Virginia negotiating to buy Dulles Greenway

I'm all for the graduated fare system, but I don't think we will ever see the tolls go away. There is the revenue stream arguement, and without them, there is no longer an incentive to use the road...it just becomes another crowded Rt. 7.

 

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the I-95 toll in Richmond that went away. I guess miracles do happen.

No doubt that traffic on the Greenway would increase if the tolls went away, but much of that traffic would come off of Waxpool and 7, so I imagine they'd be much lighter too. Hopefully all the roads would balance out.

I'm a map junkie, so I'll take this opportunity to get on one of my favorite topics of driving in Ashburn. It's the main reason the Greenway can charge such high prices - there just aren't enough east-west options. If you look at a map, there are exactly 4 east-west roads between Dulles Airport and the river: 50, Greenway, Waxpool, and 7. Every single person who wants to get in from Ashburn or Leesburg must take one of those roads for part of their trip. If the 3 non-toll roads moved better, no one would pay $5 for the Greenway, so they'd have to lower their prices to entice more drivers. I think the best way to get those roads to move better is to give drivers more options so they aren't all forced onto them (and trapped when there's an accident on one of them). The County Transportation plan has some things on the books that will help, but I only know of 1 project that has a firm date. Supervisor Williams announced that Gloucester Pkwy would be connected through to Nokes Blvd by December 2014. This half-mile connection will take a bunch of Ashburn traffic off of 7 and Waxpool. I'd like to see a connection made between LCP and 606, but no dates are set for that yet. I assume it will be around the time of the Metro being completed.

 

John-
Where/when did you hear that firm date for Gloucester? I don't believe it. With the loss of the stadium, Kincora has nothing going on for them to risk building that road. Even though it is a loan from the state, I don't think they will build it unless they have SOMETHING going on with their project.

 

It was included in a letter I got over the summer from Supervisor Williams - looked to be a mailing to all residents talking about some of the things he had done so far as a supervisor. I wrote about the date in post #10 on this thread: http://www.broadlandshoa.org/hoaforum/showthread.php?t=27499&highlight=gloucester

 

Would be nice, but just don't see it happening. That newsletter may have been issued prior to the stadium being moved. Kincora couldn't even get the minimal road improvements and infrastructure to get the stadium built on time. Without it, I just don't see the road being built any time soon. I hope I'm wrong.

 

Connecting GP to Nokes Blvd and extending Shellhorn across LCP to Lockridge by the Park and Ride lot) would make a big difference on Waxpool. Although both connections look so short on the map the big cost obviously is constructing the bridges over the Broad Run (though I don't know why they can't just leave a few dirt piles there and let cars jump over it like they did in the Dukes of Hazzard all the time, that seemed to work for them OK ). The Shellorn extension during rush hour would cause additional gridlock on 606 where it would connect and that intersection with Lockridge/606 and the Westbound Greenway exit would need to be expanded I am sure. The GP extension to Nokes would at least let Ash Village people avoid Rt. 7 and get onto 28 South, but in my opinion probably won't help too much with Waxpool during rush hour as the Ash Farm, Broadlands and Brambleton folks (along with some Ash Village people) will still need to use Waxpool to avoid the Greenway (assuming Shellhorn or some other connection to 606 is not built).

The easiest and cheapest solution to me is to lower tolls on the Greenway to make it more affordable and allow more people to use it. Any road construction process is going to take years to complete while lowering tolls (assuming the State can buy the Greenway) could ease the pressure on Waxpool immediately.

 

The Coronado Bridge (connects Coronado to San Diego). Once the bridge was paid for (by toll revenue), the toll went away completely.