Change is Afoot

Whether you consider it part of the efforts of the government to consolidate its spending or an effort in creating more problems for harried commuters in the area, the talk over the past few years regarding the government's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) efforts has caused a good deal of turmoil in the Washington area. BRAC has been around for a while and though it has been relatively slow to take effect in some areas, it is now moving full force towards one direction that is going to mean more traffic woes for an area that has already had its share. Northern Virginia.

Anyone who has lived or worked in the area before knows that traffic in the area is bad. Perhaps not as bad as in places like Los Angeles but it's its own brand of bad in this region. For decades as the number of cars on the roads increased we had traffic piling up from down south all the way into DC in the mornings and the reverse in the evenings after work. I myself for two years was getting up at 4:30 or 5:00 every morning so I could make the drive to Springfield in the morning and reach work to avoid major traffic delays and finish up in time to head home before the evening rush hour began. It was great to get out that early only to 'enjoy' the rest of the afternoon in the car struggling to get home. Now the BRAC efforts are getting ready to create more turmoil on the roads in Northern Virginia when they move more jobs to Fort Belvoir (near Springfield) and to Alexandria.

Having driven through those areas for work before I can honestly say that the infrastructure in those areas is sadly lacking and will make the commuting Hell that already exists there even worse. Getting out to Fort Belvoir in the mornings was a test of patience and that was when I was driving against traffic. Now that more people would be headed out in that direction I can only imagine that people will be adding up to head in that direction as well adding to the traffic situation. We just got finished alleviating one version of commuting Hell when the reconstruction of the Springfield Interchange was completed. Now that was done at a time when commuting trends pointed to a continuation of how commuters were moving through the area on their way to other points. As far as I know, the Interchange was redesigned with the jobs remaining status quo in mind. Now that more people are going to be coming through that area, I envision gridlock through there again.

Don't get me wrong, the changes to that area are a vast improvement over what has been the case through there a few years ago but it just seems to me that some of these BRAC decisions are being made without due consideration being given to what effect it's going to have on the quality of life of the people making the commute. When a work location suddenly switches it has a profound effect on those who have to now drive additional miles out of their way to get to where they need to go. I can understand the overall cost savings to the government in the consolidation and closure of extraneous expenditures but if one truly considers the impact such a decision will have on commuters could give decision-makers a chance to understand the intangible effects this decision would have.

Of course with the way most decisions seem to be made lately the decision tree seems to go, (1) what is the cost expenditures to date, (2) what would they be under a revised scenario, (3) if (2) is less than (1) then make the change and that's pretty much it. Now the moves being made to bring more jobs to Northern Virginia (specifically Fort Belvoir and Alexandria) may illustrate the scenario above but if one considers that there is limited to no public transportation access to these locations that would be convenient then isn't that going to mean more cars on the road rather than less? For two years I drove to Fort Belvoir despite living within miles of not one but two major Metro lines. The reason I never took it? Because it would have taken an hour to take the train from Maryland to Virginia and then another 40 minutes to take the bus or shuttle from the station to work. Nearly two hours. At least in driving myself and spending slightly less I was able to better control my destiny and spend more time at work rather than spending more in commuting. Of course that's just an average Joe's view of the situation. I'm sure there's likely a bit more to the analysis than that. At least I would hope so.