Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-11-11
One-Purpose Parkway

1t is encouraging that the National
Park Service has yielded on at least one
aspect of its campaign to keep express
buses off the George Washington Me-
mortal Parkway in Virginia. Under an
arrangement with the Federal Aviation
Agency, the Park Service will permit
the firm which holds the official pas
senger-transportation concession to the
new Dulles Airport to run buses as we'll
as limousines over the parkway to the
airport access road both from the
downtown airport terminal and from
National Airport. But no others.
Even this minor concession, more
over, is strictly temporary" pending
studies of alternative routes. One ele-
ment in the Park Service position, &C
cording to Park Director Conrad L.
Wirth, is that small section of the
parkway - roughly between Memorial
and Key Bridges -waS not constructed
to Withstand heavy loads, and might
not hold up under the pounding of
buses. This, of course, is a matter for
the engineers to decide. The fact is,
however, that bus traffic on this limited
section is not nearly as important as
on the upper stretches of the parkway
beyond Key Bridge.
Actually, the Park Service already
lets Arnold buses carry Central Intelli-
gence Agency employees on the parkway
every morning and every evening be-
tween Key Bridge and the CHA head
quarters near Langley. But it is re-
fuSing to: (D Let buses bring other
CHA employees to and from work over
the parkway via the new Cabin John
Bridge from Maryland, or (2) allow the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit
Commission to establish express bus
Service-even restricted to rush hours
along the parkway from the Mclean
TySons Corner area to downtown Wash
ington.
And why not? Because, as Mr.. Wirth
has told the Transit Commission, park
ways are not for buses. They are, he
says, for family automobiles which "give
the motorist generally the same kind
of enjoyment which a pedestrian might
expect from walk through groves or
scenic. leiSurely, refreshing and as re-
Taxed as motorists responsibilities can
permit"
Relaxed? Leisurely? Refreshing?
In rush hours? The Park Service must
be blind. Logically, the use of express
buses would tend to curtail objection
able traffic congestion, not compound
it. 1t is difficult, moreover, to under
stand where this parkway policy starts
and where it ends. For apparently
the Park Service has no objection to
through buses on its Washington Balti-
more Parkway-including those directly
serving the Friendship Airport. And the
Park Service comedies that it has been
committed since 1858 to permit express
bus commuter service on the Maryland
section of the George Washington Park
way-directly across the Potomac from
the section on which it wants to ban
buses. Official regional transportation
plans consistently have assumed that
parkways, for the purpose of moving
people during the heavy rush hours,
should and must be considered to be an
integral part of the regional highway
system.
Certainly parkwayS, in their designs
and their functions, differ from inter
state truck routes. But the truth is that
such parkwayS in the congeSted Ma
tional Capital Region, unless they are
to be Internationally wasted, must serve
a broader purpose than those which
meander through Yosemite National
Park. Apparently, however, this is
distinction which our friends in the
National Park Service either cannot or
will not see.