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We're working on an editorial about the latest $851 million cuts to VDOT's six-year plan. Take a look here at the projects that won't be completed in our area.

While the recession has worsened VDOT's problems, a rebounding economy won't fix the structural problem that will soon leave Virginia with money only to maintain existing infrastructure.

Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell will need more solutions than the pixie dust he sprinkled during the campaign to solve this.

The votes are counted and the people have spoken. Thursday, we'll congratulate Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell on a well-run, focused campaign and express the hope that the Republican who ran as a moderate candidate is the Republican who shows up in the governor's mansion.

Blacksburg remains an innovator in Southwest Virginia when it come to better governing through technology. Check out this nifty tool for letting the town know where you ride your bike. It's an interactive map that allows you to trace your bicycle and pedestrian routes and share them with the town. (Instructions for using the map.)

Why should you do that? From the town press release:

The information sought from these surveys is an understanding of riders’ points of origin and destination, the most travelled route from high density origins to common destinations, preference for in-road, shared-use, or off-road riding, and requests for additional amenities such as lockers or bike racks to facilitate users’ commutes. Once the data is collected, this information will be used to prioritize route improvements. These improvements include widening and improving roads for in-road bike lanes, construction of shared use off-road paths, in-road markings or signage for preferred routes, and assignment of an alpha numeric designation for each route for the purposes of navigation and mapping.

In other words, before the town can build new lanes, bike racks and so on, it needs to know where they are needed.  So if you bike in town or would if there were safer routes, visit the survey and let Blacksburg know where you ride.  The public comment period runs from Wednesday through Dec. 2.

Some pretty out-there ideas are being floated to help generate revenue for transportation. Bob McDonnell wants to put up toll booths at the state borders. Other, more serious proposals include installing GPS devices in cars and making drivers pay per-mile for certain segments of roads.

In an editorial we're working on for later, we'll argue that, though it is far from perfect, the gas tax is a far more efficient way to pay for roads - at least for now. That may change as cars get super-efficient and hybrids and purely electric cars become more common.

When that happens, the gas tax may not work, and these schemes might merit more serious consideration. Before that day comes, a lot of thought needs to go into the drawbacks and privacy implications of having the government track your car's every move in order to properly assess transportation fees.