If you use the Custis Trail that runs along I-66 in Arlington, there’s a public VDOT meeting at 7:30p on Wednesday (Sept 26th) at Washington-Lee High School (in the cafeteria).  This meeting is being held to discuss three specific widening proposals.  It’s my understanding that it’s not regarding the larger (asinine) idea of widening I-66 by a lane, but limited extensions of entry/exit lanes.  However, it still has the potential to have a detrimental impact on the Custis Trail, which is a high-traffic alternative transportation artery.   For more details about the meeting and the take of the Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation, click on the “more” link below.  I’ve pasted an email from cycling advocate Allen Muchnick to local listsevs in its entirety.

This widening affects the Custis Trail, and any future widening could
seriously degrade it. Please forward this message far and wide.

ATTEND VDOT PUBLIC MEETING WED, SEPT 26, 7-8:30 PM @ WASHINGTON-LEE
HS CAFETERIA

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is holding a public
meeting this Wednesday evening, September 26, 2007, from 7:00 to 8:30
PM, in the Washington-Lee High School cafeteria (1300 N Quincy St,
near Ballston Metro) to provide a status report on the preliminary
design of it’s I-66 “Spot Improvements” project. Various aspects of
this project, including right-of-way drawings, will be displayed in
an open-house format, and a brief presentation and question-and-
answer session will begin around 7:30 PM. Once again, VDOT has
released very little project information in advance of this public
meeting.

If arriving by auto, use the parking deck above I-66, where a
pedestrian bridge connects to Entrance #7 of the high school. The
Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation (ACST) will be
stationed in Room 126, immediately outside the cafeteria.

If this construction is ultimately approved, this $76 million project
could add four miles of a third westbound lane to I-66 at three
disconnected locations: from the Spout Run (Lee Hwy) entrance to the
Glebe Rd exit, from the Fairfax Dr (Glebe Rd) entrance to the
Sycamore St exit, and from the Washington Blvd (East Falls Church)
entrance to the Dulles Connector Road exit.

Please attend the VDOT meeting to learn about this project and how it
would impact our community. Also, please submit written comments
describing your concerns and criticisms for the public meeting record
(info near bottom).

ARLINGTON COALITION FOR SENSIBLE TRANSPORTATION (ACST) POSITIONS ON
THE I-66 “SPOT IMPROVEMENTS”

1) NO WIDENING WITHOUT A COMPREHENSIVE CORRIDOR PLAN: The Arlington
Coalition for Sensible Transportation (ACST) firmly opposes the “spot
improvements” as unnecessary, unwarranted, counterproductive,
and “arbitrary and capricious”. As ACST has maintained since 1999,
no significant changes to I-66 should be made until a comprehensive
plan–developed with sound technical analyses and extensive public
input–is adopted for this major multimodal corridor. Twice
previously, in October 2001 and in May 2004, the National Capital
Region Transportation Planning Board had authorized VDOT to conduct
funded multimodal corridor studies, but the first study was never
initiated in 20 months, and the second study, dubbed “Idea-66”, was
clearly manipulated to recommend the third westbound travel lane
requested by Congressman Frank Wolf. In fact, VDOT’s Idea-66 Study
clearly showed that expanded HOV hours and/or automated tolls–
permanently ensuring uncongested travel–and enhanced bus service are
each superior overall to another westbound travel lane.

In June 2007, the Commonwealth Transportation Board authorized the
Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) to
initiate a third multimodal corridor study for I-66 inside the
Beltway; however, this study will not get underway until after the
preliminary (30%) design of the three “spot improvements” is
completed this coming winter.

2) VDOT MUST COMPLY FULLY WITH THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT
(NEPA): NEPA mandates that all federally funded projects adequately
consider all reasonable alternatives to the proposed “action” as well
as all significant impacts to the natural and human environment.
ACST contends that both VDOT’s pursuit of “interim spot improvements”
and the specific “improvements” being pursued are “arbitrary and
capricious”. VDOT’s March 2005 “Idea-66” report (posted at
[http://www.idea66.com]) hardly discussed *any* “spot improvements”,
much less the three on-ramp-to-off-ramp third-lane segments now being
designed. Moreover, VDOT has yet to issue a “Purpose and Need
Statement” for this project or any other written information about
its required environmental study. VDOT evidently concocted the
three “spot improvements” in mid-2005 as a way to spend Rep. Frank
Wolf’s $27.6 million in federal (SAFETEA-LU) earmarks by minimizing
NEPA requirements.

The lack of a “Purpose and Need Statement” for this VDOT project
impedes meaningful discussion and analyses of the proposed widening
and reasonable–and likely superior–alternatives to it; however,
ACST maintains that VDOT has been derelict in failing to adequately
consider any alternative “spot improvements”. For example, to
improve highway safety, police enforcement, incident management, and
emergency evacuations and to possibly move buses when the travel
lanes are congested, VDOT could simply provide a continuous 12-ft
wide inside paved shoulder, instead of third-lane segments with
substandard, narrow inside shoulders at multiple locations.
Alternatively, or in addition, VDOT could advance shorter on-ramp
extensions and/or provide extra police enforcement locations as
superior spot improvements. TO ADEQUATELY COMPLY WITH NEPA, VDOT
MUST FULLY AND FAIRLY STUDY SUCH ALTERNATIVE SPOT IMPROVEMENTS AND
PREPARE AT LEAST AN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR ITS PROPOSED ACTION.

3) VDOT’S PROPOSED WIDENING WOULD WORSEN TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND
SAFETY AND WOULD DEGRADE OUR ENVIRONMENT: VDOT is using a badly
flawed traffic-modeling process to rationalize the proposed spot
improvements. Instead of first forecasting future traffic volumes
with a trip-generation model (used in the previous Idea-66 study),
VDOT has used a computer simulation of only *2005 traffic volumes*
to “demonstrate” that the proposed spot improvements would reduce
traffic backups along westbound I-66, would not greatly worsen
traffic movements at nearby intersections, and would be more
effective than shorter on-ramp extensions. VDOT MUST USE A VALID
TRIP-GENERATION MODEL TO APPROPRIATELY MODEL TRAFFIC IMPACTS AT THE
FOLLOWING LOCATIONS: 1) ALONG EACH WIDENED I-66 SEGMENT AND THE
CONNECTING FREEWAY SEGMENTS IMMEDIATELY EAST AND WEST, 2) ALONG
EASTBOUND I-66 (where traffic congestion is already worse), AND 3) AT
NEARBY CONNECTING INTERSECTIONS (including on Lee Hwy, Glebe Rd,
Sycamore St, and Route 7). IN ADDITION, VDOT MUST SHOW HOW CREATING
TWO NEW BOTTLENECKS (just west of the low-volume Glebe Rd and
Sycamore St exit ramps) AND NARROWING SAFETY SHOULDERS WOULD AFFECT
TRAFFIC CONGESTION, SAFETY, AND INCIDENT MANAGEMENT. By inducing new
auto trips and auto-dependent development while not improving or
incentivizing non-auto travel, the proposed spot improvements would
increase noise, water, and air pollution, including global warming
carbon dioxide emissions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please visit ACST’s website
[http://www.acstnet.org] and blog
[http://www.acstnet.blogspot.com] . VDOT has a new project website
at [http://www/i-66spotimprovements.com] and a project
telephone “INFO” line (1-888-643-3266), but the previous Idea-66
feasibilty study and the 2006 traffic modeling study remain posted at
[http://www.idea66.com] .

PLEASE SUBMIT WRITTEN COMMENTS, no later than October 10, 2007, to:
Mr. Jeff Daily, P.E., Project Manager, Virginia Department of
Transportation, 14685 Avion Parkway Chantilly, VA 20151 Phone: 703-
383-2205, Email: Jeff.daily@vdot.virginia.gov .

UPCOMING PUBLIC MEETINGS: Speak out for a wiser I-66 at the following
additional meetings. Partial funding to build the I-66 “spot
improvements” is already included in VDOT’s current Six-Year
Improvement Program (SYIP) and is proposed for the Washington
region’s FY08-13 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Please
voice your opposition to this wasteful and destructive use of scarce
transportation improvement funds.

1) Thursday, October 11, 7-8 PM, public forum on the FY08-13 TIP for
the Washington Metropolitan Region, Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments, 777 N Capitol St NE, Suite 300, Washington DC 20002
(near Union Station Metro). Learn more at
[http://tinyurl.com/2nf7d2] .

2) Tuesday, November 13, 6:30-8:00 PM (briefings begin at 5 PM),
Commonwealth Transportation Board fall public input meeting for FY09-
14 SYIP, Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center
Parkway, Fairfax 22035. See VDOT news release at
[http://tinyurl.com/35gnd2] .

Allen Muchnick, president
Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation
PO Box 5574, Arlington VA 22205-5574
703-271-0895
info@acstnet.org
http://www.acstnet.org
http://www.acstnet.blogspot.com