Jim Bacon’s incisive ability to cut through Virginia’s transportation issues—what’s up with our clogging roads and what should be done about it—has earned him and his blog Bacon’s Rebellion a number of fans in and out of his home in Richmond. On March 6, Bacon addressed “Why Virginia Transportation Policy is Running off the Rails,” throwing out a dozen ideas that challenged his Charlottesville audience (mostly composed of developers and politicians).
Bacon’s ideas cherrypick from either side of the aisle: He likes mass transit (Democrats collectively do the headnod), but wants more private companies involved (free enterprise, boo-yah, shout Republicans).
Of the transportation plan on the table in Richmond from state Republicans that the Democratic governor is currently tinkering with, Bacon sums up his view on his blog: “A mutant offspring of a tortured political process, the transportation compromise before the General Assembly will do more harm than good. Conferees should strangle it in the crib.”
During his lecture, Bacon said that the transportation system is broken: “Dumping more money into a broken system is pouring money onto sand. The answer is fundamental reform; traffic congestion will just get worse, no matter how much money we throw at it.” One of the only positives of the transportation plan on the table, Bacon argued, was that it calls for prioritizing projects based on how much impact they’ll have per buck—which is absent from current analysis.
Bacon advocated a mileage fee that more accurately taxes those who use the roads and congestion pricing that makes it more expensive to drive during peak commuting hours. He said the gas tax was “living on borrowed time,” but that Republicans are trying instead to tax “everything in the world” that “doesn’t have to do with transportation,” from hotel taxes to general fund revenue. The result, he says, is that bicyclists and bus riders are subsidizing the gas-guzzling commuters.
As a critic of suburban sprawl, Bacon recommended many of the land-use reforms that Albemarle County and Charlottesville already strive for, such as designated growth areas along with mixed-use, transit-ready development. Challenging the usual view, however, he blamed government regulation for the unsustainable development patterns. “Give developers more freedom to build new communities and redevelop old ones along the lines that meet market demand,” said Bacon. Conceding that sometimes that would mean more cul-de-sacs, he insisted that “in many instances, the market craves more compact mixed-use communities with pedestrian friendly design.”
After his 30 minute speech, the audience spilled out onto the Mall, unsure of whether to cheer or fear Bacon’s “rebellion.”
For more information: The Charlottesville Podcasting Network has a podcast of the event and Mr. Bacon’s talk.
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