Environmentalists and parents please step out of my way, because as much as your concerns are valid, deer will lose their habitat, children will be more at risk at bus stops, it appears that no one at Fairfax is listening to the “Wont someone think of the children!” routine. So lets put this in terms of cold hard cash, terms that even the most hypocritical and trend word clutching planner can understand. This project will stunt the future growth of Tysons Corner costing hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade and will put at risk your concept of a residential Tysons Corner.
I will now open the floor to questions.
VDOT (and FCDOT) planner “But we have a serious traffic issue, commuters from the toll road have to be given priority to get to their jobs. They live so far away and this final 5 minutes of their commute makes them oh so very sad.”
No, sit down and stop ruining our lives. Those people made the decision to get more land and house living further away. In life one can not get everything that they desire, especially when it comes unfairly at the detriment of others who have made a more sustainable choice.
VDOT (and FCDOT) planner “This project will help reduce traffic within Tysons Corner which will make it a much more attractive location to live in”
How can you say this with a straight face? I mean do you actually believe this, because if so then we need to just clean house with our transportation department and start from scratch. Poll all of the residents of this region of Tysons and I assure you that at a minimum 90% of them will say traffic is not really a large concern of theirs, in fact if anything I would guess that 90% of Tysons residents want the road widenings to STOP completely and view the far greater problem as being the massive asphalt canyons that are completely impassible in this town. I am a Tysons resident who can not walk farther than 1/2 mile before coming to an impassible barrier in which my life is at risk because of the prioritization of commuters, 35% of which don’t even live in Fairfax County and therefore don’t even contribute to our tax base.
Seriously. Sit down for a second here VDOT (and FCDOT), stop trying to get more projects to design so that you can retain your bloated department and actually start thinking. The Dulles Toll Road corridor is the one region of Tysons Corner that will directly be impacted by the presence of the Silver Line. I know I know, you guys don’t get it, mass transit is for liberal hippies not corporate types and only 30,000 people will be using it. Hey genius, at least 50% of the demand on the silver line is going to be from people who currently use the Dulles Toll Road. While you think only 30,000 people will use it, most people who aren’t VDOT believe that closer to 50,000 riders (100,000 total trips) will utilize this corridor over the next 5 years. So what 15,000 commuters off of roads out of 150,000 is only 10%. Yes but specifically 15,000 users off of the Dulles Toll Road exit to Tysons (40,000 total) is close to 40% reduction of flow on this corridor. So in other words, you all are lying to Fairfax County and it’s residents.
Maybe I am an idiot, and shouldn’t question state and local DOTs. I mean these guys have had such amazing conceptual designs like the Mixing Bowl, which has made downtown Springfield the economic engine of the east coast based on its 676 million dollar price tag right, it was the Big Dig of Virginia wasn’t it? I mean that project at a minimum secured more military positions being able to be located in NOVA right? A lot of high end commercial users saw that beautifully flowing interchange and said, I want to build next to that! CONCRETE!!!
Let’s get back on topic, the Boone Boulevard on ramp. Anyone with any bit of logic can see this is just more commuter prioritized design. Fairfax’s response when it is correctly accused of this prioritization? We have to consider the needs of all of our residents. Ok, that’s fine and all but you have been doing that for the past 25 years. That is why we have the completely out of whack priorities in the money making center of our County. You are saying, lets build a bunch of residential units in Tysons Corner and people will choose to live there because of the ease of access. Imagine people instead of cars. Well it’s just not that simple. If you create an environment that in EVERY WAY makes it difficult to have a comfortable life then why would anyone buy into your words. Put some actions behind your trend words.
Step 1? Say NO to more road “solutions”. If people hate the traffic coming off of the toll road they will make a decision in their life to use the metro or metro buses instead, or heaven forbid choose to live in Tysons Corner. Isn’t that what your biggest goal should be, changing the ridiculously on its head ratio of 10:1 commuters to residents? If people live in Tysons Corner they won’t give a crap whether traffic on the Dulles Toll Road takes an extra 5 minutes.
A note to my fellow residents. I understand your frustration and you are all correct this project directly worsens your land value and level of comfort in your life. With the anticipated 35,000 new vehicles you will no longer be able to let your children play outside without them being tethered or otherwise chained. Heck even if you weren’t worried about that, this plan destroys the only piece of land that would be acceptable for them to play on. However, the developers are not the ones who are doing this to you. It is difficult to separate the players here, but look at the words of Jay Klug who on my interview with him echoed these sentiments. This project is antithetical to the desires of the mixed use developers.
They want people walking and moving around their retail and residential developments. They don’t want to continue the exodus of the commuters. Residents and developers need to come together to create proper ideas that create growth without letting VDOT and Fairfax DOT ruin those concepts with status quo requirements.
Why why why is there parallel parking being allowed on BOTH sides of the new Boone Boulevard? Seriously. We are taking a bikeable safe road, a rarity in this city, and turning it into a 82′ wide asphalt canyon. Can’t you see that you are ruining your own plans with really bad implementation? Lets fix the cross section of the road (as well as remove the on ramp all together). Boone Boulevard was not supposed to be another International Drive or Route 7, based on your own comprehensive plans. Remove the parallel street parking. Tysons Corner already has 8 times more surface parking than is found in ALL of the city of Arlington. Who the hell are these commuters who can’t find a parking space?
Boom the cross section is now 66′ wide. What else? These roads are 11′ wide, for what purpose? We are trying to slow people down, there are children and families living here after all. Reduce these widths to 10′ wide. Okay, so that’s only 2′, but you’ve made this road just feel less dangerous by simply forcing people to slow down. Lastly? Separated out bike lanes are great, what is greater is avoiding dangerous through traffic flying through the city because they are late for a 9 o’clock meeting and striking a bicyclist. Avoid the through traffic by reducing the road section to (2)-vehicle lanes and (2)-calmed traffic lanes suitable for bike traffic. Use materials like rumble strips in the right lanes and alternative striping to alert vehicle users to the preferred through lane. If you create a natural slower lane you will create a more inherent bike friendly path. Now we have a road section that doesn’t feel cavernous, it is only 54′ wide and 12′ of that is a nice landscape median.
We need to do MORE with what we have, and we have to start designing to help our residents not hurt them. Instead of creating a 30 million dollar road project to bloat VDOT and create a 120′ Right Of Way which wastes land valued at $6 million per acre lets create a project that costs 5% of that, with far less right of way acquisition and that directly improves the traffic flow and transportation options of local residents.
We have to stand up against these roadway planners and tell them that enough is enough and that it is time for CHANGE.