Virginians Offer Kaine Advice on Solving Traffic Woes

"Choices involve more roads, but they also involve mass transit," he said. Kaine also emphasized that Northern Virginia's traffic problems are a statewide issue because of the region's economic importance.

"The need for transportation solutions in Northern Virginia aren't just about Northern Virginia," he said. "Everyone in this state has a stake in trying to come up with solutions here."

During his campaign, Kaine said he would use excess state revenue and taxes on insurance premiums for transportation projects and also would contract with companies to build roads and rails.

And the morning after he was elected, Kaine said widening Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway and extending rail to Dulles International Airport were two of his primary goals.

Kaine received strong support from Northern Virginians in the Nov. 8 election, and last night, expectations for his term were high.

Many in the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation when he took the microphone, said that transportation was the reason for their support and that they expect Kaine to reward them with tangible improvements.

Susan Turner of McLean said many members of her citizens group voted for a Democrat for the first time in years because of Kaine's idea to give localities more power to turn away developments that would overwhelm road and rail networks. "You endorsed adequate public facilities ordinances," she told Kaine. "You get it."

During his tour, Kaine has been greeted by large, passionate crowds from Roanoke to the Richmond suburbs to Newport News. Despite near-universal agreement that traffic is a severe problem and that solutions need to be ambitious, no unified approach has emerged.

Some residents said last night that they favor higher taxes to pay for improvements, and others prefer toll roads. Some said that privatization is the answer to building projects, and others said corporate proposals would create more problems.

Last night's session also provided the latest forum for the debate between developers who say new roads are vital to the state's continued economic expansion and slow-growth activists who say that more roads will lead to more sprawl and thus create the need for even more roads.

Greg Fuhs of Springfield said he would like to see "more emphasis on getting cars off the road than building new capacity. Seems to me the more roadways we have, the more traffic we have."