Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Going It Alone

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Frustrated by state inaction, Prince William County has launched the most ambitious locally funded road-improvement program in Virginia: $1.5 billion in spending over 15 years.

In theory, it makes sense for transportation and land use planning to take place at the same level of government. In theory, Prince William would be less likely to approve comprehensive plans and rezoning projects that will overwhelm the local transportation structure if it assumes financial responsibility for fixing the traffic problems that result.

In the latest Road to Ruin article, writer Peter Galuszka takes a look at the Prince William transportation plan. Clearly, Prince William is more proactive than its neighbors. But environmentalists and smart-growth advocates offer two main points of criticism: (1) The County is spending the money on roads, paying little heed to the mass transit option, and (2) the county is showering money on larger highways and arterial roads to the detriment of local street networks. Read the story here.

Update: PWC board chairman Sean Connaughton responded to a criticism in the story suggesting that the County is neglecting mass transit in its transportation strategy. In point of fact, he says, “We are expanding the county’s bus system (now the fastest growing in the country); we have a transit lane planned on Route 1 and the Prince William Parkway; and our future bond referendum includes massive transit improvements.”

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5 responses to “Going It Alone”

  1. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    What mass transit option has PW got? It has no Metro station and just a few VRE stations. Absent major funding my multiple parties, rail isn’t in the picture, yet. The only mass transit option PW has is buses, and buses require roads.

    And it is the main roads that have the biggest back ups. Arguing that the county is wasting its money by going after bottlenecks flies in the face of estimates that much of the nations traffic congestion could be resolved by fixing reletively few bottlenecks. There simply isn’t any evidence that altering land use will EVER alleviate or reduce transportation problems and certainly none that it will undo problems that already exist. Even if it is theoretically possible, there is no one we can point to that has the knowlege to claim he knows how to do it, and still have any credibility. There is no history, and no experience. There is not even a cogent exercise in trying to collect the data on projects like Albemarle Place or MetroWest so that we might have history some day.

    The comments by Hosen and Schwartz are predictable. What they mean by linking land use with road construction is really limiting land use to prevent road construction. Prince william voters will go to the pools and state their choice of spending money or not.

    What’s the problem with that? I’d much rather them make the decision than self described road experts such as Hosen.

  2. NoVA Scout Avatar
    NoVA Scout

    I see two major dark clouds in what is a fairly brave and sunny approach to the chaos of Virginia’s dealings with transportation issues. First, as noted in the post, the County can be as enlightened as it wants to be about seizing the initiative in the face of state inaction, but it can’t control what happens in the contiguous areas of Loudoun, Stafford and Fauquier. As Connaughton has acknowledged, taking destingy into the County’s hands is perhaps unavoidable, but it reflects a failure mode as far as regional coherence. Second, a lot of this depends on the vision, drive and energy of one man who is now on his way to different, if not bigger, challenges. I see no one on the horizon who has Connaughton’s grasp of the details, his sense of where things should be in 20 years, and his willingness to put the arm on developers, VDOT, and even the local environmental and citizens groups when necessary to get this to all come together. It could all fall in a heap when he leaves.

  3. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    I think you are right.

    Fauquier is already being negatively impacted, traffic-wise, by development in Culpeper, and to a lesser extent in Front Royal. It is unlikely that they will respond with a proactive plan because they have neither the population, the will, or the money to support a PW like initiative.

    As you say, PW and Loudoun really have no choice, because if they don’t respond, and development continues to occur West and South, they will get the traffic anyway.

    Fairfax has little left in the way of choices unless they are willing to dismantle a lot of stuff in order to re-plan and rebuild their transportation.

    All three areas have a dearth of North South routes which will be needed to connect Belvoir/Frederickburg with Merrifield/Fairlakes, Tysons, Reston/Herndon, and Dulles, Let alone Maryland.

  4. Toomanytaxes Avatar
    Toomanytaxes

    Good point re Fairfax County. Where would one build north-south routes? Route 123 could not be widened through Fairfax City without destroying the historic district. The city’s residents would also likely fight any attempt to widen the route just to avoid extra traffic.

    The so-called “Techway” that would connect the Reston or Tysons areas to Rockville or thereabouts was so strongly opposed by residents of northern Fairfax and southeastern Loudoun that Congressman Frank Wolf canceled planning money.

    I suspect, without knowing, that there would be strong opposition in the Clifton area to any major road that connected to Prince William County.

    Also, what would the costs for right-of-way likely be, given the prices for real estate, even in a cooling market?

    It’s odd, but so many of these paths lead back to Ray Hyde’s comment that we need more places. Virginia needs more high-paying jobs outside NoVA so that people don’t need to drive to and from NoVA each day.

  5. Grime World Avatar
    Grime World

    check out my prince william on my blog

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