Issues

Columbia PIke streetcar project

I do strongly oppose the Columbia Pike streetcar. I oppose it because it does NOT reduce transportation times and is NOT needed for redevelopment purposes. Your point about the streetcar possibly blocking Columbia Pike during an emergency is accurate; streetcars can't be moved out of the travel lane--they are struck on the tracks.

I want to explain in more detail what is happening since the large majority of Arlington residents don't know what is going on. The county has two plans for Columbia Pike. The first is the streetcar; a study was completed in July 05 funded by the county which found that the "Modified Streetcar" was the preferred alternative. The Board voted to approve the Streetcar plan in April, 2006. The second plan is called the Master Transportation Plan. I'll start with The streetcar plan.

The Modified Streetcar is mostly a bus plan--that is, most vehicles in service are buses. This is due to the fact that the sevice to and from Fairfax county had to be by bus, since a full streetcar plan (all vehicles would be streetcars) would have required a transfer at Jefferson Street (on the Fairfax/Arl county line). In rush hours most vehicles originating and ending in Arlington would also be buses. The streetcar plan would cost at least $140 million compared to $25-40 million for a modified Bus Rapid Transit Plan. The Federal Transit Administration refused the county's request for federal money; the Virginia Dept. of Transportation has criticized the narrow 7-foot parking lane width shown in the plan.

The streetcar doesn't actually narrow the lane widths. I was misquoted in the local paper. What does narrow the lane width is the Master Transportation Plan. Lane width would go from 12-feet to 11-feet on the curb lane, and 10-feet on the inside lane. The MTP also plans parking lanes on both sides of Columbia Pike and a bicycle lane on most of the Pike. Just narrowing the lane to 10 feet reduces vehicle capacity by 20% according to the Federal Highway Administration. The other changes I cited would reduce capacity considerably more. The result is that congestion would increase. County staff refuse to use available nationally used and proven software to model the effects of these changes. This behavior violates national standards and guidelines issued by the highly respected Transportation Research Board.