ALANE CALLANDER / Stafford County Sun
Published: February 27, 2008

Fortunately, the Virginia General Assembly has thrown out last year's ill-conceived abusive driver fees. When judges don't have discretion in fining ticketed drivers, and mandatory fees far exceed the seriousness of a violation, the legislation defies logic.

Now the lawmakers must come up with a replacement transportation funding source. A back-to-basics idea has been debated: the gas tax. Wow, that's so simple, and it has worked before. It can work again, if the House of Delegates will let it.

In 1986, Gov. Gerald Baliles persuaded the legislature to increase the gas tax to 17.5 cents. That's the last time the gas tax was increased, believe it or not, so that means inflation has cut substantially into the value of collections.

One of the logical aspects of the gas tax is that it hits up travelers from out-of-state as well as Virginia residents. Why not- Interstate travelers pass through Virginia all the time, contributing to the road congestion we need to fix.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw of Fairfax says the proposed one-cent gas tax increase will only cost the average family the equivalent of "two Big Mac meals a year." I know that my family wastes more money than that on frivolous expenditures; we'd certainly be glad to forgo two fast-food meals a year if it means millions more per year for transportation, helping close the gap on a six-year fund that is short over $1 billion.

On the home front, we'd be very happy to see new mass transit bus allocations occur sooner, rather than later.

One is a shuttle bus from neighborhoods in South Stafford located near the Leeland VRE station to and from the commuter train.

Why should Spotsylvania residents have the privilege of taking a shuttle to the Fredericksburg station when their county government has failed to sign up as a participant in VRE, while Stafford residents, whose government is a participant, cannot catch a shuttle to the train-

This lack of common sense contributes to the need to constantly add VRE parking spaces.

It also requires that people maintain an extra car, with insurance, to park in the lot. Or it means that parents need to get their young children up early and secure them in car seats in order for a spouse to get dropped off at the VRE. I even set the alarm earlier twice weekly in order to drop my son at Leeland Station, when a bus through our south Stafford neighborhood could easily serve that purpose.

Unfortunately, my husband can't catch a bus from the Woodbridge VRE station to work, even though such a service could benefit thousands of commuters.

Hence, to get a respite from the miserable Woodbridge to Stafford I-95 and U.S. 1 corridor, he has to go through gyrations that include leaving an old car at the Woodbridge VRE parking lot.

His experimental mass transit adventure has involved driving the old car (car #1) all the way to work on Wednesday, then driving to the Woodbridge VRE after work, parking the car there and taking the train home to Leeland, at which time I pick him up.

On Thursday, he drives another car (#2) to the Leeland lot, leaves it there for the day, gets off the train at Woodbridge and drives car #1 to work. He then returns to Woodbridge, where he parks car #1 and rides home to Leeland, where he picks up car #2 and comes on home.

On Friday, he drives back to Leeland and leaves car #2 in the lot, catches a train to Woodbridge, picks up car #1 from the VRE lot and drives to work. After work, he drives car #1 all the way home, at which time he picks me up and we drive to Leeland Station to pick up car #2, which one of us drives home.

Wouldn't it be simpler - and logical - if there were bus service available to and from VRE stations to helpful locations-

Alane Callander is a south Stafford resident active in many local causes. Reach her at .

Tags relating to this article:

• No tags are associated with this article.

Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search: