Officials seek transportation info

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: October 30, 2008

Would you like to see bike lanes in Madison County? Or more carpooling opportunities to improve your daily commute?

Officials are reaching out to area residents to find out how they feel their travel within the county and the surrounding area could be improved. The Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission and the Virginia Department of Transportation are currently working to develop a rural long-range transportation plan for the five-county region, including Madison, Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange and Rappahannock counties.

A meeting to gather public input regarding transportation needs will take place during the regularly scheduled 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5 joint meeting between the Madison County Board of Supervisors and Madison County Planning Commission in the auditorium of the County Administration Center.

“We want the plan to reflect what people want in the region, that’s why we’re reaching out to the public now,” said Harriet Parcells, transportation planner for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission.

In addition to gathering public input, officials have been looking at the demographics of the region and its driving trends.

“As we all know we have a growing aging population, there’s been growth in travel and a general growth in population,” Parcells told The Eagle.

The commission has also found that approximately 50-65 percent of workers in the five-county region work outside of the county in which they live, according to Parcells. In addition, one-third of workers are traveling to work outside of the region, in Northern Virginia, she said.

“With the high cost of gas and the stress of commuting in a single occupancy vehicle people are looking for alternatives,” Parcells said.

In addition to possibly expanding carpool and vanpool matching opportunities, residents may find a commuter bus helpful.

A bus transporting commuters from Warrenton to the Washington, D.C.-area was recently started based on residents’ requests, according to the transportation planner.

The plan could include ways to create more “walkable” and “bikable” communities as well as outline the county’s goals regarding preserving its scenic views and development on the land alongside the county’s major roadways, she said.

The report will also identify key congestion points or safety problems in the area in order to establish a priority for road projects and improvements for those areas, Parcells said. VDOT intends to use these plans as a basis for identifying interstate and primary road priorities to be included in each county’s six-year road improvement program, according to the commission’s Web site.

Following the public meetings in the region, officials will then put together a draft of the regional Long-Range Transportation Plan that they hope to present to the public in March 2009.

For information, visit the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission’s Regional Long-Range Transportation Plan Web site at http://www.rrregion.org/longrangeplan.html. The Web site also includes a link to an on-line survey regarding transportation habits for those who cannot attend the meeting.