The Cost of Transportation Will Eventually Change Our Policies

When Virginia's political leaders convene in June to discuss transportation funding, it's pretty likely that they'll be addressing a very real crisis with a limited palette of solutions. That's because the planning will largely be rooted in auto-centric policies that treat cars as the most efficient and reasonable way for individuals to go about the business of living.

With a barrel of oil at a record $125 -- up 30% since just January -- and the likelihood of $200 oil in our near future, reality is about to outstrip political planning. Which is a shame, since good policymaking and planning are among the few mechanisms in place currently that can change the dynamic.

There are at least two important changes that are likely to take place in America in the coming decades. One revolves around how individuals get what they need. The second will be changing what individuals believe they need.

Others have blogged recently about the new Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, which unfortunately does not include the Richmond metro region in its mapping logic. It does, however, do a great job of showing how residents of two of Virginia's more populous regions -- the Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News area and greater Washington/Baltimore -- pay through the nose to live where they live and then get where they need to go.

In the maps below, residents in the blue shaded areas pay at least half of their income on housing and transportation. The light yellow areas represent sections where residents pay less than 48% of their income on housing and transportation.

It would be interesting to overlay DC's Metro system over the Washington area map.

In the Richmond region, it would be interesting to look at the costs of housing and transportation for all of those new residents of western Chesterfield, Powhatan, New Kent and Culpeper counties who drive to work alone adds roughly $400 to their cost of living where they live (at 4 gallons a day, five days a week for two drivers) -- not to mention the added costs of shuttling to and from the regional big box stores.

It would be even more interesting to begin seriously looking at land use and transportation solutions that could fundamentally change this increasingly untenable dynamic. I'm the furthest thing you're likely to get from an expert on this subject, but at some point common sense (and financial need) will drag everyone into this issue.