On May 14, 2026, Active Prince William Co-Chair Allen Muchnick delivered the following statement at the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s public hearing for its two-year update of its Six Year Program that will select locally submitted projects for funding in FY2030 and FY2031.
For this two-year update, eight NoVA localities requested a total of $1.27 billion in NVTA regional revenue for 27 separate projects whose total cost is estimated to be $2.4 billion. Since the expected NVTA regional revenue for that two-year period is only about $700 million, roughly half of the requested NVTA funds will be awarded.
May 14, 2026 Public Hearing for the Six-Year Program Update
Statement by Allen Muchnick, City of Manassas Resident
Good evening. I’m Allen Muchnick, a City of Manassas resident and a board member of several active mobility advocacy groups, including Active Prince William.
I commend the various localities–and Arlington in particular– for submitting many projects for this cycle that do not expand roadway capacity. It’s encouraging that 44% of the submitted projects, accounting for 17% of the requested funds, would primarily improve active mobility.
While it’s important to evaluate projects by their cost effectiveness, Congestion Reduction Relative to Cost is misleading by not fully measuring the adverse impacts of induced auto travel and induced auto-dependent development, which generate additional auto trips and their carbon emissions that increase congestion on the overall roadway network and exacerbate our climate crisis.
Furthermore, while the projects labeled as roadway or intersection improvements account for only 43% of the requested funds, Fairfax County’s Route 1 BRT project, which accounts for 37% of the requested funds, is also a roadway expansion project, so roadway expansions actually comprise 80% of the requested funds.
Despite NVTA’s commendable development of a Bus Rapid Transit Action Plan, only three bus-priority projects were submitted for this funding cycle.
I strongly support the Manassas VRE Line Rail-with-Trail project, which would effectively link two city downtowns and their VRE stations and provide a much-needed safe active mobility crossing of Bull Run into Fairfax County. As an off-roadway trail, it should have been rated high for safety.
“Regional Active Transportation Stakeholder Meeting” at the NVTA office on July 31, 2025 (Photo courtesy of NVTA)
In March 2025, the Virginia House and Senate Transportation Committee Chairs asked the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) to review the findings from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) 2024 Northern Virginia Bicycle and Pedestrian Network Study and recommend regional funding strategies for infrastructure identified in the study. VDOT’s study identified nearly 5,000 miles of planned but unfunded active transportation infrastructure throughout Northern Virginia.
In July and August 2025, NVTA, with the aid of a consultant, convened two “Regional Stakeholder Meetings” for this study, to solicit the input of local and regional transportation agency staff and local, regional, and statewide active mobility advocacy organizations. In reaction to the content and format of those two exploratory meetings, the nine active mobility advocacy organizations identified below sent the following joint letter to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, to recommend a more ambitious and comprehensive study scope.
Ms. Monica Blackmon, CEO Northern Virginia Transportation Authority 2600 Park Tower Dr, Suite 601 Vienna, VA 22180
Re: A Regional Approach to Funding Northern Virginia’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure
Dear Ms. Backmon:
We, the undersigned advocates and community members invited to participate in recent regional coordination meetings organized by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) to study and discuss ways to expand funding for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Northern Virginia, are writing to provide general comments on the process thus far. In summary, we underscore the need and opportunity for a broader study scope than what has been presented and further work to ensure a successful outcome.
We appreciate this timely and regionally important study
Firstly, we are deeply appreciative of the opportunity to share our perspectives as bicyclists, smart growth advocates, and users and supporters of the region’s active transportation network and to contribute to NVTA’s important work. As with regional transit funding, identifying and securing sufficient, stable, and sustainable funding to support continued active transportation investments is a critical challenge as our region faces the growing pressures of congestion, unsafe roads, and climate change. We are confronted by the shortcomings in our current built environment every time we walk out of our homes or destinations—sometimes quite literally, in the form of incomplete sidewalks and impossible-to-cross corridors. And the consequences go beyond time lost and productivity, with death and serious injury all too common in our transportation headlines.
We have long championed a safer and more efficient alternative transportation vision centered on walking, biking, and transit, and are therefore encouraged by NVTA and affiliated agencies taking meaningful steps in support, including with this study. To wit, we recognize the growing number of member applications for Six-Year Program (SYP) funding for pedestrian and bicyclist projects—almost half of the applications submitted this past summer and one fifth of the total funds requested.
Proposed study scope of funding options needs to be broadened…but still focused on local empowerment
We are, however, disappointed by the narrow scope of NVTA’s study, particularly its apparent sole focus on exploring and expanding locally-controlled funding sources. The Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) Northern Virginia Bicycle and Pedestrian Network Study Report identified nearly 5,000 miles of planned and unfunded bicycle and pedestrian facilities estimated to cost between $9.2B and $30.8B to build; these eye-popping figures will most certainly require a funding paradigm that goes beyond tapping or expanding local general funds. We therefore strongly encourage NVTA via this study and forthcoming report to, at a minimum, contemplate those mechanisms outside its direct control but nonetheless crucial to achieving its mission.
As one example, this study could explore and expound on the feasibility of Senator Scott Surovell’s proposal to establish an annual local tax on privately owned parking spaces that could be dedicated to expanding active transportation infrastructure.
It should be noted that unlike transit investments—the scope of which befits a coordinated, regional approach—active transportation investments are best managed by localities able to adapt designs to fit local contexts. So even as we look to regional, state, and even federal sources for funding, the end goal should be to effectively and efficiently funnel such resources to empower our counties and cities.
Include existing statewide funding sources that can contribute more to active transportation
We also believe NVTA is particularly well-positioned to comment on major statewide funding programs, including Virginia’s SMART SCALE and HSIP; it could well utilize its expertise to provide insight to its constituent jurisdictions and elected leaders on how those mechanisms might be modified administratively or legislatively to better deliver on our active transportation priorities. VDOT has large sums of federal funding at its disposal (about $4 billion in highway capital expenditures every year), much of which could be flexed to better prioritize critical safety needs and underfunded travel modes.
Identify ways that localities can flexibly apply and manage funding
NVTA should also look internally at ways to continue to adjust how it solicits, evaluates, scores, allocates, and tracks project submissions for NVTA, CMAQ, and RSTP funds—and improve transparency around such processes—to better deliver on these shared priorities. Key to that is viewing active transportation not as a separate category of project but as an integral part of the overall transportation network, with meaningful consideration of layering walking and bicycling into every transportation project big or small. Development, adoption, and implementation of an NVTA Complete Streets policy and program would be an impactful first step.
Include maintenance, roadway reconfiguration and quick-build projects
This study should also consider the need for VDOT to adequately and proactively maintain its existing active mobility assets and how VDOT’s annual roadway surfacing program—a critical but underused mechanism to expand active mobility infrastructure through roadway reconfigurations and quick-build projects—might be more effectively and widely utilized. The high per-mile network cost estimates in VDOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Network Study Report were predicated on exclusive implementation via standalone construction projects rather than a more realistic (and far less costly) mix of implementation strategies including improvements as part of ongoing upkeep.
Establish a regional mechanism to track needs and progress
Last but not least, a key outcome of this study should be to identify an effective regional mechanism that complements or builds on NVTA’s nascent efforts to continuously and comprehensively track and annually report on the actual implementation of active transportation infrastructure, via all funding sources, throughout Northern Virginia. Without such a mechanism, our region can’t reliably track its progress toward an effective active transportation network. For example, if the region is found to expand active mobility infrastructure at an average annual rate of 50 lane-miles, it should take roughly a century to complete the currently identified network.
Conclusion
While we acknowledge that it may not be NVTA’s role in policy or practice to offer explicit recommendations—particularly regarding legislation—or to upend established norms, this study should be an opportunity to introduce as broad a universe of ideas as possible to constituent jurisdictions and elected leaders for their careful consideration.
The core question undergirding this study—how to begin chipping away at a $10B+ backlog of needed investments—is challenging. Narrowing the focus may therefore seem sensible on its face, but our collective concern is that a limited study will inevitably leave us under-equipped to develop the robust policies and strategies needed to implement needed active transportation infrastructure and safety improvements. Therefore we encourage you once more to seize the opportunity presented by this study to explore broadly and deeply, to make full use of the gathered agency staff and advocates, for the benefit of our Northern Virginia communities now and into the future.
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Kiker, Washington Area Bicyclist Association Allen Muchnick, Active Prince William Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth Ken Notis, Alexandria Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee Jim Durham, Virginia Bicycling Federation Lisa Campbell, Bike Loudoun Joy Faunce, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling Andrew Olesen, Bike Falls Church Chris Slatt, Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County
Active Prince William Co-Chair Allen Muchnick delivered the statement below at the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s annual public hearing on January 9, 2025.
Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s Annual Public Hearing, January 9, 2025, Statement by Allen Muchnick, City of Manassas Resident
Good evening. I’m Allen Muchnick, a City of Manassas resident.
NVTA proclaims multimodality and “core values” of equity, safety, and sustainability, but it takes effective policies and performance measures to rise above empty buzzwords and greenwashing.
For instance, NVTA still lacks any Complete Streets policy, and it doesn’t track and report the greenhouse gas emissions generated by its funded projects. When counting the active mobility lane miles funded by NVTA (see the presentation under Agenda Item #5), it’s greenwashing to combine the 30% and 70% projects or to count the replacement active mobility facilities in road-widening projects.
Do we advance equity, safety, and sustainability by building–and perpetuating–wide and fast commercial roadways that injure or kill hundreds of pedestrians annually, increase vehicle miles traveled, and promote more auto-dependent sprawl?
Is it equitable, sustainable, or cost-effective to spend sales tax and other non-motoring revenue to expand roads in the outer NoVA counties so more people who work in NoVA or DC can commute in single-occupant vehicles from localities beyond NoVA?
Yet, according to NVTA’s NoVA Gateway project-tracking website, during 16 fiscal years, NVTA has so far awarded only about 3.5% ($131.4 million) out of $3.8 Billion in regional funds to 11 standalone active mobility projects (and of that amount $39.1 million has been set aside for a single project, the CC2DCA connector). Of the 105 projects that have so far actually received NVTA regional money, less than 2.3% ($54.4 million) of the $2.4 billion allocated has flowed to a mere 7 standalone active mobility projects.
Thus, at NVTA’s historic rate of allocating its regional funds for standalone active mobility projects, it would take roughly 1700 years (at $8.2 million/year) to fully fund NoVA’s already planned active mobility facilities.
NVTA could receive more equitable, safe, and sustainable projects to evaluate for funding if the Authority were to require each locality or agency to hold an advertised public hearing before the relevant governing body endorses any project for NVTA-related funding, including from the federal CMAQ and RSTP programs.
Presently, in localities without a transportation advisory commission, such project funding submissions are often developed behind closed doors and simply placed on the governing body’s consent agenda. Requiring advertised public hearings well before governing body endorsement could alter the mix of submitted projects—such as more standalone active mobility projects—as well as modify or expand the scope of the multimodal project submissions in light of the early public input.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority held an public annual hearing on January 12, 2023. Active Prince William’s co-chairs delivered the statements reproduced below.
Statement by Allen Muchnick, City of Manassas Resident
2022 was a busy year for the Authority. While the processes for updating TransAction and the Six-Year Program were badly flawed, I appreciate that the outcomes were better than many had feared.
I urge the Authority to devote 2023 to reevaluate its approach to transportation project development in our region, to better align its processes and outcomes with its Core Values of Equity, Sustainability, and Safety and its goal of developing “an integrated multimodal transportation system that enhances quality of life, strengthens the economy, and builds resilience.”
A transportation program that—in our outer suburbs–is heavily focused on expanding fast, multilane arterials is neither equitable nor sustainable and only worsens safety and access for vulnerable road users and non-motorists. NVTA funding—which is devoid of any motor vehicle user fees—has not effectively addressed our region’s growing traffic violence problem.
The Authority should establish a task force this year to reevaluate its fundamental policies and procedures, starting with its statutory emphasis on reducing traffic congestion. The recent TransAction planning process found that–even if our region could obtain $75 billion to complete every listed project over the next 23 years—traffic congestion overall would be essentially unchanged. The Authority should evaluate more cost-effective, equitable, sustainable, and safer approaches to regional transportation planning and investment and then recommend changes to its current statutory mandate to the Virginia General Assembly.
A simpler, yet much-needed, NVTA reform would require advertised public hearings before a relevant governing body endorses any project for NVTA-related funding, including from the CMAQ and RSTP programs. Currently, such funding requests are often developed behind closed doors and simply placed on the governing body’s consent agenda. Requiring advertised public hearings before governing body endorsement could alter the mix of the submitted projects and/or expand or modify their scope in light of the early public input.
The Authority also needs to develop and adopt a robust Complete Streets policy, to ensure that all NVTA-funded projects adequately meet the access and safety needs of vulnerable road users. Early public involvement before projects are submitted for funding is related to this need, to ensure that project scopes and funding allocations will properly accommodate vulnerable road users.
Thank you for this public comment opportunity and for considering my recommendations.
Statement by Mark Scheufler, Prince William County Resident
Good Evening. Mark Scheufler. Prince William County. Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight.
To meet the regional, state, and federal greenhouse gas emission objectives and goals, a structural change in the transportation planning and investment needs to occur. In addition to improved vehicle emission standards and investing in electric vehicles and infrastructure, vehicle miles traveled (or VMT) for Single Occupancy Vehicles as a whole needs to decrease, even as the Northern Virginia population grows. At a basic level, this means that we need to stop expanding unmanaged roadway lane miles.
This means the recently adopted TransAction plan would need a major modification. Any government funding for highway expansion is one less $ going to meeting these urgent climate goals in the transportation sector. We need to change the paradigm that Congestion is reduced–not by adding unmanaged roadway supply to the system–but by reduced Single Occupancy Vehicle travel demand. This will require reducing car dependency by developing near high-capacity transit, repurposing roadway space for transit and non-motorized users, and reforming parking requirements and level of service standards, especially in outer jurisdictions.
The one roadway widening project that I do support, that is currently being studied, is modifying the I-95 express lanes to a bi-directional configuration. Somehow this is not included in the $74B TransAction list. According to the TransAction documents, NVTA supports more general-purpose widening of the existing I-95 roadway that VDOT indicated would be a very poor investment.
But this only makes sense if jurisdictions simultaneously take advantage of the opportunity to transform the currently adjacent high-speed deadly Route 1 arterial corridor in Fairfax and Prince William.
I applaud Arlington County staff for recommending a 25 mph design speed for their section of Route 1 through the National Landing area. I would hope it can be a model, along with dedicated transit lanes in the Route 1 corridor, for all the other jurisdictions from Pentagon City to Dumfries. These types of regional initiatives should be the focus for the NVTA this coming year.
On September 8, 2022, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority held a public hearing on its draft five-year update to TransAction, the regional authority’s long-range transportation plan for Northern Virginia. Active Prince William’s co-chairs, Mark Scheufler and Allen Muchnick, delivered separate oral statements at this hearing, and both statements are posted below.
Good Evening. Mark Scheufler, Prince William County. Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight.
I am a member of Active Prince William, which is a volunteer group of concerned citizens who advocate for better opportunities, support, and infrastructure for active transportation and healthy lifestyles within Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park.
I have reviewed the list of projects and associated documentation in the TransAction package and continue to be disappointed in the goals and outcomes of this process.
I do not believe a directionless, hodgepodge, all-the-above-list-of-projects approach of expanding capacity to reduce roadway congestion is the best path for the region. Reform to the NVTA statute is needed.
I compare the Northern Virginia transportation situation as it relates to congestion to be comparable to obesity. The solution for obesity should not be to loosen the belt for extra capacity which is similar to the 20th century concept that unmanaged road widening is a solution to congestion in urban areas such as Northern Virginia.
Unfortunately the Transaction list includes 117 projects with the word “Widen” in it.
This update to the TransAction along with the NVTA statute will continue to point outer jurisdictions of Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun to submit car-first projects that serve to increase car dependency to future six-year funding programs.
In closing, I will submit this testimony via email and provide a list of project additions, subtractions and modifications for consideration as many of my concerns discussed here will not be addressed in this TransAction process. But I hope NVTA reform can be addressed by the state legislature to create better land use and transportation outcomes for all Northern Virginia residents. Thank you.
Good Evening. I’m Allen Muchnick. I live in the City of Manassas, and I also serve on the board of Active Prince William, an active mobility advocacy group.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s transportation planning and programming processes are fundamentally flawed, starting with its statutory mandate to focus on traffic congestion, while ignoring the critical roles of land use and induced demand as well as the environmental, equity, and traffic-safety problems caused by our region’s over-dependence on auto travel.
Northern Virginia’s roadways have been expanded for the past seventy years, yet we still face perpetual traffic congestion, and most NoVA residents will continue to lack viable alternatives to driving alone for most local trips. Repeating the same activity over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
Developing an independent Northern Virginia transportation plan that does not reinforce and advance the goals, objectives, and strategies of Visualize 2045–the federally mandated long-range transportation plan for the entire Washington region–is counterproductive and foolish. An unconstrained and un-prioritized transportation project wish list, whose price tag far exceeds the funding that is expected to become available before 2045, is largely a wasteful exercise.
In the TransAction project list, many of the road-widening and interchange proposals do not mention the inclusion of associated pedestrian and bicycling elements, which might be new, upgrades, exact replacements, or preserved preexisting facilities. For over 18 years, VDOT has operated under a Complete Streets policy adopted by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The NVTA also needs to adopt a Complete Streets policy that requires all NVTA-funded projects to incorporate all related pedestrian and bicycling accommodations as safe, direct, and efficient facilities, unless one or more specified exemptions exist.
Another much-needed, yet simple, NVTA reform would require advertised public hearings before the relevant governing body endorses any project for NVTA-related funding, including federal RSTP and CMAQ allocations endorsed by the NVTA.
Thank you for this opportunity to comment orally. I plan to submit more detailed written comments via email by the September 18 deadline.
