The following opinion piece by Virginia Transportation Secretary and former CBDA President Aubrey Layne was featured in the Sunday, August 23 edition of the Virginian Pilot:

The debate over extending light rail into Virginia Beach tends to be oversimplified: cars versus transit.

As a long-term resident of Virginia Beach, I look at this issue in the context of the region's overall transportation plan. Light rail is part of a connected community that is easy to get around, enhancing a growing and diverse citizenry in Virginia's largest city.

An expansion of The Tide from Norfolk to Virginia Beach is for all of us, whether we're old or young.

Hampton Roads is expected to grow significantly over the next 25 years. Baby Boomers tend to retire from career jobs, but many of us - me included - continue to work in some capacity.

We live longer than our parents, and we depend on all kinds of ways to get around. While Boomers tend to reinvent ourselves in place, our children are flocking to communities they want to live in. Unlike the days when a job determined your destination, increasingly the destination comes first.

A viable transportation system linking highways to railways to bikeways and pathways connects a community, making it a desirable destination for people, businesses, jobs and life.

Let's focus for a moment on the up-and-coming workforce - the millennial generation, Americans born from about 1980 until the early 2000s.

It's no secret that the success of a community can be traced back to the kind of workforce it attracts. Facts show that millennials are the most educated and technologically savvy generation. Studies show nearly 70 percent of millennials use more than one mode of transportation several times per week.

Want more evidence? The majority of American teens now delay getting a driver's license. Since 1995, there has been a 47 percent decline in the number of licensed 16-year-olds in Virginia.

Studies also indicate that 86 percent of millennials say it is important that their city offer quality public transportation. By 2025, millennials will constitute 45 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Multi-modal transportation is not a new idea. The state, the Hampton Roads region and the city of Virginia Beach have recognized the need for transit in long-range plans. This need has been debated, documented, researched, studied and planned. It is time for transit to be funded.

The Hampton Roads Regional Transit Vision Plan - 2025 and beyond - imagines what may be possible for the region's transit services. It envisions a regional rapid transit network that connects employment and population centers. It imagines thoughtful and coordinated land-use planning combined with appropriate transit to improve mobility.

In other words, the extension of The Tide to Virginia Beach is not some harebrained notion conjured by people looking to spend some money.

As a member of the Envision Virginia Beach 2040 Commission, I know firsthand that light rail is important to connect the city's strategic growth areas.

Virginia Beach leaders thought it wise to build on the region's investment in light rail; thankfully, the Commonwealth Transportation Board agreed by allocating $155 million - more than half the cost - for the project.

It would be foolish to leave that money for use by other areas in the state when a referendum in 2012 showed that a significant majority of Virginia Beach voters favor using "all reasonable efforts to support the financing and development of The Tide light rail into Virginia Beach."

The plans for light rail to Town Center need to advance so accurate cost estimates can inform a smart decision.

Business leaders and Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently announced the "GO Virginia" initiative to diversify Virginia's economy.

The governor and I are firm believers in the private sector's ability to create quality jobs and opportunities. That's particularly important for an area like Hampton Roads that depends so heavily on waning federal funding.

An extension of The Tide into Virginia Beach provides another pathway for GO Virginia to make a difference in Hampton Roads. And if you want proof, just look to the current light rail system. In the few years since light rail's opening, Norfolk has seen the highest number of residential units in 25 years as well as $1 billion of development along The Tide's stretch of 7.4 miles.

If you care about Virginia Beach and its future, if you want the next generation of citizens to reside in a city as great as it is now, then I hope you'll recognize that equipping the region with an efficient transportation system is key to delivering that vision. An extension of The Tide to Town Center is an enormous step in the right direction.

Aubrey Layne is Virginia's secretary of transportation.