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Annals of Terrible Ideas: An Outer Beltway

by: TheGreenMiles

Fri Jun 10, 2011 at 17:02:26 PM EDT


DC, Friday afternoonThere's been revived talk lately of building an Outer Beltway, a large highway with a radius about twice that of the existing Beltway. There are plenty of reasons it would be a terrible idea, starting with how ludicrously expensive it would be. If adding HOT Lanes to the Beltway cost $2 billion, how much would a whole new Outer Beltway cost?

But as David Alpert writes at GreaterGreaterWashington.org, the main reason an Outer Beltway would be a boondoggle is that it simply wouldn't ease regional traffic congestion:

The mobility problems outside the beltway are primarily about getting to and from the core, plus the local trips tied up by inadequate local street connections. Yes, traffic is bad for many people, and that's something planners need to address instead of dismissing.

However, more beltways will only accommodate a small fraction of the trips involved. Most people will still drive toward or away from the job centers at or inside the beltway, in DC, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Tysons Corner, Arlington, and Alexandria. An Outer Beltway or three doesn't help with that at all.

That "or three" is no joke - road advocates NVTA envision no fewer than six Beltways (PDF).
TheGreenMiles :: Annals of Terrible Ideas: An Outer Beltway
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This is utterly insane (0.00 / 0)
but not surprisingly, being pushed by the usual suspects, the ones who won't be satisfied until they've paved over every last inch of Virginia, addicted us to fossil fuels forever, and melted the planet.  How do they live with themselves? Oh yeah, almost forgot, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Follow me on Twitter.

I'd rather see (0.00 / 0)
more money spend on public transportation and a recognition of current work routes are not all into and out of DC.  A beltway? Yes, a metro beltway

Metro, bus rapid transit, whatever. (0.00 / 0)
Just NOT laying more asphalt. Sorry, but that's almost the classic definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

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[ Parent ]
Interesting (0.00 / 0)
Not for private trasportation, public, or rail. Perhaps people could just mind meld from home or better yet, lay them off. At least we'll have a different result eh?

[ Parent ]
Not sure I understand the comment (0.00 / 0)
I'm strongly for public transit,rail, bus, bicycling, walking, etc. I'm also for maintaining the roads we have now, just not building new ones, with few exceptions.

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[ Parent ]
Assuming (0.00 / 0)
Assuming it would even be a good idea(which I am certainly not arguing here), it is far too late to do this.  Should have been thought of decades ago, before the buildup of the surrounding area.

Were they to do it, the cost would be so high, and the punishment to local landowners so great,that they would likely sell it off to the highest bidder (err privateer).  Then the tolls would be so expensive that no one will use it.

There's nothing in the middle of the road except yellow stripes and dead armadillos (Jim Hightower). PS I'm on Twitter here.


Already happening (0.00 / 0)
Unfortunately there is no stopping growth and "progress", one can only try to influence it, hopefully in a good way.  As an example, here is some history of the outer beltway proposal, which argues that no having the outer beltway made other huger projects necessary:
http://www.roadstothefuture.co...

I think you are right that it is too late now to build an outer beltway from scratch.  But I think what will happen eventually is that existing roads will be improved until there is a de facto outer beltway.  In Northern Virginia, that's probably going to involve US 15, the Fairfax County Parkway, and the Prince William Parkway.  I think Maryland decided that was the solution long ago, since US 15 north of the Potomac has been massively improved up to Frederick.  


[ Parent ]
Comedy (0.00 / 0)
If only we had an Outer Beltway, we wouldn't need the new Wilson Bridge or the Mixing Bowl? I'm not saying there are no valid arguments for an Outer Beltway, but that one's pretty laughable.

Read more at TheGreenMiles.com and follow me on Twitter

[ Parent ]
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The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog and a community blog. We invite everyone to comment here, but please be aware that profanity, personal attacks, bigotry, insults, rudeness, frequent unsupported or off-point statements, and "trolling" (NOTE: that includes outright lies, whether about climate science, or what other people said, or whatever) are not permitted and, if continued, will lead to banning. For more on trolling, see the Daily Kos FAQs. Also note that diaries may be deleted if they do not contain at least 2 solid paragraphs of original text; if not, please use the comments section of a relevant diary. For more on writing diaries, click here. Thanks, and enjoy!

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