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VA Lawmakers Get Tour Of Transportation Trouble Spots

June 30, 2010
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Virginia state legislators from across the state experience Northern Virginia rush-hour traffic. Del. Scott Garrett (R-Lynchburg), left, rides a crowded metro car from Rosslyn to Vienna.
Jonna McKone
Virginia state legislators from across the state experience Northern Virginia rush-hour traffic. Del. Scott Garrett (R-Lynchburg), left, rides a crowded metro car from Rosslyn to Vienna.

By David Schultz

Delegates and State Senators from across the Commonwealth are here visiting Northern Virginia's trouble spots - I-95, the Beltway, the orange line during rush hour.

Ed Scott, a Republican delegate from central Virginia, says he's not on this tour to verify rumors of the region's crippling traffic congestion.

"Oh, I don't think they're rumors," he says. "I think they're facts."

Instead, Scott says he wants to see how the decisions he makes in Richmond affect commuters here.

Scott's colleague in the House of Delegates, Democrat Jeion Ward, says she wants to see if conditions here really are worse than in her home town.

"I'm comparing their congestion here in Northern Virginia with what we see in the Hampton Roads area," she says.

The tour is being led by the Northern Virginia Transportaton Commission, a regional advocacy group.

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