Transportation was on the minds of our legislators at Chamber Day in Richmond on January 15, 2013.  Lisa Huffman, Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce President, and Jerry Ferguson, Director of Development at Fairfax Public Access and the Chamber's interim chair on Public Policy, had the opportunity to sit down for conversations with Delegates Ken Plum, Mark Keam, David Bulova and Barbara Comstock, and with Senator Chap Petersen to discuss key pieces of legislation on tap for this year's session of the Virginia General Assembly.  The primary topic was the Governor's proposal to scrap the gasoline tax in favor of a small increase in the sales tax, a move that a majority of those we spoke to did not favor.  At 17.5 cents per gallon (a rate that has been in place since 1987), set aside specifically for the transportation fund, the fear is that it would not decrease the cost of gas at the pump since prices are determined by market value, but that prices would remain the same, with that money now going to the gas companies instead of the state.  And it would further deprive the state of the revenue provided by those who pass through Virginia and have to stop for gas.  As it stands, the gas tax is a "user-based" fee, unlike the sales tax, which makes everyone responsible for funding transportation, whether they "use" the roads or even own a vehicle.  Also, while a small increase in the sales tax would bring in revenue, it would go into the state's general fund, rather than the separate transportation fund we have now.  Though all the legislators we spoke with had misgivings with the idea as proposed, they all agreed that it was a start and that given a chance to be amended after several passes through both houses, some piece of legislation will be crafted that will begin to address some of the challenges we have with funding the state's transportation needs.

To help alleviate some of the confusion about traveling the Express Lanes, Transurban shot two behind-the-wheel videos to give people a virtual tour of the roadway. The videos show exit points available from the Express Lanes. There is one video showing the view from travel headed north and another southbound.

Transurban will be adding more videos in the future which will show the driver's view from various connecting entry and exit points. The current videos show the entire 14-mile corridor entering from the Beltway and exiting back onto the Beltway.

The videos are in the top row on our video page here.