Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I was recently appointed to the Prince William County Housing Advisory Board, a group that advocates affordable-housing options in Prince William County. I am also a commuter.
Among conflicting issues, two in particular have risen to the top of the list: cost of living and traffic.
The Washington Post recently published a report that demonstrated a housing shortage. This shortage is guaranteed to get worse, thereby driving up the cost of housing. More housing will be required, lest we end up with bidding wars and even more astronomical housing prices.
We're left with two questions: Build up or build out?
Building out tears up rural areas, reduces green space and results in longer drive times for workers.
Building up increases density and puts an even greater strain on local resources. Neither option will viably reduce traffic.
The bottom line is that people will continue to pour into this region in search of good jobs. They will need homes, schools, stores and many other resources.
Although there is a fight between those who want low-density growth and those who want high-density growth, both paths mean that more people will need more transportation resources.
The only difference is the mixture of roads with various public transportation options.
Regardless of how we develop, we have to evaluate what that mixture will be and make plans to address it.
Currently, the roads are at capacity, Metro is at capacity, and even the "new" Virginia Railway Expressway expansions into Prince William County are overflowing the available roads and parking lots.
It's time for Richmond, Annapolis and Capitol Hill to pull their heads out of the sand and develop a comprehensive plan to address the inevitable growth. Our transportation/housing crisis is not wine. It will not improve with age.
Todd Skiles
Bristow
Well said. Call me myopic, but with no significant improvements ahead for Interstates 66 and 95, Routes 28 and 29, and the Metrorail system, I vote to protect what's left of our badly congested transportation system.
How about rezoning to one dwelling per 10 acres? That won't halt escalating home prices, but at least we could move about -- sometimes.
Intersection Irritant
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
With right-turn-on-red being legal for some time now, I have noticed an increasing incidence of a particularly vexing and dangerous problem.
I often find myself sitting in heavy traffic, waiting through several lights, to get to an intersection. Because traffic is backed up, those of us with the green light must -- even though the light is green -- wait to enter the intersection until there is room for us to clear the intersection on the other side.
While we are patiently waiting to cross the intersection, drivers on the cross street will turn right on the red light, thereby continually filling the right lane, never leaving room for those of us with the green light.
That leaves no way to get through the intersection other than continuing to drive through, even though by doing so we block the intersection.
Common sense and common courtesy would lead those waiting at the red light not to turn onto a street where other drivers, with a green light, are waiting to enter. Neither of those virtues appears to be at work here.
