Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-10-20

Up to now, there has been a minimum
Of cooperative effort In the transportation
programs Of Maryland, Virginia and the
District. The pressures Of metro growth,
however. are forcing them together.
There are three principal unifying
forces at work. The first is the fact that
future transportation systems of whatever
nature will cover so much territory and
carry so much traffic that they will have
to be planned and built with the closest
conceivable regional coordination No single
metro jurisdiction can take care of its own
problem alone; individual solutions inevi-
tably would affect all jurisdictions
Let us take a specific example. In
Virginia nearly all the future growth will
take place In Fairfax County. Its future
residents are the ones who will cause traffic
to swell. The burden for handling the
trafflc, however, will fall heavier on Airing
ton County than 1t will on Fairfax.
Fairfax, of course, will have stake in
how well Arlington handles future trafic-
II Arlington doesn't move the cars Fairfax
won't grow.
Similarly, the District-at the end Of
the transportation line-gets the burden Of
traffic from all the Jurisdictions. But the
District will suffer, along with the suburban.
ties, II the latter stop coming to town
because it's too much trouble.
This funneling of traffic concentrations
into the District leads to second regional
concern-the preservation of the District
as the unifying core Of the sprawling metro
Jurisdictions. Metro areas throughout the
Nation, municipal experts believe, are in
danger of losing the unique amenities of
cultural life. business and shopping which
only cities can offer. Washington must take
radical new steps itself to redeveIop the
downtown area in order to make 1t more
attractive. But these steps will be in vain
unless carefully planned regional transpor.
tation systems permit people to get to
them easily.
A third major reason transportation
must be aregional concern is the fact that
new expresSways will be powerful influence
in directing future growth. Wherever they
60, they attract new residents The location
Of new roads, therefore. will give Metro
Washington an unprecedented opportunity
to stimulate new development where it's
needed. and to preserve appropriation
density in areas where intensive develop
ment would create intolerable demands for
schools and other public services.
Just as highways can be used as tool
to stimulate healthy places to live, however,
metro officials must use coming and other
development controls to make the area-wide
highways work. Suppose, for example, that
an expressway is built which is just able
to handle the number of people who live
nlA sA1 .akI,
road will attract SO many new residents it
viii be overloaded. without development
restrictions, it will be impossible to predict,
with any degree of certainty, the adequacy
of any future highway.
This is what Wilfred Owen Bookings
Institution transportation expert, means
when he says that efforts ito meet what
ever demands arise from unplanned growth
seem doomed to continuing failure We will
have to use transportation resources to
achieve better communities, and community
planning techniqueS to achieve better
transportation"
These are all reasons why regional
action is necessary. How can it be done?
The machinery will depend upon the
precise form of transportation system which
the metro area decides to adopt
1t is possible that drastic new forms Of
authorities, or metro corporations, will be
needed. Congress, and the Legislatures Of
Maryland and Virginia. may well have to
authorize new kinds of regional action.
These are considerations for the future.
however, which need not be faced until the
basic decision is made on the kind of trans
portation Washington needs.
The important point is that for metro
Washington a once-in-a-lifetime oppor-
tunity is coming up to make this decision.
II the chance is muffed, the city and its
suburbs may be doomed to SLOW stagnant
demise. Choices made in the next few
years will tell the story.