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worst transportation issues as stemming from major roads like Interstates 66,395 and 495, but said that catching speeders and abusive drivers on these roads is almost impossible due to nearly constant gridlock during the busiest hours.
“What you’re talking about are the back roads in the rural counties like Fauquier” she said, explaining that local drivers would be affected much more than those in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Laing said she would feel more comfortable with the fees if they included drivers from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. since they all use roads maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Her sister, Kathleen Hutchison, said she worried about the possibility of certain people falling victim to the fees more easily than others.
“Unfortunately, the people caught are the people who can’t afford to get caught, like the working class mother rushing to daycare to pick up her child,” she said.
She added that she was unsure of how much of the money would go to repairing roads.
All of the General Assembly hopefuls said they were concerned with the public’s response and are looking at ways to solve the problem.
“If I had a chance to repeal it tomorrow, I would strongly consider that,” said Rappahannock County Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-District 15). Gilbert supported the bill until it excluded outof-state drivers.
“If we can’t fix that, we should repeal the whole thing because it’s just not fair” he said.
Gilbert said that the dreaded $3,500 ticket, a possibility under the abuser fees, is reserved for only an incredibly egregious driving infraction. The fees on the whole, he said, would apply to only 2.5 percent of Virginia drivers.
“The original intent was, look, these are the people who are causing many of the delays on our highways, so we decided it was only fair that those people would be paying the premium for their recklessness,” Gilbert said.
Delegate Clifford “Clay” Athey (District 18) said he wrote to Gov. Tim Kaine to request a special session to revisit the fines, but was unsuccessful. “I would’ve like to have something done over the summer,” he said.
Athey was absent when
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