“I don’t think that this is my mother and father’s Richmond, and I don’t think it’s our parents’ counties either,” Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said. “I think the desires of people and their modes of transportation and desires for getting from Point A to Point B are shifting as we speak.

“I’ve always told people that you can come to Richmond and you’ll never have to be in a traffic jam, but you know, it’s beginning to change. We’re beginning to have too many cars on the road, and people are going to begin to look for other ways to get around the region.”

But how well the city and its surrounding counties will be able to cooperate on a future transportation system remains an open question, given the lack of progress on initiatives such as a new baseball stadium for the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

The stadium stalemate aside, Jones said the region hasn’t gotten enough credit for the projects it has pursued, citing the regional convention center and airport as examples.

“There are a lot of things that we’ve worked together on,” he said. “I think when the time is right, regional transit will happen.”