Comments made by Miriam A. Rollin, President of ACST, at the Richmond hearing of the Commonwealth Transportation Board of Virginia on October 5, 2000:

Distinguished members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board:

Thank you for this opportunity to speak about the draft Virginia Transportation Development Plan. My name is Miriam Rollin, and I am the President of the Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation (ACST).

ACST was formed about a year ago, when concerned citizens from Arlington and surrounding areas were alarmed at the proposals to widen I-66 inside the Beltway - proposals made without any consultation with local Arlington officials, without any involvement of local citizens, without any meaningful review of alternatives, and without even having the support of any regional transportation planning entities OR the Virginia legislature.

Since that time, a lot has happened, but some things have stayed the same.

What has happened?

  • ACST has grown, with hundreds of supporters; we've created a website (acstnet.org - please visit it!); and we've participated in (and testified at) several meetings/hearings on transportation planning in the area.

  • The Northern Virginia Transportation Coordinating Council, or TCC, adopted the No.Va. 2020 Plan last December, which included more than $30 billion in identified REGIONALLY-AGREED-UPON priorities. But, guess what? NO inclusion of widening I-66 inside the Beltway!

  • The Virginia Legislature adopted the Virginia Transportation Act of 2000 in Spring of this year, with over $3 billion in statewide transportation expenditures in 2000-2001. But, guess what? NO inclusion of widening I-66 inside the Beltway!

  • Also in the Spring of this year, and then again just a couple of weeks ago, the Transportation Planning Board, the Washington area's MPO, adopted a draft CLRP and TIP update. But, guess what? NO inclusion of widening I-66 inside the Beltway!
So, a whole lot of time, effort and money (not to mention a whole lot of trees) [demonstrate the thickness of the plans, in hand] has gone into transportation planning in this region, and NONE of these bipartisan, representative entities has endorsed the widening of I-66 inside the Beltway as an appropriate project on which to expend scarce taxpayer dollars for transportation.

However, what has stayed the same is that the Governor and one U.S. Representative think that I-66 should be widened inside the Beltway.

Now, today you have been and will be hearing from Virginia elected officials and citizens regarding the need to invest greater resources in regionally-identified priority transportation projects. So WHY, with inadequate resources available to meet regionally-identified priorities, is there a proposal to spend - I would say "waste" - $5 million for preliminary engineering work on a project the region doesn't want??? Wouldn't it make more sense to put that money into projects this region - or even other regions - want but haven't gotten fully funded?

Most importantly, however, the proposed widening of I-66 inside the Beltway should NOT be funded for the same reason it was NOT included in those plans - it's expensive and it won't work - and there are lots of other, more effective, approaches such as rail to Tysons/Dulles, telecommuting, enhanced bus service, HOV and HOT, etc.

ACST presented testimony at the CTB's pre-allocation hearing in Fairfax over the summer, about the reasons why "wider isn't better", and I'd like to enter into the record our ACST fact sheet on that issue. I'll just note three important points:

  1. The "build it and they will come" reality (referred to transportation researchers as "induced demand");

  2. the fact that the Roosevelt Bridge isn't going anywhere, and there are already back-ups there, so - at least in one direction - you'd be simply shifting congestion closer to the bridge, rather than relieving it;

  3. Widening is a violation of the Coleman Decision issued back in 1977 (and the agreements attendant to that decision can not be unilaterally abrogated by federal legislation, as attempted by Rep. Wolf a year ago), and there are many who would go to court to enforce Coleman.
I would like to note, before I conclude, that there seems to also be an inexplicable procedural error relating to this proposal. No federally-funded project can be in a state plan and have preliminary engineering work done BEFORE it is an approved part of the MPO's (in this case, the TPB's) CLRP and TIP. But, as mentioned earlier, this project is NOT included in the MPO's CLRP and TIP, although the CTB's document (on page 152) clearly indicates the intention to use federal funds.

For all of the reasons discussed above, we urge the CTB to remove, from it's statewide plan, the $5 million proposed for widening I-66 inside the Beltway, prior to that plan becoming final later this month.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you on this important issue, and I look forward to seeing the revised statewide plan.

Copyright © 1999 The Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation