Fairfax County has been named the third worst county in the nation in terms of traffic congestion. As the most populated county in Virginia and a suburb of one of the most vibrant employment centers in the U.S., transportation as an environmental, social, and economic issue will not disappear any time soon. While the metro and metrobuses provide some service to Fairfax commuters, their service extends only to the Vienna metro station. As a result, Fairfax commuters either drive in single occupancy vehicles to the metro station or into DC. As population increases and sprawls further out toward Loudoun County,current beltway infrastructure will continue to deteriorate while capacity improvements will constantly be necessary to alleviate the colossal congestion.
The Fairfax Connector is a county bus line established in 1985. Service until recent years has been targeted and minimal, but in 2005 the county contracted a fleet of 174 vehicles with plans to establish a commuter connection not only between suburbs of Fairfax, but from the suburbs to the Vienna Metro Station. This was a breakthrough in public transportation for Northern Virginia, as Fairfax was going to be providing a public mode for reaching the metro station without the need for a personal vehicle. With the rising price of gas at the time and constant congestion, demand for alternative transportation rose, and the Fairfax Connector increased service. However, with the inauguration of an anti-spending governor, Fairfax Connector cut service incrementally in 2009-2010. However when riders expressed their dissatisfaction with the changes, the County provided additional funding by raising taxes in order to restore service.
The good news for alternative transportation development in Fairfax stops there, for the likelihood of a transportation funding bill being passed in the current political climate of the General Assembly and under the McDonnell administration is bleak at best. So it appears as though official actors, often our elected representatives, are responding to increased ridership, demand, and fare revenue with decreased investment, causing fare hike
s. Our leaders will be doing so at a time when low-income residents of their jurisdictions are in serious economic trouble. 24% of Fairfax residents that live below the poverty line live east of I-95, while job growth on the western side of the county has outpaced eastern growth twenty-to-one. Therefore, by adopting a non-discriminating “no on spending” policy, our electorate has denied an essential service to the people who need it most while failing to alleviate congestion, oil dependency, or greenhouse gas emissions.
I live in Loudoun County, and over the years I've been away in college there have been some attempts to construct public transportation systems. Loudoun and Fairfax are pinnacle examples of how unplanned growth and sprawl really do have disastrous effects on the ability to have an efficiently run bus line. As I understand it, the park and ride idea is the plan of choice. Commuters drive in their cars to a designated parking lot and then wait for the bus to take them to the metro. While it's great to see bus attendance, there's still the problem of personal vehicles and traffic congestion to the park and ride lot. I think that for counties like Fairfax, pulling together a really great bus line will always be a difficult project simply due to the nature of the residential structure in its communities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of the points that you have made, but I do not see how increased ridership could cause lessened investment by the government. Either way, I think ultimately it falls to us the citizens to avoid these problems from the beginning. Urban sprawl is being caused by a desire to live in these environments, and that is not the fault of government at any level. With constant population growth, it will soon become obvious that not everyone can have their own stand alone house. Eventually, these problems will be resolved as people realize public transportation is their only option, and the government realizes successes in transportation across the country, and improves the system. Highly populated areas are just that, and so transportation will always be an issue. The key is creating job opportunity within these counties outside DC, and cutting down transportation in this sense.
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