Traffic, Budgets and Consequences

If every 4 or 5 days, someone got mugged and beaten at the exact same streetcorner in Loudoun County, you can bet that our elected officials would be up in arms. You can bet that people like Joe May and Tom Rust would be screaming to high heaven that more money should be made available for law enforcement and Richmond would respond, because criminals were on the loose in our suburbs.

Well, every 4.3 days in Loudoun, someone has their property destroyed and suffers bodily harm at the exact same intersection, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.

Waxpool Road at Loudoun County Parkway saw 84 crashes in 2009, and was also the most crash prone intersection in 2008 with 86 crashes. The intersection of Harry Byrd Highway (Route 7) at Belmont Ridge was tied with the intersection of Route 7 and Potomac View Road as the second most crash prone intersection in Loudoun. Each intersection saw 73 crashes in 2009. - Loudoun County Traffic

Our combined crises of budget shortfalls and transportation nightmares have consequences. Those consequences are traffic accidents. Traffic accidents are not only harmful to the people involved, but also to the people who are delayed as a result, the police and emergency crews that are diverted from other duties to deal with the incident, and the added costs to us, the taxpayers, of cleaning up afterwards. Solving the budget and transportation problems we face will have a salutary effect if it does nothing more than reduce accidents. Until then, we can expect the awful frequency of accidents to continue, and no letup in their negative impacts on our lives.

These are the consequences of letting our transportation problems fester, and the revenue reform we need go unfinished. I just hope that the consequences don't prove too fatal to too many of our neighbors this year.