Friday, August 21, 2009

Arlington's HOT Lawsuit: Counterproductive

Arlington County has filed suit to delay the construction of HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes on I-395 thru our little jurisdiction. (Guess Arlington didn't notice that construction on I-395 is delayed anyway, because the commonwealth doesn't think it can sell the necessary bonds.)

Arlington is requesting that the HOT lane project undergo a full environmental review (it had been granted an exemption). The County contends that HOT lanes will increase air pollution here.

We think Arlington officials need to get out of their cubbies over at the Courthouse plaza offices and try driving around the County sometime. What they'll find, especially between 7-9:30 a.m. and 3-7 pm is a lot of vehicles idling in heavy, stop and go traffic, especially on I-395 and I-66, along with a lot of secondary traffic on Arlington's other roadways.

As one of our readers pointed out the other day, all those idling cars and trucks are generating a lot more pollution than if they were zipping quickly through our County. Throwing up roadblocks to HOT lane and other road construction projects is not going to reduce pollution here--instead, it's going to make it worse.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The county officials all ride bikes, so traffic is never a problem or a concern.