Traversing through Thursday traffic
I lost another several hours of my life to Virginia traffic today. As Northern Virginia's traffic problems grow increasingly worse, I wonder how long it will be before traffic is completely unmanageable. The solutions that the region has attempted to use in the past for traffic management will probably just make the traffic and sprawl worse. For example, High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes are popular in the area. While HOV lanes reduce the number of vehicles present heading to downtown DC, they don't help with the traffic going to most of the newer suburban business areas. Worse, heavy HOV restrictions (such as I-66 within the beltway) have a tendancy to push traffic onto local roads and neighborhoods.
There is also a tendancy in the region to resist attempts at creating useful road networks. For example, the People's Republic of Arlington ensured that I-66 inside the beltway would be built with only two lanes, and that it would be HOV-only during rush hour. Part of this was an assertion that it would reduce sprawl, and part of it was a philosophy (still present today) that if you work in the District, you should live in Arlington and not Fairfax. However, the limitations on I-66 actually helped push commercial growth out to Tysons and the Dulles corridor, where there is no effective mass transit. As a result, spawl is worse, and the impact to the environment is much higher.
There is a plan to run the Metrorail out to Reston and Dulles via Tysons. One of the earlier plans (circa 1996) had been to run light rail (faster and less expensive) out the center of the toll road. But that idea was dropped because it wasn't Metrorail, which just wasn't acceptable here. However, I would have preferred the option of taking a light rail system that ran at 100 mph to West Falls Church, and then transferring to the Metro. I can't imagine how slow it will be to take Metrorail from Reston, wind through Tysons, and eventually make it to West Falls Church. I could probably bike the distance faster. And the current bickering over the Tyson's Metro means that we'll be lucky to see it operational before we all retire.
There is also a tendancy in the region to resist attempts at creating useful road networks. For example, the People's Republic of Arlington ensured that I-66 inside the beltway would be built with only two lanes, and that it would be HOV-only during rush hour. Part of this was an assertion that it would reduce sprawl, and part of it was a philosophy (still present today) that if you work in the District, you should live in Arlington and not Fairfax. However, the limitations on I-66 actually helped push commercial growth out to Tysons and the Dulles corridor, where there is no effective mass transit. As a result, spawl is worse, and the impact to the environment is much higher.
There is a plan to run the Metrorail out to Reston and Dulles via Tysons. One of the earlier plans (circa 1996) had been to run light rail (faster and less expensive) out the center of the toll road. But that idea was dropped because it wasn't Metrorail, which just wasn't acceptable here. However, I would have preferred the option of taking a light rail system that ran at 100 mph to West Falls Church, and then transferring to the Metro. I can't imagine how slow it will be to take Metrorail from Reston, wind through Tysons, and eventually make it to West Falls Church. I could probably bike the distance faster. And the current bickering over the Tyson's Metro means that we'll be lucky to see it operational before we all retire.
posted by David at 1/11/2007 09:52:00 PM
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