Adam Tuss, wtop.com

HERNDON, Va. — If you want to get something done, you have to do it yourself. Unfortunately for the D.C. region’s traffic choked, weary commuters, that message was delivered time and time again during a meeting of transportation leaders Wednesday.

Virginia business leaders and politicians got together for what was described as a “transportation flash mob” to talk about transportation solutions for the Commonwealth. The key points that kept coming up: There is no new money to pay for transportation improvements in the region and, if there is going to be new money, it will likely have to come from the people who want the transportation fixes.

“Essentially our needs cannot be met without new dedicated taxes and fees,” said Bob Chase, head of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.

Chase was talking specifically about the gas tax, which was last raised in Virginia in 1987.

“We have gone now 25 years ignoring that reality,” he said.

However, Republican State Delegate Dave Albo cautioned that Virginia residents in the southern part of the state are unwilling to tax themselves to help pay for the problems of Northern Virginia.

“You will never get anybody to vote for something that doesn’t benefit them,” Albo said. “So let’s just go ahead and stop the sales pitch about talking to somebody from Lynchburg who has all pretty streets, where you can eat off them, and there is no traffic. They are never, ever, ever, ever, ever voting to tax themselves for roads. Period,” said Albo.

He recommends that people who are looking for transportation fixes start forming special coalitions and groups, and those groups specifically pay for the transportation improvements that will benefit them. Similar funding mechanisms have been put in place for the Dulles Rail Project, where special taxing districts have been set up to help pay for the rail line.

Follow “>WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)