Board of Supervisors still looking at tolling Fairfax County Parkway

Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal reports in an article entitled, "Tolling, HOV eyed as part of Fairfax County Parkway study," that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is still considering tolling the Fairfax County Parkway as well as the Franconia-Sprinfield Parkway.  Here is how the article begins:

From new interchanges to toll lanes to bus rapid transit, Fairfax County leaders want the state to study potential solutions to traffic congestion on two major county roads.

The Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday to launch a detailed analysis of traffic relief options on the Fairfax County and Franconia-Springfield parkways. First, the board will ask the Virginia Department of Transportation to tackle the $1.5 million job, and if it refuses, the county will pay for the work itself.

The study would cover the Fairfax County Parkway from Route 7 to Route 1, and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway to Beulah Street. . .

Apparently, Supervisor Jeff McKay, Providence District (where neither of these parkways runs), is the driver behind the proposed study which, as we all know, will return the answer the Board is looking for.  Yet, McKay notes:

While the study’s proposed scope of work includes tolling, McKay said the board has endorsed no concept and, likely, supervisors wouldn’t have the appetite for charging commuters to drive either parkway. . . .

Yeah, right!  They never say their mind is made up until it is too late to stop stupidity.  This is pretty much the same Board that mindlessly forced Fairfax County's DTR users to absorb more than half the cost of the $6 billion Silver Line through massive toll increases. It is a Board that believes in the money tree comprising its residents and workers.  If it keeps on this course, it will begin to lose both to other areas of the metropolitan area that don't pursue such nonsensical policies.

For Restonians, the prospect of tolling the Fairfax County Parkway means that the two key highways in Reston--the Parkway and the DTR--will all be tolled.  Everywhere you drive--north, south, east, or west--you will pay a toll.  That's pretty typical of the way the Board has treated Reston for years. 

In a supremely stupid game of traffic "whack-a-mole", it also means that a large part of the traffic that now uses the Fairfax County Parkway to reach the DTR will divert to Reston Parkway or Wiehle Avenue to save on tolls, taking DTR-bound traffic through Reston's transit station-area urban centers.  This will add to the already massive peak period congestion in those areas at a time when we are trying to reduce congestion there.  And, of course, the diverted traffic will mean more wear and tear on Reston's two key north-south routes, which will either drive up road repair expenses or (regrettably more likely) result in even worse road conditions than are currently experienced.

The only word that can begin to adequately describe this idea is "boneheaded."