Supervisor Hudgins' Request for Additional Fairfax Connector Funding, Board Summary, March 5, 2013

Supervisor Hudgins proposes adding $2.2 million to the Fairfax Connector budget to expand mid-day and late evening bus service as seen in the six-minute video below and reflected in this excerpt from the March 5, 2013, summary of the Board of Supervisors meeting.

 

 

Fairfax supervisor wants $2.2 million worth of extra bus service to Reston, Washington Examiner, March 8, 2013

A Fairfax County supervisor is asking for additional bus service to Reston to relieve congestion once Metro's Silver Line opens.

Fairfax County Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, D-Hunter Mill, earlier this week asked fellow board members to consider providing $2.2 million for additional Fairfax Connector bus service in Reston, the end point for the first phase of the Silver Line.  The first phase of the Silver Line is expected to open late this year. Its second phase, to Loudoun County via Dulles International Airport, won't open until 2018 or later.

Hudgins said she heard from many Reston residents who want the extra service. . . .

Click here for the rest of this article by Liz Essley.

While short on details (will the 595 and 597 routes continue?), we expect that the press or Supervisor Hudgins will add some meat to these bones.  They are a good start, however.

RCA Comments on Draft Reston Transit Station AreaComprehensive Plan Language, March 8, 2013

The comments presented below are in response to the draft Reston Transit Station Area Comprehensive Plan Text prepared by the Department of Planning and Zoning.  

   Final RCA Comments on Draft Reston Areawide Comprehensive Plan--Revised by Terry Maynard

Census: DC-Area Commute Second-Longest, Reston Patch, March 8, 2013

The second report of the year is out on the lousy commutes area drivers face in the Metropolitan Washington area.  This one is by the US Census Bureau and looks at average commute times in the nation's major metropolitan areas.  Nationwide,  the Washington area has the second-longest commute for its workers at a 28-minute average.

The earlier report by the Texas Tech's Institute for Transportation Technology showed a key reason why those commute times are so bad:  Washington has the worst congestion--measured in minutes of delay--on its roads anywhere in the country.  It has held that "honor" for several years.

In this article, Reston Patch reporter Rachael Leonard does an excellent job of parsing the latest US Census study of commute times as it applies to Reston.  We actually have a slightly lower average commute time than others in the area.  We suspect that an important reason for this is that so many Restonians work in Reston--about 39%--consistent with its motto that Reston is "a place to live, work, and play."

Here is how Ms. Leonard's article begins:

If you're sitting in traffic on the Dulles Toll Road or Reston Parkway, this morning, you should know you at least have it better than some other drivers in the region.

While commuters as a whole in the Washington metropolitan area have the second-longest commutes in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average for Reston zip codes is about 27.5 minutes -  is a few minutes below the average for the DC area as a whole.

The average travel time to work in DC was 34.5 minutes in 2011, according to numbers released by the bureau Tuesday.

In Reston, most drivers spend about 28 minutes commuting to work, according to data from Slate.com.  .

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Sequester punctures area economy’s government-dependent bubble, Washington Post, March 8, 2013

In the most complete article yet on the likely impact of the sequester, reporter Jim Tankersley examines its scope  and its effects in the metro area in this Washington Post article.  It begins:

Recent American history is strewn with examples of regional economies that grew dangerously dependent on a single industry: Los Angeles with aerospace in the early 1990s, Northern California with tech at the turn of the millennium, Detroit with auto manufacturing and Las Vegas with home building in the mid-2000s. When shocks rattled those industries, those regions bled jobs, and their economies sputtered.

None of those areas relied as much on a single source for jobs and growth as the Washington region does on federal government spending today.

This is the economic vulnerability exposed by the budget cuts brought on by sequestration. A decade of expanding federal largess has shielded the metro area from the worst effects of the financial crisis and the slow recovery. It also left the region, in investment terms, with a precariously unbalanced portfolio — heavily concentrated in a single stock, which is now falling.

“This is our spending bubble,” said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. “It’s really distorted our economy.” . . .

Click here to read the rest of this comprehensive article.

DOT Head Questioned Over Support of MWAA Leadership, TransportationNation, March 6, 2013

By Martin Di Caro

After U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised the beleaguered Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority at a Congressional hearing last autumn, two Democratic members of Congress did a slow burn and sent separate letters to him, stating they were “troubled” and “disappointed and concerned” by his support for MWAA.

MWAA oversees the D.C. area’s airports — and is in charge of the massive $6 billion Silver Line rail project. In recent months the agency has been trying to repair its image after a federal audit that found the agency had unethical hiring and questionable contracting practices. The agency also battled Virginia’s governor, who sought to oust a member of its board, and it’s being sued by a former employee. Now, it’s hiring an outside public relations firm.

Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards and West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wrote LaHood following his November 16 testimony in which he expressed “a lot of confidence in” MWAA’s CEO Jack Potter and MWAA board chairman Michael Curto. . . .

 For the details of the Congressional letters, including copies, please click here.