Your way: General Assembly selling naming rights for roads

Colin Hannifin Columnist

Want to rename your street? Soon, you might be able to do that.

Virginia’s General Assembly has approved a plan to allow the state to sell off the naming rights to bridges and roads. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the move could generate up to $27.3 million in the first five years, and $273 million over 20 years as companies vie to pay thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to place their name on area names.

It’s a novel and grand idea and could provide some much needed revenue to the cash strapped Department of Transportation. It’s easy to bemoan the state of the roads – and every Richmond citizen likely has and rightfully so. We want to see the potholes filled and our bumpy, car-destroying roads be smooth once again.

But in no way do we want to pay for it: higher gas tax? No thanks. More toll roads? No way. We want our cake and be able to eat it, too.

Which is why this idea is both ridiculous and awesome.

Not only can VDOT channel the funds raised by this plan to fix some of our roads, it may instill a sense of responsibility in corporate sponsors. No corporate sponsor would want its company name to be associated with a road covered in litter or prone to causing accidents.

Instead of just naming the road, the sponsors can fully adopt the road and help cover the maintenance costs. We already see this happening to stretches of roads, with organizations being in charge of its upkeep in terms of litter. With corporate brand equity on the line, many organizations will spare little expense.

Critics have come out against the plan and not without merit. The revenue that could be raised through this initiative is minimal when compared to VDOT’s annual budget, which is a massive $4.76 billion for 2012.

There are also questions of how desirable some of Richmond’s roads truly are: Will companies pony up cash to be associated with congestion? Others have argued that while VDOT is underfunded, this program only distracts from the real problem of finding proper funding.

There’s also the issue of normalization – that is, a name being attached to a road absent the company. How long will it take us to think of a potential

“Walmart Way” as a road without even considering the considering the company behind it? Will we even pay attention to new road names? What about updating our GPSes and maps?

There are a lot of unanswered questions. Regardless, the state should go through with it.

The plan highlights the initiative and innovation of Virginia.

Every state has faced budget issues