Regarding the article, “No funding for widening 3-mile stretch in Virginia,” in the Jan. 26 edition of The Daily Advance, it was interesting and encouraging to see that northeastern North Carolina residents are alert to transportation challenges just north of the state border. After all, we in Hampton Roads and you in northeastern North Carolina interact on a daily basis, and our personal and business futures are interdependent.

Indeed, the federally-described Metropolitan Statistical Area for Hampton Roads includes Currituck County, and may soon include a second jurisdiction in North Carolina. Regardless of which counties are in the MSA, all northeastern North Carolina jurisdictions near the border are right to pay attention to the transportation decision-making process in Hampton Roads, a region of which you are a part.

I recommend going one step further — actually participate in the discussion process — as well as paying attention to it. The federal government requires that transportation plans and transportation programs be developed on a regional basis, and has required that Metropolitan Planning Organizations (U.S. Code 23 CFR 450) be created for this purpose.

In my opinion, jurisdictional leaders from northeastern North Carolina should attend MPO meetings in Hampton Roads on a regular basis. Later, the day may come when they could become non-voting participants, and then later yet, the day should come when an northeastern North Carolina participant would become a voting member of the regional MPO organization which, by the way, has a most talented staff.

With federal support, there are several bi-state MPOs around the nation which evolved as cross-border regional transportation needs arose. Sooner or later and looking ahead, the leaders and residents of northeastern North Carolina will certainly see another “stretch of road” in Virginia or in North Carolina that needs regional planning and funding attention. Maybe now is the time for elected leaders in northeastern North Carolina to take the first step and to start attending the region’s MPO meetings.

RAY TAYLOR

Virginia Beach, Va.

Editor’s note: The letter-writer is chairman of the Future of Hampton Roads, a private nonprofit created to effect regional cooperation in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.