Summary of Recommendation:
A number of measures would improve the link between transportation and land use and would help to reduce the demand on Virginia’s roadways and the cost of highway infrastructure. The measures enumerated here and in the attachments will also help to reduce energy consumption and enhance competitiveness, and protect Virginia’s valuable scenic and historic resources. By first addressing where and how we plan to grow in Virginia, we can design a transportation system that we can afford and that will work.

1. Evaluate and Adopt Alternative Land Use and Transportation Scenarios for VTRANS 2025, regional transportation plans, and major project studies.
2. Adopt Measures of Effectiveness for Virginia’s Transportation Program.
3. Increase Investment in Transit, Passenger and Freight Rail, Pedestrian/Bicycle, Secondary streets.
4. Link Transit to Land Use Changes and Transit-Oriented Development.
5. Protect the Capacity of Existing Highways through Access Management.
6. Fully Adopt Context Sensitive Solutions/Designs.
7. Reduce Spending on Ineffective Bypass Highways.
8. Plan, implement and fund interconnected secondary street "grids,” as a high state and local priority.
9. Increase funding and requirement for local buildout and transportation needs analysis.

Background:
The Reconnecting Virginia project has identified a long list of land use, transit and demand reduction solutions found in the attachments. Speaking more generally, we face a two-part problem: peak hour congestion and non-commute trips. A third major problem, freight, is discussed in a separate recommendation.

1. Peak-Hour Congestion Solutions: Urbanized peak hour congestion is best addressed by investing in transit which has the capacity to handle large peak flows and offers a choice for avoiding highway congestion. This must be linked with land use solutions that include focusing jobs in urban downtowns, and suburban centers within walking distance of high-capacity transit. The scattering of jobs has not only reduced transit effectiveness, but also the effectiveness of carpooling. Correcting jobs-housing imbalances between the four quadrants of a region is also helpful.
2. Non-commute Trip Congestion Solutions: Non-commute trips include trips to school, stores, day care and other needs including mid-day meetings and lunches. These are best reduced through pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development that allows many needs to be within a 10 minute walk of homes and offices. This is supported by investing in local, interconnected streets, bicycle lanes, and sidewalks, instead of large arterial roads and highways. This solution applies equally across urban, suburban, and rural small towns.

• See “Linking Land Use and Transportation” Presentation to Senate Finance Sub-Committee on Transportation, June 20, 2005

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