The Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Transportation has reviewed the Northern Virginia 2020 Transportation Plan as drafted by the Transportation Coordinating Council (TCC). In addition to internal deliberations, the CACT held a public forum on November 10 for the purposes of obtaining feedback from the community.  The forum was extremely well received with approximately 30 citizens providing very substantive, thoughtful comments. The comments listed below are the result of research conducted by the CACT as well as opinions expressed by citizens at the forum.

The CACT wishes to applaud the TCC for generating a plan that includes a mix of bus, rail, ridesharing, highway, bike and pedestrian improvement projects to enhance the region’s quality of life and economic vitality. It is clear that the region’s transportation problems are chronic and cannot be solved by traditional means (i.e., additional road construction).  There is certainly a need to pursue transportation alternatives.  Further, it was felt that the City must be engaged in crafting solutions that directly impact the City, its citizens and businesses. 

We understand that the 2020 Plan is designed to be visionary and many of the elements contained therein are many years away from actual construction.  We also understand that the Plan can be revisited every two years and some of the major items are theoretical in nature.  The following comments are submitted regarding specific elements of the Plan within the City limits.

Light rail (VA 7 corridor) Tysons Corner to Baileys Crossroads/Skyline   The CACT appreciates the efforts of the Mayor to include this item in the Plan.  On a purely conceptual level, the CACT supports such a system that:

• Operates in the existing right-of-way;
• Does not require Broad Street to be widened within the City limits;
• Utilizes single cars designed to aesthetically complement the City environs;
• Loads passengers on the street level (as opposed to raised platforms);
• Is powered by embedded wires that are not “hot” when the train is not directly over them;
• Is designed to serve the mobility needs of the citizenry (particularly children, elderly, and handicapped) and the economic needs of the local businesses;
• Takes full advantage of every technological and institutional modification to maximize efficiency and reduce potential burdens on the City.

US 29 Widening.  The CACT understands that this is an erroneous description of the project and that the widening does not extend past Graham Road, outside the City’s borders.  Nevertheless, since the CACT does not support widening of the roads within the City, it also cannot support widening of the roads right up to the City limits.   This has the intuitive effect of creating a “bottleneck” at these points and would negatively impact the citizens and business in these areas.

VA 7 reconstruction (Fairfax St. - Little Falls St.)   Assuming this is purely for regular maintenance resulting in safety improvements this item is supported.  However, if widening of Broad Street or extraordinary disruptions of business were to occur the support would be withdrawn.

In general, the CACT supports the investment in transit over new road construction and opposes widening of the existing roadways within the City and those within close proximity (such as I-66 inside the Beltway).  The CACT compliments the TCC for engaging the public in the review of this draft document and appreciates this opportunity to comment.

Finally, the CACT wishes to stress the critical need for the development of a citywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan. If such a consistent, logical, multimodal document were in place, addressing issues such as the 2020 Plan would be much simpler and would potentially represent much more direct input from the citizens.

We are available to discuss these issues in further detail.