Some might ask why would Arlington, Alexandria and DC invest in these programs?
The traditional role of government with regard to transportation has been building supply. Since the earliest human history, rulers built roads for military and commerce. Many of these ancient routes, such as the Grand Trunk Road winding through the Khyber Pass, remain vital connections to this day. Locally, Columbia Pike was chartered by the US Congress and built in the early 1800s as a farm to market route connecting Little River Turnpike to the new capital city via Long Bridge (at the site of today’s I-395 Bridge). Farmers from that era would scarcely recognize South Arlington’s main street today.
Over time, a variety of factors have increased travel demand dramatically to a point where governments around the world struggle to maintain an adequate highway supply. Today, the skyrocketing use of personal automobiles congests highways around the world. This congestion creates a vast array of additional problems, including CO2 emission, driver anxiety and lost productivity.
So, why not simply build more highways to relieve the congestion? The simple answer is cost. The Virginia Department of Transportation estimates the cost per lane of widening 2.6 miles of I-66 in Prince William County at nearly $20 million. Considering real estate alone, a similar widening project inside the Beltway would certainly be more expensive. With so many other competing government interests, and a knowledge that no matter how many lanes we build human instinct creates habits increasing demand to fill that supply, there has to be another way!
From that quest for a better way has evolved the discipline of mobility management (also known as transportation demand management). Mobility management is the application of strategies and policies to reduce travel demand (traffic) by encouraging people to shift from driving alone to other modes such as mass transit, ridesharing, walking and biking, or to shift demand away from peak periods or to less congested routes. Today, local governments around the world are being encouraged to implement and expand mobility management programs. According to the Federal Highway Administration:
“Managing both the ‘growth of’ and periodic ‘shifts in’ traffic demand are necessary elements of traffic congestion. If traffic demand is not managed, the performance of the transportation system will be adversely affected. Managing traffic demand today is about providing travelers, regardless of whether they drive alone, with travel choices, such as work location, route, time, and mode.” (www.ops.fhwa.gov/tdm)
Mobility management practices are having impact around the world. In Arlington, independent analysis by the Southeastern Institute of Research and LDA Consulting shows that each day over 40,000 car trips are taken off County roadways because of the strategies and policies implemented by Arlington County Commuter Services (ACCS) programs. To place that into perspective, the California Department of Transportation estimates that one lane of freeway has a capacity of 1500 to 2000 cars per hour. That means for $20 million, Virginia taxpayers will gain – at most – throughput of 6000 additional cars during the morning rush hour on that 2.6 mile stretch of I-66 in Prince William County.
Of course ACCS programs also enhance Arlington’s quality of life by reducing CO2 emission, driver anxiety and other negative consequences of automobile use. Research also shows that persons who bike, walk and ride public transit enjoy the physical health benefits of a more active lifestyle. Considering the alternatives, the mobility management programs from ACCS are a wise investment.
So, why do Arlington, Alexandria, DC and other municipalities around the world invest in these programs? Because they work!
Check out the analysis of our ACCS programs and new Mobility Lab initiatives directed at developing effective mobility management strategies at MobilityLab.org/Research.