Bad drivers may pay for roads

Bad drivers in Virginia beware: Unless your driving habits change, you soon could be ponying up hefty annual payments to the state toward transportation projects.

The Republican-written transportation package includes an abuser-fee program that would charge bad drivers annual sums ranging from $100 to $1,000 for three consecutive years if they want to continue driving.

“It has two advantages,” said Delegate David B. Albo, Fairfax County Republican who helped craft the transportation plan. “No. 1, it raises a whole lot of money and advantage No. 2 is it lowers the amount of offenses people commit.

“It will cause a lot of people to think twice before they start going 80 mph down the [Capital] Beltway,” he said.

Virginia lawmakers last month agreed on a massive road-and-rail deal, signaling, at least for now, the end of a bitter dispute that had created a fissure in the Republican Party for several years.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, is considering how to put his stamp on the bill by meeting with local elected officials and state Republican leaders.

Mr. Kaine has until March 26 to suggest changes to the plan. The General Assembly will consider the governor’s proposed changes at a one-day session on April 4.

If lawmakers reject his amendments, Mr. Kaine could sign the original bill or veto it.

Though the proposed abuser-fee program could result in serious consequences for some Virginians, its been somewhat lost among the philosophical differences on other issues such as whether money from the state’s general operating fund should be used to improve the state’s beleaguered transportation system.

House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong said he was concerned that the fees were too severe.

“People have less tolerance for people that break the law, but we are also not talking about someone robbing a bank either,” the Martinsville Democrat said.

The plan would, beginning July 15, fine drivers as follows:

• Driving with a suspended driver’s license: three annual payments of $250.

• Reckless driving: three annual payments of $350.

• Drunken driving: three annual payments of $750.

Story Continues →