Richmond, Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach are among the nation's most congested traffic areas, according to the 2010 Annual Urban Mobility Report recently released by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.\nNorthern Virginia and Washington, D.C. was listed as the nation's most congested area when considering a driver's average annual delay. Virginia Beach and Richmond ranked highly among areas with high congestion delays.\nThe report included information from 439 urban areas and relied on speed data from INTRIX, a company that records travel time information. The study factored weather problems, traffic accidents and holidays, among other special circumstances, into the data.\nGov. Bob McDonnell noted that Virginia's current issues with traffic congestion in certain areas call for immediate action.\n"This study reinforces the fact that Virginia must address its transportation needs now," McDonnell said. "We must recognize that an efficient, reliable transportation system is a key element to creating jobs, moving people and goods, and sustaining the economic vitality that makes Virginia the top state in the country for doing business."\nMcDonnell's plan to combat this problem, which involves spending $4 billion during the next three years without raising taxes, includes creating a Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank to multiply transportation dollars, as well as plans to implement public-private partnerships to develop projects such as the I-495 High Occupancy Traffic lanes and I-95/395 high-occupancy/toll lanes in Northern Virginia, the Downtown/Midtown Tunnel improvements in Hampton Roads and the Route 460 Corridor Improvement Project.\n"The plan will be funded by several major parts," said Jeff Caldwell, press secretary of the governor's office. "It's a comprehensive plan that uses all tools available without raising taxes and without creating an undue burden on Virginia citizens."\nThe plan will be four-fold, beginning with $1.8 billion in bonds already approved by the General Assembly, Caldwell said. Although the bonds were approved in 2007, they have not yet been issued. Caldwell said the administration's first goal is to expedite these bonds to go toward transportation projects.\nMcDonnell has also proposed issuing $1.1 billion in Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles bonds, which will bring annual federal aid to finance transportation projects. The plan is then rounded out with the creation of "infrastructure bank" that holds $150 million in surplus dollars and $250 million left over from last year's audit of the state's transportation agency.\n"All told, those funding mechanisms would accelerate more than 900 projects around the commonwealth," Caldwell said. If the governor's omnibus transportation funding bill is passed, those 900 projects could begin within the next three years, Caldwell added. "Then, funding would become available and we would quickly issue bonds and have $4 billion injection of transportation projects."\nBut the governor's bill has been met with some criticism from both Democrats in the General Assembly and conservation advocacy groups. Brian Moran, the state party chairman, told The Washington Post that the transportation package, if passed, would result in "a dangerous explosion in public IOUs."\nNevertheless, the package recently gained bipartisan support as five Democrats agreed to cosponsor the proposal.
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