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Road improvements
needed for Northern Virginia to remain "liveable"
Road improvements needed
for Northern Virginia to remain “liveable”
Virginia’s 800-pound gorilla (a story in Virginia
Business’ July issue ) highlighted many valid points
about Fairfax County past, present and future.
However, stating as the article does,
“Simply paving more roads won’t do much to
solve the problems confronting Fairfax or the planned
Urban Center” is comparable to writing, “Simply
curing cancer won’t solve the world’s complex
health problems” or “Simply increasing literacy
funding won’t ensure that every Johnny and Janie
can read.”
No one suggests that building new roads
and bridges and improving existing ones will solve all
of Fairfax County’s/Tysons Corner’s problems.
However, Tysons Corner, the Capital Beltway, I-66 and
other major activity centers and transportation corridors
are heavily congested much of the day precisely because
highway capacity planned decades ago to accommodate
this demand has not been built.
Adding such long-planned capacity will
go far to improve mobility and accessibility and make
life more livable for the 1.1 million residents projected
to live there in the next decade or so.
Put another way, without such improvements
Fairfax County and Tysons Corner have no chance of achieving
a transportation system that works or continuing to
function as “the fiscal engine that powers the
state.”
Bob Chase
President
Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance
Virginia
Business - September 2003
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