the tysons corner - a way forward with roads

The road is an element of city planning

as old as civilization itself. It originated

as tow paths dividing village huts, foot

paths through jungles and forests

cleared to ensure safe passage from

one location to another for commercial

trade, and from agriculturally rich

areas to populated centers. Cities have

evolved extensively through out

civilization but the basic principals

remain for roads. Within populated

regions smaller roads and sidewalks

provide separation of uses as well as

direct paths to intra-city destinations,

populated regions are connected via

arterial roads and freeways, and

agriculture hubs are connected to their

distribution and urban destinations

through interstate highways.

From ancient Rome to Industrial Paris

and even to today’s suburban centric

culture the road has been as important

of a component as any zoning,

architectural, or engineering decision.

The differences we see from antiquity

to pre-auto and post-auto city planning

are not a variance in the basic

functions of roads but instead in the

prioritization of the three fundamental

transportation purposes.

THETYSONSCORNER.COM PAGE 2

A CONNECTION BETWEEN

ROADS AND OUR TOWNS

TOO FAR NOTHING AROUND HERE IM NOT WALKING THERELETSOR DERINIDONTWANTTHEKIDSWALKING TOWO RK IAM TIREDOF SPENDINGMYPAYCHECKONGAS

PAGE 3

WHAT’

S LOCAL

It begins with tow paths or in the modern

era the local road and sidewalk. In the era

of the subdivision, neighborhoods have

taken on the identity of former villages

and towns. Several examples in Northern

Virginia can be dizzying, Braemar

(Manassas, VA) is a massive subdivision

which bears its own local identity with

residents. While it remains an

unincorporated region of Virginia,

encompassed by Manassas as a whole, its

shear size and acreage is equivalent to

most European towns/walled cities and its

population of over 2000 residents is

typical of the same. So why aren’t areas

like these incorporated townships or

cities?

In order to be a city or town, an area

must have variant uses. A city is hardly

just a population center, it is a location in

which goods/services are traded

commercially. Subdivisions, while

populated, lack this essential component

which makes creating a town/city

financially possible (otherwise town and

city functions could not be afforded

without extensive local taxes). Instead

these neo-villages arrange home owners

association fees in order to pay for

common functionality, and rely on county

jurisdictions to assist with all other

typical town/city actions.

Because people cannot find a

commercially viable service or trade

within their own subdivision, the

populated subdivision must be viewed as

only a portion of the overall modern

town/city, in the case of Braemar it

would be Manassas. The problem arises in

that the function of local tow paths have

always been for the purpose of intra-city

activity and the promotion of heavily

travelled paths to become commercial

active corridors, the idea of main street is

as old as the original bazaars. In the era

of subdivisions and the inability for a

person to travel without a powered

machine to the equivalent “main street”,

now known as commercial business

districts, town/city layouts now much

incorporate minimum 4 lane roads for

local paths within subdivisions, and 6 lane

roads for inter-subdivision travel in order

to provide for left turn, right turns, and

sufficient safe through passage for

vehicles. Markets, due to the congestion

of these roads, now are located in “super

centers” that are located for easy access

from heavy freight trucks instead of

located based on central resident access.

Because of the increase in size for local

roads, the division between agricultural

zone highways and local tow paths have

become scrambled which has created the

need for even wider road design,

available paved shoulders, and screened

right of ways that avoid direct access

from homes. These design criteria only 30

years ago were reserved for only

highways, but in the neo-village it is

impossible to maintain a separation.

The boundaries that are defined with the

neo-village highway now counteract the

original purpose of the intra-city road, to

promote commercial trade of goods and

services. The areas found between super

centers/groceries and subdivisions is often

a void zone, adjacent to wide roads with

frequent truck traffic. Empirically we

have now come to understand that the

market does not see economic benefit

from these formats except in the creation

of strip malls, a format that creates

massive parking regions in between super

centers/groceries and houses in order to

artificially stop the traveler.


The scale of all design

elements in order to

occupy, use, and

house our vehicles for

even simple intra-city

travel shows the

impact of subdivision

design. This has hurt

the idea of Main

Street, now replaced

by fast food pop-ups

and gas stations. Main

Street, the idea stores

and restaurants lining

a central corridor,

cannot exist when one

must find a place to

park their vehicle and

where trucks and

through traffic

endanger adults,

children, and pets. It

isn’t that Americans

have become lazier

and can no longer walk

the same as our

grandparents and

Europeans, it is that

American towns have

become too vast for

residents to travel

from home to Main

Street. More important

than just the shear

distance, the American

town now has created

impassible obstacles

and abandoned night

time zones of strip

malls, that promote

blight and crime due

to massive parking

areas and poor

surveillance.

PAGE 5

0

Bipedal

CHICAGO


FROM THE FARM TO THE


FROM THE FARM TO THE TABLE

The original villages at the birth of

civilization put people and markets

together at the hearts of the

population, converged on a main road,

and spoked to the surrounding

agricultural regions. Farm uses were

therefore the only demands on these

spoked roads and the farmers would

only have a daily commute into town

to sell foods and the daily commute

out of town, returning with goods,

money, etc. Trade from city to city

was accomplished via separate travel

ways that specifically connected

regions via a trade route.

In the neo-village model of subdivision

development, the region between

trade centers and farms have

expanded exponentially with homes,

forcing farms to be further and further

from their consumers. Consequently,

the cost of freight and the frequency

of trips necessary have forced machine

like efficiency in agricultural uses

which now favors economy by scale

operations instead of hard working

entrepreneurs. The 3 axle flat bed has

been replaced by the 18-wheeler

causing an additional expansion in the

amount of pavement needed for

loading docks and operations. One of

the biggest problems with creating

dense Main Street developments has

therefore become the lack of

marketability for delivery of stock to

stores/restaurants without excessive

loading dock access ways in the rear.

We must re-evaluate our farm

practices to understand that food

prices today have never been

historically so low. The average

American used 30% of their paycheck

for food only half a century ago, today

it is only 10%. While we no longer pay

the high relative cost for food, we are

paying additional taxes that go

towards road repairs, lowering

economic well being of small

businesses, and paying more and more

money towards oil subsidies and

commodity security overseas. These

are real costs that are delayed at the

dinner table, but come out of our

collective wallets every tax year.

PAGE 9


Beyond the collapse of the traditional

farm, highways that once connected

farms directly to distribution centers

and town farmers markets now must

be shared between commuters and

agricultural use which has created far

greater incidence rates for truck

accidents and excessive maintenance

costs for roadways. Truck corridors

require far different design criteria for

everything from slopes, expensive

durable materials, noise reduction

barriers, landscaped barriers for

pollution, and of course pavement

widths and on/off ramp turn radii. All

of these elements has created a city

land use system that has our DOTs as

the number one land owners in every

jurisdiction.

In order to turn the tide we must

return to the world of the greatest

generation. A world of;

THE

REVERSE

EFFECTS OF N

I

M

B

Y

The birth of a suburb is far less

miraculous than a city. No

natural commodities are

necessary, no ease of access to

waterways, no particular

resources for industry, and for

the most part it is a zero risk

growth. A developer is all but

assured that by building

adjacent to other similar units

that they have foresight on

what the market will pay and

can judge the economics of

the project accordingly. The

suburb is, again, as old as

civilization itself. For centuries

some people have escaped the

cramped and crowded city

streets in order to live a bit off

the beaten path, trading the

comfort of access with the

relative safety of seclusion.

PAGE 13

The evolution of the town

has unbalanced the natural

ratio, by making the ease of

access temporarily lessened

through the use of freeways

in suburbs, it is eluded that

travel from one region to

another will always be

quick. Soon the inducing of

additional demand, the

process of growing further

and further out, creates

more traffic than originally

anticipated, requiring road

widenings. In an interesting

turn of events, it becomes

those who originated the

migration, outwards to the

suburbs, that typically now

stand against these road

projects.

They clearly would inherit

all of the detriment to local

businesses and accessibility

(something that despite the

neo-village model

eventually occurs from

redevelopment and the

scavenging of properties) as

well as pollution,

congestion, and treatment

of area as a through way to

greater commercial

prospects within the city.

The inner suburbs see none

of the improvements from

the road projects, touted as

congestion removal and

increased access projects.

PAGE 15

The signature piece of the

Embarcadero Center by

Architect and sculptor John

C. Portman, Jr

This stretch of bay frontage

previously was buried under

an elevated freeway, now it

is the commercial heart of

the city of San Francisco.

’

Sadly, it starts from a mistaken

ideology. By opposing the natural

and slower redevelopment within

their suburb, and higher density

in commercial districts, they

create an atmosphere in which

land developers must look

horizontally, instead of

vertically, for new jobs and

economic growth. The shift to

look further out is encouraged by

farther suburbs which need a

growing population’s tax revenue

to provide social services and

jurisdictional functions. Rarely

do these further suburbs need to

aid in the maintenance and

improvements of roads closer to

the city of which they are the

greatest population of users by

total road miles.

Roads have become massive

barren lands 90% of the time in

order for the flood of traffic to

be accommodated every rush

hour morning and evening. When

the commuters are done

travelling through the inner

suburbs they sweep out like a

tide eroding the commercial

viability of the region, but unlike

the tide they do not replenish

the proverbial community

shoreline by purchasing goods

and services. The net effect is a

city that retains its economic

strength, a far suburb which

retains a large tax base with

little funding burdens, and an

inner suburb which has been

robbed of both population and

jobs as it becomes a gap land of

stagnation.

When we began to redesign our

communities to fit in line with a

departure from civilization, we

forgot all of the elements of

humanity that we would stay

connected too. Unlike the

self-sufficient farmer the

majority of the world

cannot sustain itself, it

relies on the collective

knowledge and skills of

society for 100 different

direct and indirect

interactions every day. As

we pulled apart the threads

of what defined

transportation and land use

we found new challenges we

had to accommodate, cheap

food production and

delivery requiring massive

truck routes and loading

facilities, increased lengths

and areas of pavement that

stretch far further and run

empty most of the day to

branch to more remote

areas, and combined freight

and commuter routes which

created more accidents and

more traffic are just a few

of the challenges now

faced.

We object to sprawl when it corrects a problem but not when it destroys our natural surroundings


When we began to redesign our

communities to fit in line with a

departure from civilization, we

forgot all of the elements of

humanity that we would stay

connected too. Unlike the self-

sufficient farmer the majority of

the world cannot sustain itself, it

relies on the collective

knowledge and skills of society

for 100 different direct and

indirect interactions every day.

As we pulled apart the threads of

what defined transportation and

land use we found new

challenges we had to

accommodate, cheap food

production and delivery requiring

massive truck routes and loading

facilities, increased lengths and

areas of pavement that stretch

far further and run empty most

of the day to branch to more

remote areas, and combined

freight and commuter routes

which created more accidents

and more traffic are just a few

of the challenges now faced.

To address our societies land use

problems we must readdress the

foundation of our planning

decisions. Are we living more

comfortable lives now that we

live outside of cities? Our

connection to our neighbors

dwindles in the face of further

isolation and separation as we

consign to our role of reluctant

service users from ever

consolidating providers. We must

all sacrifice the immediate

gratification of the cheapest

product if it is provided at a

reasonable price in a more local

origin. While we pay 10 or 15%

more in this method, we spend

that additional money in our own

backyards, which is returned

more efficiently when our own

services and skills are needed.

The Main Street and the local

mom and pop aren’t dead, we

just need to stop making bad

choices that kill them off.

Small changes in design, a return

to 10’ lanes that are design for

cars not 18-wheelers, requiring

concessions by freight users to

utilize smaller delivery vehicles

inside of inner suburbs, and a

basic understanding that some

reinvestment through new

developments (specifically those

that provide more housing

options and quantities) is

healthy. While mass transit helps

connect cities and communities

together, we all could solve the

problems of land use by acting

more like our grandparents

generation, without a significant

portion of the anticipated public

funding need.

PAGE 17 PAGE 17

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