Many places do.
A proposed Outer Connector through Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and around Fredericksburg is billed as a way to ease traffic congestion. That beltway should not be built until thorough economic and environmental impact studies are made and before alterna-tive transportation plans are considered. Otherwise, the Fredericksburg area could get an Outer Connector that will encourage sprawling residential and commercial growth, and thus burden the region with even more traffic. A beltway almost got built in the Portland metropolitan area, too, but people and their elected officials woke up in time to stop it. The Portland area s regional government, Metro, voted in 1997 not to build a Western Bypass in a fast-growing part of the metropolitan area southwest of the city.