Staff members from the Office of Transportation Services and hired consultants from Michael Baker Jr. Inc. presented the transportation/land use committee and members of the Planning Commission with possible updates to the Countywide Transportation Plan, which should reach a final draft by the end of May.
Consultant Lorna Parkins presented an update that broke the county into five different areas, Northwest Loudoun, Southwest Loudoun and Leesburg, Route 7 East corridor, the Greenway/Central Suburban corridor and the Dulles/Dulles South area. The plan forecasts congestion on the county's roads through 2030.
AMONG THE improvements suggested in the project is improving both Route 7 and Route 28 to freeway status.
"Freeway status means having interchanges in place," Parkins said. "The goal is to move traffic east as quickly as possible."
Parkins admitted that the biggest problem area is Route 7 east of Route 28, where interchanging is difficult because of the density of development in that area.
At least one supervisor said he was not sure what improving Route 7 and Route 28 to freeway status would really do for the county's overall traffic problem.
"If you rush all that traffic down to that point you have created a huge bottleneck," Supervisor Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac) said. "You have created a parking lot in less than a minute. It's going to improve it but not fix it."
PARKINS SAID one of the important things to consider when looking at the Route 7 corridor was how to take some of the cars off the road.
"By 2030 one of the considerations might be transit service that handles that local traffic without putting people in their cars," she said.
The consultant also suggested possibly creating managed carpool lanes along Route 28, but Supervisors were hesitant to support that idea.
"You're talking about a space of about two miles and then you hit Fairfax County and they're four lanes and not six," Supervisor Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run) said. "They are good in theory, but in practice they are not very good if they are going to exist for only a couple of minutes and then disappear."
Supervisor Jim Clem (R-Leesburg) said he was concerned that Loudoun was improving roads and building new roads for people who are only passing through. He said improving roads in one area can also create new problems in other areas.
"It's like water in a balloon, if you squeeze it out of one area it just bunches up somewhere else," he said.
Once a final Countywide Transportation Plan update is proposed this spring, the plan will head to the Planning Commission and will come to public hearing for residents' comments.