This morning, the Washington Post ran an editorial titled "Taxes or Traffic In Virginia, a plea for one to fix the other". The writer reported on the report issued by a coalition of 17 Northern Virginia businesses which proclaimed that it is necessary for the state to raise taxes to address the poor road infrastructure and resulting gridlock. See a link to the article in sidebar.
Virginia wouldn't need to increase road or any other taxes if the state didn't throw transportation funding to the embedded transportation industry. As an example, the budget for 22 miles of above ground public transportation from West F.C. to Dulles is projected to approach $2.7 Billion dollars before cost overruns. This amounts to more than $127 million dollars per mile!
There is an alternative which costs the state Zero dollars, can be built in a fraction of the time, will operate on demand, 24/7/365 and is expandable at will. This alternative is the Personal Rapid Transit System called SkyTran which has been developed by the Uni-Modal Corporation. Uni Modal (www.unimodal.com) is a company founded and operated by a group of ex-NASA rocket scientists. They know what they are doing and are willing to put their money where their mouth is to build and operate 21st century mass transit systems. This is a perfect answer for the Dulles corridor and for the transportation issues affecting Northern Virginia, especially in light of the recessionary climate in the country.
Simply put, why wouldn’t the state of Virginia want a no-cost, on demand, modern transportation system as the centerpiece for it’s gateway into DC?
Why doesn't the state of Virginia consider this -- lobbying and enormous political contributions from the likes of Bechtel who have a vested financial interest in seeing the enormously expensive system installed. Get rid of the graft and the state won’t need a tax increase.
Virginia wouldn't need to increase road or any other taxes if the state didn't throw transportation funding to the embedded transportation industry. As an example, the budget for 22 miles of above ground public transportation from West F.C. to Dulles is projected to approach $2.7 Billion dollars before cost overruns. This amounts to more than $127 million dollars per mile!
There is an alternative which costs the state Zero dollars, can be built in a fraction of the time, will operate on demand, 24/7/365 and is expandable at will. This alternative is the Personal Rapid Transit System called SkyTran which has been developed by the Uni-Modal Corporation. Uni Modal (www.unimodal.com) is a company founded and operated by a group of ex-NASA rocket scientists. They know what they are doing and are willing to put their money where their mouth is to build and operate 21st century mass transit systems. This is a perfect answer for the Dulles corridor and for the transportation issues affecting Northern Virginia, especially in light of the recessionary climate in the country.
Simply put, why wouldn’t the state of Virginia want a no-cost, on demand, modern transportation system as the centerpiece for it’s gateway into DC?
Why doesn't the state of Virginia consider this -- lobbying and enormous political contributions from the likes of Bechtel who have a vested financial interest in seeing the enormously expensive system installed. Get rid of the graft and the state won’t need a tax increase.
Decrease the size of the federal government and there won’t be so much pressure for people to move into the area and overburden the traffic infrastructure. But that will be the subject of a future posting.
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