours. In maintaining and expanding the transportation system it is essential to be cognizant of the differing requirements of older Virginians and to address impairments in designing systems and services and to consider alternative means of providing basic transportation services.

• Currently, almost 17 percent of the state’s population is classified by the US Census Bureau as having a disability. Considering the growing aging population, and the correlation between age and disability, the percentage of disabled Virginians is likely to increase dramatically in the future. One of the most often cited challenges for people with disabilities in achieving full participation in community life, particularly in employment, is the availability and reliability of transportation. Meeting the mobility needs of the growing disabled population will require implementing policies and designs that provide accessibility of the transportation system for all.

• Almost 25 percent of Virginians live in rural parts of the state. Compared to non-rural settings, rural communities have low density, fewer public transportation options, and poorer road conditions. As a result, rural residents without reliable transportation face hardships in traveling to and from work, appointments, and childcare. Addressing the special transportation needs of rural Virginians will be crucial to ensuring a high quality of life and economic vitality in these areas.

Safety

• Safety must continue to be a high priority goal of the transportation system. The number of Virginians who are killed while traveling on the highway, at railroad crossings, or while cycling or walking, must be minimized by implementing a major safety plan, and through technology and public education.

• With over 70,000 miles of highway, 67 airports, four port terminals, 40 public transportation systems, and over 3,100 miles of railroad track, the sheer size of the transportation system makes it difficult to adequately secure. The transportation system crisscrosses the state, extending beyond our borders, bringing in millions of passengers and tons of freight each day. Yet, security is a basic concern for the system and ways to address it while providing efficient transfers between modes will be challenging.

Revenues

• The current state funding structure for transportation infrastructure is very complex and does not lend itself to intermodal projects. In the seventeen years since the Transportation Trust Fund was established, the state motor fuel tax has remained unchanged. As a result, over time, the buying power of the revenues that are collected has significantly diminished. Over the past twenty years, state transportation revenues have lost 40 percent of their buying power due to inflation alone and the number of lane miles has increased only 7 percent. During the same time period, vehicle miles traveled have increased 79 percent, transit ridership has increased 58 percent, the number of registered vehicles has increased 53 percent, and the number of licensed drivers has increased 34 percent. To provide transportation services and infrastructure within these constraints, better coordination of transportation planning and integration of transportation investments will be absolutely critical to the success of Virginia’s transportation system.

• Identifying leveraging opportunities and maximizing the use of non-state funds are also important for long-term fiscal responsibility and more effective program delivery. Efficient use of resources in the Commonwealth requires maintaining the existing system, operating it more effectively, and protecting transportation infrastructure and services from the negative impacts of incompatible land uses. Localities could be encouraged to promote efficient use of transportation infrastructure and consider more carefully the impact of land use decisions on transportation.

• Maintenance costs have increased. Currently, for every dollar that is spent on highway construction today, about $1.85 is spent on maintenance. Transportation Trust Fund revenues, originally intended for capacity expansion, are being diverted to fund maintenance. Unless additional revenues flow into the program, the increased cost of maintaining the existing system plus debt repayment will absorb all but a small share of the Commonwealth’s funding, severely limiting opportunities for new investments.