Another logic failure

Audrey Moore, ex Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (and a Democrat...) wrote a letter to the editor in the Examiner saying that the heavy rail planning in Fairfax County should drop the piece in Tysons Corner, and just focus on getting people to the airport. See "Dulles Rail by nixing Tysons detour."

Seems shortsighted to me, but I'm not surprised.

I've never tried to discover if there is a transportation plan for Fairfax County that is comparable to Arlington's. I doubt it, because if there were, Fairfax County would likely be trying to create a coordinated transportation system providing efficient mobility using modes other than the automobile.

Remember, Baltimore has a bus system, a heavy rail subway line, a light rail line, and railroad service via Amtrak and MARC, but I think it is a stretch to describe this collection of transit assets as a coordinated system. I am a transit advocate, but if stay for a weekend in Baltimore I either rent a car or take my bike, because the heavy rail and light rail don't go to many of the places that I want to visit, and the headways for the bus system are interminable.

What's it like in Fairfax? There are a handful of subway station and some railroad stations, Metrobus service and the Fairfax CUE bus service, but is it relatively efficient to get around without a car, or is it more like Baltimore?

Current Chair of the Fairfax Board Gerald Connelley made a point at a conference a few months ago that most of the transit investment has been in the eastern part of the region, but that the growth is in the western part of the region.

Yep, and you in the western part of the region better deal with it.

Even though my focus is on the eastern part of the region, the planner part of me can still lament the failures to build a better system. It's easier and faster for most of us in the core of Washington to get to Baltimore by transit or train than it is to get to Tysons Corner.

But as far as the airport goes, it's probably cheaper to provide service by rapider bus... I'm fond of the Metrobus 5A to the airport myself. It's probably just as quick as heavy rail would be.
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There is a Fairfax County Transportation Plan.

Objective 1: Provide for both through and local movement of people and goods via a multi-modal transportation system that provides transportation choices, reduces single-occupancy-vehicle (SOV) use, and improves air quality.
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