As Arlington booms, traffic drops

Traffic on several Arlington roads is lower today than decades ago, despite huge increases in density and activity.

Since 1996, Arlington has boomed. It’s added millions of square feet of new development, some of the tallest high-rises in Virginia, and about 50,000 new residents. And in that time, traffic counts have declined.

The explanation: Virtually all the growth has happened in Arlington’s Metrorail corridors, where using transit, biking, and walking are the norm. As mixed-use high-rises have replaced the previous generation’s car-oriented retail, the new residents don’t have to drive as much.

Traffic goes down

Street Segment	Street Type	1996	2011/2012	% Change 1996-2012
Lee Hwy - Rosslyn	EW 6-lane arterial	37,770	31,951	-15.4%
Wash. Blvd. - VA Square	EW 4-lane arterial	20,469	17,500	-14.5%
Clarendon Blvd.	EW 2-lane 1-way arterial	13,980	13,292	-5.0%
Wilson Blvd. - Clarendon	EW 2-lane 1-way arterial	16,368	12,603	-23.0%
Arlington Blvd.	EW 6-lane arterial	55,865	65,259	16.8%
Glebe Road - Ballston	NS 6-lane arterial	35,230	31,000	-12.0%
Glebe Road - S. of Col. Pike	NS 4-lane arterial	29,000	27,000	-6.0%
George Mason Drive	NS 4-lane arterial	20,002	20,518	2.3%
Jefferson Davis Hwy - N. of Glebe	NS 6-lane arterial	52,000	44,000	-15.4%

Traffic declined most dramatically on the most urban and high-density streets. Wilson Boulevard, the main street through the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, saw the steepest reduction, 23%.

The next steepest drops were on Route 1 through Crystal City, and on Lee Highway in Rosslyn, which each fell 15.4%.

Why these streets? They’ve got the best transit, but that’s only part of the story. Thanks to high density and mixed-use, many trips that once required a car now happen on foot. Why drive to the store and fight parking when it’s only a block away, and walking there only takes 2 minutes?

Other roads that don’t mirror Metro lines saw reductions as well. For example the north-south Glebe Road, which saw 6-12% less traffic.

Traffic did rise on some roads. George Mason Drive traffic increased 2% over the period, and Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) went up 16%.

But George Mason is in the western, more suburban part of Arlington, where there’s been less growth and less of a shift to the car-free diet. And Route 50 is a major commuting route for traffic from the outer suburbs, where smart growth is less prevalent, and more growth still means more cars.

Transit ridership goes up

During the same time period, Arlington’s transit ridership is way up.

	FY1996 Actual	FY2013 Actual	% Growth
Metrorail Arlington Stations	45,335,000	59,528,744	31.3%
Metrobus Arlington Routes	12,049,000	14,848,036	23.2%
VRE — Crystal City	567,000	1,102,076	94.4%
Arlington Transit (ART)	105,000	2,644,000	2,518%
Total Annual Ridership	58,076,000	78,122,856	34.5%

Arlington’s local bus operation, ART, went from a very small system to a major countywide network. The Crystal City VRE stop saw its ridership double (VRE service began in 1992). Metrorail and Metrobus grew by 31% and 23%, respectively.

Put it all together and you get one staggering statistic: Fully 40% of all Virginia statewide transit trips either begin or end in Arlington.

It almost didn’t happen this way

Arlington has embraced transit-oriented development and walkability for a long time, but in the 1970s and ‘80s when the county was originally debating its plans, some of Arlington’s choices seemed like risky moves.

Building the Metro through the heart of Arlington’s business districts rather than in highway medians added huge expense to the project. But it also made possible places like Clarendon and Ballston as we know them today. Without that big initial investment, they’d likely look more like Seven Corners or Bailey’s Crossroads.

For the next generation, Arlington hopes to add to its transit-oriented successes with the Columbia Pike Streetcar, the Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway, and new Metrorail station entrances, confident that these will put more people on transit and take more cars off the streets.