This is supposed to be a multimodal study but it is really business as usual and car first,” said Allen Muchnick, president of the Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation. “Adding highway capacity is counterproductive.

At Wednesday’s Providence District Council panel discussion with VDOT, “I-66 and Your Neighborhoods,” co-sponsored by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, Virginia Sierra Club, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, and Friends of Accotink Creek, residents and commuters asked many questions and provided their input.  One resident commenting on the impact to neighborhoods, said it best:

You’re going to take these people’s homes, you’re going to ruin neighborhoods and people will still be sitting in their cars,” said Denise Rodgers, a Dunn Loring Village resident.

VDOT has stated that there will still be plenty of congestion even after privatized Express Lanes are built from land taken from the community, houses, and back yards.  With precious few square feet of open space and buffer zones through the corridor, the homes remaining after construction will still pay a high price for the project.  Although the project has been billed as “Inter-Modal” since it was announced, there are NO plans in this project to build rail to Centreville, as Fairfax County has hoped for in its long range planning. There are also no firm plans for bus service and bus stations either.  The only commuters who would benefit are those that would pay a very pricey toll.

Fairfax Times was there to cover the meeting, you can read more at http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20150326/NEWS/150329481/1117