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Chicagoland has a LOT more miles of rail, and considerably more miles of highways than the DC/Baltimore area. DC/Balt's growth puts it on a trajectory to be the size of Chicago, yet we lack the infrastructure of that megopolis. We need BOTH new highways and a greatly expanded heavy metro/light transit/commuter bus/rail network...on the scale of the Windy City. The problem is, particularly in VA, the DC suburbs have always been the ugly stepsister with regards to infrastructure money (road or mass transit).

Richmond Metro is a perfect examples of this imbalance - completely overbuilt highway system with nary a traffic jam to be seen (and also a counterbalance to the partially true yet perhaps overused "induced demand" argument...and its thriving, walkable city a counter to the idea that mass transit is required for lively urbanity (even if it is desired)). The result around the DMV has been to squabble and bicker over the transportation $craps, throwing fellow metro citizens under the proverbial bus (pun noted) because they commute differently.

I think it's kind of a false assumption that new circumferential roads are incompatible with continued TOD, particularly a new road between Reston and Rockville - two fairly well-planned areas, each "sprawled" as much as possible already. The only thing a circumferential road between these two points will induce is adequate infrastructure for the URBAN growth each area desires (at the mass transit lines). Just as the Balston/Rosslyn corridor thrives due to the conjunction of metro AND the highways around it (I-66/50/GW Parkway/110, etc), so can Reston and Rockville work the same way.

by stevek_fairfax on Dec 20, 2011 12:06 am • link • report