Suburban life could soon change in Virginia. New transportation policies in the Commonwealth could cut down on the number of cul-de-sacs.

Gov. Tim Kaine wants more roads to be connected. He says it could save money and provide better emergency access.

It's quiet in the Rockingham County neighborhood where Larry Pence lives, which is one reason he says he moved into the area.

"Oh, yes. We like the cul-de-sac. It's much more private. It does away with the through traffic," says Pence.

New regulations for secondary roads will take effect this summer. Under these regulations, if new developments aren't connected well enough, the Virginia Department of Transportation won't bring them in to the secondary road system. That means homeowners would have to take care of things such as plowing on their own.

Stacy Turner is the director of community development in Harrisonburg. She says, for several years, the city's encouraged developers to make roads connect.

"When we're running things like school buses, transit buses, it's nice not for those buses to go out to the arterial roads every time they need to transfer from subdivision to subdivision," says Turner.

Pence says four school buses come through his neighborhood each day.

"You can usually make it with about one back-up," says Pence.

"With emergency vehicle response, it's very important to have more than one way into a neighborhood and more than one way out of a neighborhood," says Turner.

Pence says it's the single entrance that cuts down on traffic and made it better for his kids to grow up in his neighborhood.

"They learn to ride bikes here. It was a fairly safe environment. And, we just like the no drive-through tendency that it creates," says Pence.

VDOT officials say they're not trying to target cul-de-sacs. There would be different standards for how well connected a neighborhood needs to be. The standards vary from region to region in Virginia. This policy would have no effect on existing neighborhoods.

The new policy goes into effect in July.