The car-centric status quo is continuing unabated even as Fairfax County commits to more urban thinking on transportation and land use planning.
Evan Williams writes that plans in Fairfax County to widen roads could further position the area "as a suburban locale and perpetuate existing traffic safety and environmental problems," despite other recent efforts to urbanize the county.
Fairfax County has made great progress on urbanizing the area. They have begun transforming Tysons into an urban city center; a road diet program is operating to make streets safer for cyclists; and there are two major Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects on the books (Route 7 and Richmond Highway).
Williams specifically calls out two road widening plans: 1) plans to widen the southern end of Route 28 from four to six lanes in the Centreville area and 2) an expansion of Fairfax County Parkway from four to six lanes.
The fact that these roads are being widened after a long history of road construction and road widening in Fairfax County is, according to Williams, proof of the unsustainability of car-centric transportation planning.
FULL STORY: Plans to widen roads in Fairfax County threaten the urbanization of Virginia suburbs
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
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New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions