Mission Statement
The Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance is the only private sector organization focused exclusively on working to make better transportation a reality for Northern Virginia citizens and businesses.
It is non-partisan and business-citizen in its composition.
The Alliance's sole mission is to advance regional transportation improvements of significance in Northern Virginia.
Transportation Perspective
The debate should not be roads versus bridges versus buses and versus trains, but which corridors are the most congested and which strategies or investments move the most people most effectively in those corridors.
Since the mid-1960s federal, state and local governments have funded and built 90% of the public transit planneded for today, while more than 1,000 planned lane miles of roads and bridges remain un-built, with no new bridges outside the Beltway since 1964. (Note: The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge is a replacement structure.) Because of this uneven pattern, the region has the nation’s second best public transit system and the nation's most congested highway network.
The Alliance has always supported our Metrorail system. It was one of the first private sector groups to champion the Virginia Railway Express commuter system. It supports Dulles Rail and higher density mixed-use development near transit stations. It was the first regional organization to endorse dedicated Metro funding and championed the formation and recommendations of a regional task force established to help reform the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
However, today nearly 90% of all daily trips and 80% of rush hour trips travel on our inadequate highway and bridge network. Our major roads operate at high levels of congestion seven days a week, 16 hours a day.
Transit makes an important peak hour contribution in moving people to and from the center city core and close in activity centers. The latest National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board study shows that currently about 6% of all daily trips are by public transit. Relatively stable core population and employment, relative to the rest of the region, and the fact that most projected population and job growth occcurs beyond the Beltway make transit unlikely to move even 10% of all daily trips in 2040.
Eighty percent of daily travel is not commuter trips but that of people trying to live their lives and manage their businesses. Sports fields are neither on Metro lines nor candidates for public transit, nor are public schools, grocery stores, movie theaters, suburban restaurants or shopping centers in any great number. Office supplies do not move on subways; meat and vegetables do not arrive at grocery stores on buses; trash is not picked up on commuter rail.
A balanced transportation network requires that transportation resources be balanced based on need and demand.
Approximately 60% of all transportation resources available over the next 25 years are assigned to public transit to move less than 10% of daily trips.
Road projects that will carry 90% of future vehicular – auto, truck and bus – trips remain under-funded.
Above all, given limited resources, all regional projects (road and rail) must be subject to cost-benefit analysis and prioritization by state and regional officials.
Investment decisions must be made based on which projects generate the most benefits, not the most noise.
For more maps and more information regarding the Alliance's priorities, click on the applicable links below.