“That the additional capacity of the HOT lanes would generate more traffic trying to travel to and from the lanes via connecting roads like Route 1, Telegraph and Van Dorn wouldn’t be surprising,” Bill Pugh, a senior policy fellow at the organization, said in a statement released by CSG after the committee meeting.

“In addition to ignoring induced demand and relying on flawed traffic models, VDOT’s study is compromised at the outset by its ‘conclusions-first’ approach,” said Pugh. “The agency’s stated project purpose is ‘to extend and provide continuity of the Express Lanes system’ and their evaluation criteria reinforce this predetermined conclusion. They have also excluded viable alternatives from study.”

The Coalition for Smarter Growth respectfully asks Transportation Planning board officials to: 1) Vote to exclude the 495 Southside Project from the Visualize 2050 plan and air quality conformity analysis due to the strong concerns of multiple local jurisdictions that have not been adequately addressed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and 2) Ensure that VDOT fixes its flawed 495 Southside Study to fully evaluate other alternatives, address local jurisdiction concerns, and identify the best long-term solution for the region and communities along 495.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is deciding among a range of projects competing for its six-year program of regional funding. Please comment to support good projects – and oppose using limited public funds on wasteful oversized road projects.

Ask for more sustainable, effective and equitable transportation improvements in NVTA’s 6-Year program of project funding – and less highway and arterial widening that is self-defeating and will fail our greenhouse gas reduction targets.