To the Editor:
The proponents of Potomac Yard are correct that a rapid transit hub is essential to attracting many Class A office tenants and helping to ensure a vibrant mix of uses at Potomac Yard. A Metro station ensures that more people will work, live and shop at Potomac Yard; however, the vast majority of residents, workers and shoppers will still drive and accommodating these automobile trips is missing from the current dialogue. Route 1 is already over capacity during rush hour and on weekends and the plan is to add in excess of 1 million sf of office space as well as more residential and significant retail. Is there a plan to address the increase in traffic volume that will impact Route 1?
Metro will not solve the lack of vehicular capacity in the area and the development will grossly exacerbate the problem. How many of us actually find Metro a convenient means to commute to work everyday, to shop or to do many of our daily chores? How many current City Council members take Metro to work daily. How many residents of the D.C. area both live and work close enough to a Metro Station at each end to make a Metro commute feasible?
America’s dependence on the automobile will not go away; in the future we will relish the freedom and flexibility of driving in our electric or hybrid vehicles. The big automakers are already well on their way to addressing the market needs of carbon averse consumers; I suspect they understand satisfying their customers exponentially better than WMATA.
When the million square feet of Class A office space is built at Potomac Yard, there will be considerably more, not fewer vehicles on Route 1; these vehicles will be more efficient and cleaner, but there will be more of them. What vehicular infrastructure improvements are planned and budgeted for Route 1 between the Pentagon on the North and 495 on the South? The automobile is not going away, and the volume of additional traffic converging on Potomac Yard on a daily basis needs to be addressed head on by the leadership that is elected to do so.
Joe Demshar
Alexandria