John Miller was elected by a bipartisan coalition of voters who bought into the hope that he was going to work across the aisle to provide real solutions. I hope tolls aren’t what he has in mind, or he will be a one term Senator.

How has Senator Miller done so far on the bipartisanship meter? Has anyone looked at his votes and compared them to others who vote the straight Party line?

As for the transportation issue: I suggest the use of barges between the Port of Hampton Roads and Richmond and other river accessible ports. Some of these barges can carry 300 containers per barge. Just one barge trip could eliminate three hundred trucks off of I-64. Other river sites could also be established all along the Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Give me nine feet of navigable water and I can have a busy inland barge operation, all along the ports of the Chesapeake Bay. With the cost of fuel today, barges provide a great alternative.

As for another crossing, I would like to see a similar span to the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. It is high enough to allow carriers to pass under and it creates a beautiful architectural accent to the cities that it serves. I would like to see the cost comparisons between a high rise bridge and a tunnel.

If there are federal subsidies available, I would like to see a high speed foot traffic ferry between Hampton, or Newport News and the naval base.

I support the five cents per gallon gas tax increase to pay for transportation improvements. The impact, as I have stated before, is $15.00 annually for the average driver in Virginia. Adding the tax now would have little impact since we are already numb from the steady increases, and you may as well get the tax fully implemented before Bush’s war pushes the cost up past $5.00 per gallon.

The good news is that on 01/20/2009, no more shrubbery.