DATE: Thursday, November 6, 1997            TAG: 9711060026

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: BY LEE R. EPSTEIN 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

$9 BILLION FOR TRANSPORTATION ``SOLUTIONS'' THAT WILL FAIL?

According to state transportation officials and Newport News Mayor Joe Frank (``20-year price tag to avoid Hampton Roads gridlock: $9 billion,'' news, Oct. 2), there's just one way out of the region's transportation dilemma: billions of dollars in new road construction. Mayor Frank said that the major new road projects - many dozens more than the several hundred already slated for funding - were necessary for the region to ``maintain its quality of life.'' The writers noted how important an unimpeded flow of traffic is to the regional economy.

Gridlock is a serious problem. Mobility and access are important for the transfer of goods and services. Maintaining mobility, or creating new and different opportunities for access, is also important to families that now regularly trek across the region to work, shop, play, pray and go to school.

But the enormity of the region's transportation problem should have us thinking about new approaches instead of the tired and unaffordable solutions from the past. As Dwight Farmer, the Planning District Commission's transportation director, said, even with the hundreds of already programmed projects, and some 60 more major roads not even in the queue, the most heavily traveled areas would still be gridlocked. Doesn't that tell us something? Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. Haven't we learned that so often the ``just build more roads solution'' leads to massive new congestion?

There are serious environmental consequences from just building more and more roads, as well. Water quality is among the most pressing. We now know from 50 years of experience that there is an insidious spiral of major road-building and sprawl development that are intertwined. In fact, experts say that is one reason why the construction of freeways and beltways, in growing areas, utterly fails as a solution. New freeways literally attract new traffic due to latent demand, and the overbuilding of houses and strip malls that new freeways enable quickly adds its own load of cars, to soon overwhelm the ``improvements.''

The sprawl development and the roads change the landscape from ``filter'' to ``funnel,'' and local water quality deteriorates due to runoff of sediment, toxins, nitrogen and phosphorous. Neither that deteriorating quality nor the deteriorating air quality from (literally) millions more miles of newly induced vehicle travel are good for the health of our families or the health of fish and shellfish in local rivers or the Chesapeake Bay. And that, I'd submit, is as vital to the region's ``quality of life'' as any other component. In fact, the area's wonderful natural attributes are one major reason why companies come to stay in the Hampton Roads region, and the health of our children is also unquestionably invaluable.

Local officials should begin doing just what Barry DuVal, president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, ``warned'' might be necessary: Think alternatives.

Invest in the maintenance of the infrastructure which is already built, before we lose it.

Undertake selective road improvements to improve the grid, such as intersection and bottleneck improvements, and a few necessary widenings.

Develop new ways to connect people with jobs, commerce and family-life needs, such as suburb-to-suburb and suburb-to-suburb-town light rail, improved pedestrian and bike facilities, flexible bus and minibus services and telecommuting and teleshopping.

Revise local land-use plans and zoning to focus new growth inward. Revitalize the centers - towns, cities and other already urban areas, and promote more compact, mixed-use development nodes where people can walk to jobs and transit, schools and local stores; complement with fair, strong local policies to conserve open space beyond.

Manage demand. Develop incentives and disincentives to encourage telecommuting and car pooling, flexible work schedules. Since we don't pay the full cost of driving, begin moderate regional pricing of roads and parking, and use the proceeds to help finance modest road improvements and transit.

Work together regionally. The achievement of regional cooperation and regional solutions is essential. Cities and counties cannot fix these problems alone nor in competition with one another.

It's time to create a new approach. It's time to recognize the failures of the old way of doing business, and truly improve mobility, access and the quality of live over the long run. It's time to improve rather than further degrade public health, water and the environment. It's time we demand real change from our local officials. MEMO: Lee R. Epstein, an urban planner and environmental lawyer, directs

the land conservation program of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. KEYWORDS: ANOTHER VIEW

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