More Questions about Table 6.2-2
The Commonwealth's own projection indicates that spending at least $4 billion to build the Silver Line provides essentially no improvement in traffic congestion. The State's employee explained this seemingly absurd result at a public meeting late last fall, in McLean, as being caused by all of the additional development that Fairfax County's supervisors are likely to approve once the Silver Line is authorized for construction.
It would be very useful if the State were to reveal what assumptions about development in and around Tysons Corner it relied upon in making its traffic projections. Those assumptions should be released to the public. Was Table 6.2-2's forecast based on the greater level of density that was proposed by the County in the last revision of the Comprehensive Plan for Tysons in the 1990s? Did it assume more density than that? The Tysons area landowners have requested substantially more density than either they have today (obviously) or what was proposed in the 1990s' plan. Shouldn't this information be made public?
If the density assumed by the State in its 2004 EIS is less than what is being proposed by the landowners to the Fairfax County supervisors, we might well see a further deterioration in traffic flow beyond what the EIS suggests would occur in the event that the Silver Line is built as planned. That would mean spending at least $4 billion to see traffic congestion increase. I submit that such a result is well beyond the absurd. It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode!
It is important to note that the 1990s' plan for greater density at Tysons was premised on various transportation infrastructure improvements, most of which have never been made. Thus, even developing Tysons Corner to the existing plan would mean even more gridlock than we have today unless public facilities are also bolstered. What did State planners know about this situation when they wrote the Final EIS and how did they address this in the traffic forecast?
Why isn't the MSM asking these questions? They seem fairly fundamental.
Why aren't local Fairfax County businesses asking the same questions? Why are most of these sophisticated executives simply nodding agreement with the Tysons Corner landowners? The latter stand the risks of: 1) seeing no improvement (or worse) in levels of traffic congestion; 2) losing billions in transportation funds that might be spent on projects that could actually help reduce gridlock; 3) experiencing further degradation in the "quality" of Fairfax County; and 4) facing higher taxes to pay for Silver Line's inevitable cost overruns. Solidarity or stupidity?
It would be very useful if the State were to reveal what assumptions about development in and around Tysons Corner it relied upon in making its traffic projections. Those assumptions should be released to the public. Was Table 6.2-2's forecast based on the greater level of density that was proposed by the County in the last revision of the Comprehensive Plan for Tysons in the 1990s? Did it assume more density than that? The Tysons area landowners have requested substantially more density than either they have today (obviously) or what was proposed in the 1990s' plan. Shouldn't this information be made public?
If the density assumed by the State in its 2004 EIS is less than what is being proposed by the landowners to the Fairfax County supervisors, we might well see a further deterioration in traffic flow beyond what the EIS suggests would occur in the event that the Silver Line is built as planned. That would mean spending at least $4 billion to see traffic congestion increase. I submit that such a result is well beyond the absurd. It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode!
It is important to note that the 1990s' plan for greater density at Tysons was premised on various transportation infrastructure improvements, most of which have never been made. Thus, even developing Tysons Corner to the existing plan would mean even more gridlock than we have today unless public facilities are also bolstered. What did State planners know about this situation when they wrote the Final EIS and how did they address this in the traffic forecast?
Why isn't the MSM asking these questions? They seem fairly fundamental.
Why aren't local Fairfax County businesses asking the same questions? Why are most of these sophisticated executives simply nodding agreement with the Tysons Corner landowners? The latter stand the risks of: 1) seeing no improvement (or worse) in levels of traffic congestion; 2) losing billions in transportation funds that might be spent on projects that could actually help reduce gridlock; 3) experiencing further degradation in the "quality" of Fairfax County; and 4) facing higher taxes to pay for Silver Line's inevitable cost overruns. Solidarity or stupidity?
posted by Toomanytaxes at 7:52 PM
2 Comments:
Hey - didn't know you'd started your own blog. I'll add it to my aggregator. Looks good so far.
VC - Thank you for the kind words. We'll see how this goes.
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