Patrick F Kane

The June 19^th copy of the Washington Post announced a Fairfax County commitment to the metro extension.  The story’s sidebar failed to acknowledge the first publicly funded proposal to extend metro through Tysons into the Dulles corridor.  The 1992 Tytran study entitled, The Future of Tysons, completed with UMPTA funds by a professional team lead by Patrick F. Kane.  The supervisors found this commitment to be one of the most important decisions they have made in many years and will establish their legacy for their impact on the county.  Their discussions indicated this would have a far reaching impact on the economic viability of the county.

The June 20^th edition of the Washington Post announced Loudoun County Board of Supervisors agreed to support the metro extension and also discussed the positive benefit this will have on the economic viability of this burgeoning jurisdiction.  Both elected boards were correct in their expectations however, the Washington Metropolitan region is the larger beneficiary of these votes. This section of the metro will function as the missing link to provide connectivity throughout the region.  This will give metro mass transit access to a potential employee pool in the District, Maryland and elsewhere currently dependant on highway seeking to flow through a limited number of ways to cross barriers such as rivers and limited access highways. 

This population with these employees will not need the Northern Virginia counties to provide workforce housing and related facilities for all employees.  Regional connectivity will allow for balanced patterns of human settlement throughout the Washington Metropolitan area.  The two jurisdictions voting to commit their own funds show their willingness to advance the quality of the region. 

Although Fairfax County is concerned about the appearance and traffic problems related to an overhead system, these can be mitigated with creative and imaginative design, elevated pedestrian systems can be an asset and potentially revenue generating spaces.  For this system to meet its potential, quality design will be essential at each contact point referred to as creative and imaginative TOD. 

Completing this missing link will also have a far reaching impact on the environmental quality of the region and offer exurban residents another alternative to the highways to maintain connectivity to the region.