CHARLOTTESVILLE Yet another General Assembly session on transportation approaches, to be convened soon. Will it be, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "déj? vu all over again," ending in gridlock or partial solu tions? Or will we finally break the logjam on transportation funding with an effort that moves Virginia toward developing an innovative, comprehensive 21st century approach to transportation?

The stakes have never been higher. Fuel prices have soared to unprecedented heights. Traffic is getting worse. Many of our bridges need major repair. Sprawl is spurring driving and congestion. And greenhouse gases from all that driving keep rising (transportation is the fastest-increasing source of these emissions in Virginia).

Last year's transportation package hit a number of bumps in the road, including the unpopularity of the abusive driver fees (that have since been repealed) and the unconstitutionality of the regional funding mechanisms. The package contained some important, positive elements, though, including greater funding for transit and steps to better link transportation and land use.

These elements indicate the significant common ground among plans that have been floated in the past by the governor, Senate, and House, by Democrats and Republicans.

Although current proposals are in flux, the debate unfortunately has focused almost exclusively on where to get more money for transportation rather than on how to spend taxpayer funds more wisely.

WE DO NEED more transportation funds, but there is an even greater need for a fundamental overhaul of Virginia's transportation program. As leaders of both parties and several recent

Times-Dispatch editorials have observed, our transportation program has not kept up with the times. We continue to pour billions of taxpayer dollars each year into a large state bureaucracy that focuses primarily on roads as the solution to virtually every transportation problem.

More money alone will not address our transportation problems. We cannot pave our way out of congestion, since new and wider highways encourage more scattered development and more driving. And an asphalt-centered approach gives most of us no practical option but to drive most of the time. Increased funding for more oversized, expensive highway projects would lock us into decades of sprawl, driving, and pollution by subsidizing fossil fuel-dependent development patterns and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

We need more choices.

ANY TRANSPORTATION funding increase should be part of a package that includes the following elements: