Commentary: Less Parking, But More What? Terry Maynard

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Fairfax County is considering putting in place parking constraints in the vicinity of Metrorail stations to promote transit-oriented development (TOD).  Apparently, the new policy would largely mirror that put in place for Tysons Corner as part of its revamped Comprehensive Plan approved by the Board of Supervisors last spring. 

In general, if the new policy follows the Tysons model,  for the first time in County history, parking for employees, residents, and visitors would be constrained within a half-mile of a Metrorail station—the TOD radius.  The most severe constraints would be within the first tenth of a mile and become less restrictive near the perimeter.   The idea behind this approach is to force people in TOD areas to walk, bike, or use public transit to accomplish much of what they need and want to do, thereby easing (or, more realistically, slowing the growth of) congestion on nearby streets. 

As reflected in its Transportation Working Group report, Reston 2020—and I personally—believe this is a good approach to an already bad traffic situation.  We simply can’t double or triple traffic as we double or triple density in the areas immediately around Metrorail stations.  We can neither afford the cost of road expansion nor the additional congestion of not expanding roadways.

But important implications of restricting people’s driving by limiting their parking have not yet been addressed.

First, there must be robust alternative means of transportation beyond Metrorail—and that means a vigorous bus transit program serving the TOD areas.  In fact, a restrictive parking policy without an equally expansive bus transit program would mean greater congestion and less growth for TOD areas.  And yet, there is no evidence that County transportation officials are developing a bus transit program that meets the needs of the newly urbanizing environment to complement the proposed parking restrictions—although the County is in the final phase of a ten-year bus transit planning process.   Maybe those plans need to be re-examined in the context of the new parking policies under consideration.

A vigorous bus transit program will include both circulator bus systems within and between nearby TOD areas (such as Reston’s three and Tysons four Metrorail stops) as well as regular bus service from outlying areas to serve Metrorail and the businesses around them.   These buses will have to be much more frequent than the service that is currently offered, especially during peak periods, to help assure that people leave their autos behind.  An important element of this may be County subsidies for employers who provide incentives for transit ridership—rail or bus—as recommended by Reston 2020.   Reston 2020 has also proposed that parking garages be built at the outskirts of Reston so longer-distance commuters may park and take express buses to Reston’s Metrorail stations.   In short, the County must provide frequent, reliable, clean, and safe bus transit as reasonable fares to offset the parking restrictions it is proposing.

Second, the County must improve the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in the TOD areas and links to them to encourage walking and biking with easy and safe access to Metrorail and all the other facilities in the TOD area.  This means building grade-separated crossings across busy major streets so (a) pedestrians and bicyclists can move safely and expeditiously and (b) traffic does not become more congested because it needs to wait for them.   In Reston, beyond grade-separated crossings traversing its very busy nearby streets, bridges need to be built across the W&OD trail so people can walk to/from Metrorail and the Town Center core.   In addition, new pedestrian and bike trails as well as bicycle lanes on some streets accessing the TOD areas as well as bicycle storage facilities must be built to promote a shift from driving. 

Strangely, these relatively inexpensive, yet effective, transportation improvements have been generally ignored by County officials.  In Reston, the state narrowed Lawyers Road for several miles to add a bicycle lane on the edges, but the east-west road is neither near nor will it serve Reston’s TOD areas.   Moreover, neither the County nor the state have made any of the inexpensive pedestrian or bicycling improvements proposed in the Reston Metrorail Advisory Group (RMAG) report and accepted by the County a decade ago. 

And there are a number of other transportation needs that must be addressed as well as opportunities to exploit if the County’s proposed restricted parking policy is to result in anything positive.

But the third, and most important, need to make the new parking policy a success is not explicitly a transportation need; it is a need for balanced development in TOD areas.   If people do not have cars in TOD areas, they must be able to walk to places that meet their basic needs. 

At one level, this means the number of people—and really “working people”—living in a TOD area must roughly equal the number of working in the area.   In theory, many of those who live in a TOD area should be able to walk to work, thereby avoiding the use of any vehicles.  Those who must commute from the TOD area would be roughly equal to the number commuting to the TOD area, thereby optimizing (maybe even maximizing) the number of Metrorail riders and limiting peak period traffic growth. 

It also means that people who live or work in a TOD area must have access to all the types of resources they currently would access by driving somewhere else. 

•  A robust retail sector is an absolute necessity so that residents and workers have access to all their essential shopping needs. 
• A healthy cultural capability is also essential to sustain the area’s quality of life.  This is especially true in Reston, a planned community that intends to serve all the needs of its residents at a high level. 
• Expansive open space—parks, recreation, playgrounds, and more—is essential to sustaining the health of residents and workers in TOD areas.  Again, Reston prides itself on the open space, including natural areas, available to its citizens, and this vital quality must be sustained and grown.  

Regrettably, the County so far has not seen fit to adopt such a policy, preferring in the Tysons case at least, to adopt a policy that would see twice as many employees as residents in TOD areas, and thus assuring greater congestion and road improvements and maintenance costs.   Even Reston Task Force TOD sub-committees are proposing this kind of employee-resident ratio over the objections of Reston 2020.   

Part of the reason for this TOD development approach is that property owners, finding commercial development more profitable than residential development, have pressed their case effectively with County officials.   Moreover, it appears that the County anticipates more tax revenues from commercial development than from residential development.  Money speaks volumes in Fairfax County development policies and practices—just look at the plans the County approved for Comstock’s development of the Wiehle station area over the objections of all three of Reston’s three civic groups—even if residents suffer.

In short, while a policy that limits parking in TOD areas can be good, it carries with it a burden of offering alternative capabilities that offset the loss of residential and employee personal mobility.  Until the County puts all the pieces of this complex puzzle together, it is unlikely that the adoption of a restrictive parking policy in TOD areas alone will achieve much, if anything, in reducing congestion.  In fact, continuing deficiencies in providing alternative public transportation capabilities as well as correcting imbalances in TOD area development will only feed the congestion problem.   County officials need to appreciate these complexities and act on them concurrently with any new restrictions on parking.  If they do, all our TOD areas will be better served.  The alternative is not acceptable.  

Terry Maynard

Reston 2020