More Trains, Less Traffic

Dianne Blais has an environmentally friendly plan for her district’s, and Northern Virginia’s, severe traffic problems. She will strongly support efforts to extend metrorail’s orange line. In addition to this she plans to have light rail from Haymarket to the Vienna metro, or an express light rail into DC. This will take many cars off the region's overcrowded roads and highways, making traffic flow faster on the roads we will continue to work maintain. Metro expansion or light rail will encourage the creation of dense, walkable, and vibrant communities around the new stations which will allow people to live, work, and play without having to spend money on gas.

The beauty of mass transit is that not everyone needs to use it in order for it to be a benefit to the community as a whole. If one out of 10 of the residents in a region decide to use a service like metro or commuter rail to get to work, then the traffic is better for everyone. This is not the type of investment that requires everyone to use it for a benefit  for all to be gained. These diversified methods of transport will encourage development and make the entire region even more enticing to young individuals, businesses and families that will be the engine of future growth. This growth will expand the tax base far better than making a few new off ramps as the current legislature seems to be intent on doing.

The current government cannot, as a matter of reality, accomplish their transportation aims by expanding our car-based system. We have all driven on roads like Fairfax County Parkway in which new construction has widened the highway for a stretch only to narrow when development is an obstacle to continuing the widening, eliminating the potential benefit of the road work. The great thing about rail is that two lanes can move an order of magnitude more people than simple additional lanes to road. When development hits a certain population density, trains are needed to expand and grow the area. This is happening to Northern Virginia as we have grown to over two and a half million residents. Roads will always have a place in Virginia’s transportation spending, but rather than put all our eggs on one path, we need to diversify. We have a choice between following the road only development and permanent traffic jams of Los Angeles or the oftentimes more densely populated but still navigable northeast cities.

Dianne's opponent has received thousands of dollars from the powerful highway lobby. He has repeatedly supported new highway construction at the expense of mass transit that simply encourages endless sprawl with more people driving, degrading the environment. Highways only briefly solve traffic problems before they are clogged by the drivers from the new sprawl that they initiated. The development that is created through mass transit is sustainable and compact, attracting business and jobs close to where people live, resulting in less unorganized sprawl while still allowing for people to live and travel how they choose. Dianne Blais will work tirelessly to create jobs through a sensible transportation plan.

  -Post By Dianne Blais, Colin Dalrymple and Joe Gallant