ROBIN ON TRANSPORTATION

Like most families in Hampton Roads, I have sat in hours of traffic taking my kids to school and going to work. Traffic and congestion keeps us away from our families, make us less productive at work, and wastes our hard-earned dollars. The gridlock on our roads threatens our overall quality of life. This is a crisis, and fixing transportation is an economic necessity. We have to bring people together to find new and innovative solutions to ease congestion.

In Richmond I will work with colleagues of both parties to:

·         Improve and expand public transit

·         Make bus rapid transit more accessible by keeping costs low

·         Work with the Federal Government to invest in high-speed rail

·         Provide tax incentives for companies to allow their employees to work from home or telecommuting centers

But the gridlock in Richmond has held us back, and instead of reliving the same old partisan battles, we need to come together and work on common sense solutions that Virginians of all parties and ideologies can agree on. Fundamentally, we must agree that transportation is a priority. We must make sure that Hampton Roads gets its fair share of funding for transportation projects, and we need to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government, including in the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Fixing transportation is not a Democratic or Republican issue, it is absolutely essential to improving the quality of life of all Virginians, especially those of us in Hampton Roads. In Richmond I will never play politics with this issue. It is time to finally solve this crisis.

And, if we make the critical investments in transportation, it will be a driving force in our local economy, creating good-paying jobs and allowing businesses to expand. We have an opportunity here to generate new revenue from the economic growth that will come from a comprehensive transportation solution.

Robin believes that solving Hampton Roads' transportation problems is about developing long-term, forward-thinking solutions as much as it is about fixing transportation dilemmas in the short term.  With a firm commitment to creating and implementing smart transportation legislation, smart public policy, we have a terrific opportunity to create thousands of jobs in our community.