We are SO screwed
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Topic: We are SO screwed
Posted By: SpongeBob
Subject: We are SO screwed
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2005 at 2:42pm
It has been a week and no one has mentioned the Prince William Transportation Symposium which took place last Wednesday while we were all off working.
Here it is: http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=010087000100003187 sorry you will have to cut and paste it for some reason. (Call Bill Gates to complain.)
If you can stand to, come back here and comment after you've looked at a few of the presentations. Like me, you'll probably want to slink home and crawl under the covers for a good long weep.
The Toll Roads Are Coming...
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Replies:
Posted By: MDC
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2005 at 3:00pm
If someone could make sense of page 10 here, I'd appreciate it. It appears that they are removing many of the current entry and exits that sluggers depend on.
For the Fluor proposal, the nearest entrances northbound for Woodbridge commuters would be Quantico (exit 150, rte 619) and an optional entrance at Lorton (Exit 163, rte 642).
Shirley/Clark make it even more interesting. The closest entrance to northbound HOT to DC is at Exit 148, Russell Rd.
So it's very clear that their plan is to eliminate slugging and carpools from PW county. There's not even a place for Busses to get on. Not even hybrid drivers would have much luck getting on HOT.
http://www.pwcgov.org/docLibrary/PDF/003659.pdf
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Posted By: Sheepish
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2005 at 4:00pm
I am just sick to my stomach after looking at just the two presentations on HOT lanes....
And I am getting madder the more I stew over this....
Did you read some of the reasons why "Highway Tolls are Gaining Popularity" ??????
Reason #6-- 3rd bullet---- "offer congestion free travel"
Congestion-free??? What??!!! We can't even have congestion-free travel now with HOV-3 and pretty good police enforcement from the mixing bowl to the Pentagon...
Reason #6-- 1st bullet---- ???? "....choose to use priced lanes when they are pressed for time" What time savings when they are bottle-knecked inside the beltway? (reference previous comment)
Reason #10-- 3rd bullet---- Interesting how "just because" the Post and Times are consistent supporters that one can conclude that HOT is gaining popularity....
I have to stop now... I don't usually respond without careful consideration of my words-- but my initial reaction required an initial venting.... I will further analyze the slides-- and my own crusade to end this absurd concept of HOT.... Maybe I'll respond with more later-
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Posted By: dickboyd
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2005 at 3:12am
quote:
Originally posted by SpongeBob
[br]It has been a week and no one has mentioned the Prince William Transportation Symposium which took place last Wednesday while we were all off working.
Here it is: http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=010087000100003187 sorry you will have to cut and paste it for some reason. (Call Bill Gates to complain.)
If you can stand to, come back here and comment after you've looked at a few of the presentations. Like me, you'll probably want to slink home and crawl under the covers for a good long weep.
The Toll Roads Are Coming...
The links are Adobe Acrobat Files. Reminds me of the Roosevelt/Al Smith polls. Or was it Dewey/Truman? [:)] Pollsters called on the newfangled phone to see how people were going to vote. Not taking into consideration that only rich people had phones. Not that many people have high speed internet. [:D]
The concept is constructive notice. When spending public money, the spenders have to jump through a certain number of hoops, crossing tees and dotting eyes on the way. But don't tell me you told me so unless you really did tell me so. This venue leads me to believe the leaders are deliberately hiding something.
The slides are difficult to follow without the narrative.
The Transportation Planning Board (TPB) presentation credits the TPB with more power than the law allows. The power is still with LOCAL elected officials. But LOCAL officials roll over and play dead when an expert from out of town comes and tells them that slugging will not work and the only answer is more rail and more mass transit.
Pitchforks, torches, kill the monster.
VRE slides are jumbled. Slide 7 is of interest. Quotes 5,000 trips per day for the mere cost of $123 million. But not having a time frame, I can only assume this is one year. Figure 200 commuting days per year, that is one million trips per year. Or $123 per trip! You can drive a car 205 miles for that kind of money. Or better yet, pay slugs to ride. Keep the trains in someone's basement as toys.
The thinking behind the vision is that transit will come in on a white horse in shining armor to save the day. Great! Who will clean up the horse manure?
The thinking is linear. A little is good, more is better. But with slashes in federal taxes, who is going to pay for all this?
"What if" scenarios should also consider what would happen if the 301 bridge is expanded and development happens to the east. Or if military planners recognize that dispersing the federal government to the hinterlands makes more sense than concentration in northern Virginia. Senator Warner won't live for ever. Or stay in office for ever. Senator Byrd may move more than the IRS to West Virginia when the lawmakers go on their next junket.
Treat the federal government like the Olympics. States will bid to host the federal government. Loser gets to host the feds for four years. Alsaska first. FHWA to North Carolina. FAA to California. FCC to Del Rio, Texas. Mapping to Nebraska. OSH to Pittsburgh. EPA to New Jersey or Arizona.
dickboyd@aol.com
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Posted By: SpongeBob
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2005 at 8:39am
Just to clarify for MDC, I'm pretty sure those are the new entrances that will be added. Existing access ramps won't be eliminated. In fact, one of the selling points is to add many more entrances and exits, to make it easier for customers (once known as citizen-owners) to use the toll roads. Of course, that means more merge points and slower traffic. But maybe more money, hm?
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Posted By: MDC
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2005 at 10:08am
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That's probably the case, but look at the proposed toll structure. Who's not going to be willing to pay $5 to go from woodbridge to DC if it's faster? Guarantee that anyone that carpools will end up taking a lot longer to get to work than if they drive themselves in the non-toll lanes.
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Posted By: SpongeBob
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2005 at 11:56am
$5? If it's $.25 per mile, and it is 25 miles, that is $6.25 each way.
And since everybody and their brother is capable of paying that, then the lanes will clog. So they'll raise the price again. And again and again until the poor folk can't afford it.
But, they will have achieved their goal: more cars will be on the road. Not more commuters, sadly, but more vehicles. Note that on the slides: more vehicles, they say.
The screwing here is heinous and painful. WHY is the press missing this???????
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