Northern Virginia tries to think big about road, transit improvements Neither view would fully capture what's going on in this remarkable process. While Maryland also increased its transportation revenue, there's no comparable decision-making underway in Maryland's D.C. suburbs, because the state has nothing like the newly empowered Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Hot topics include whether the projects proposed by individual jurisdictions in Virginia fit into a regional plan and whether they would provide congestion relief. The plan Some public testimony in June suggested the authority might choose projects that were small, local and of low impact. Chris Zimmerman of Arlington, the authority board member who leads its project committee, noted that the authority is guided by a regional plan. It's called TransAction 2040, an update of an earlier long-range plan to ease congestion, improve safety and increase mobility in Northern Virginia. The broadly stated goals are to provide those jurisdictions with an integrated transportation network that offers people a variety of ways to get around, is responsive to their needs, respects historical and environmental factors, addresses transportation and land use together, incorporates the benefits of technology, and identifies sources of funding to accomplish all that. From those goals, the planners developed a list of roadway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects, many of which are focused on the region's most heavily traveled corridors: ●Route 7, Dulles Toll Road, Silver Line ●Route 28 ●Loudoun County Parkway, Tri-County Parkway, Belmont Ridge Road, Gum Springs Road ●Fairfax County Parkway ●Prince William Parkway ●Capital Beltway ●I-95, I-395, Route 1, VRE, Metro Blue, Yellow Line ●I-66, Route 29, Route 50, Orange Line If a Northern Virginian goes more than a few miles, the travel is likely to include at least one of the corridors. So improvements in these areas are likely to have a high impact. The final, grand list of projects that evolved for the 2040 plan included more than 100 highway programs that would add 785 miles of lanes, 50 transit projects and 40 projects specifically to improve bicycle and pedestrian travel. The projects on the grand list were evaluated to set priorities. The evaluation standards included project readiness; urgency; ability to ease congestion and reduce travel time; ability to link employment, shopping and entertainment centers; and safety. They were put through a further review to test the potential benefits vs. the cost. Sample projects Here are some projects that have a high rating under the NVTA's standards. This is only a sample to illustrate the variety, how they fit into the 2040 corridor plan and how their advocates describe the congestion relief they would provide.