HOT Lanes - Alternatives Need to be Considered
Coalition for Smarter Growth and the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2009
CONTACT:
Stewart Schwartz, CSG, 703-599-6437 (c)
Roger Diedrich, VA-SC, 703-352-2410 (h)
As Arlington Files Suit over HOT Lanes, Conservation and Smart Growth Groups
Urge State to Evaluate Full Range Alternatives for I-95/395
Reforms Needed in VDOT Planning and the Public-Private Transportation Act
Arlington County filed suit today challenging the failure of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to evaluate alternatives to private High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes for I-95/395, and to consider the community impacts of the proposal, especially the impact of air pollution on the health of those living near the corridor. FHWA allowed VDOT to use a “categorical exclusion (CE)” which means VDOT did not have to consider other transportation solutions or evaluate many of the environmental and community impacts of the project.
“The failure to evaluate alternatives or the impact on communities has sparked an outcry of opposition from HOV users, bus and vanpool riders, conservationists, and affected neighborhoods,” said Roger Diedrich of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “We are pleased that Arlington has decided to challenge the VDOT/FHWA decision and would like to see Alexandria, Prince William and Fairfax to join the suit,” said Diedrich.
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth added, “We have long argued that VDOT didn’t consider the additional traffic entering and exiting neighborhoods and the increased traffic at the already bottlenecked 14th Street Bridge. They also didn’t evaluate the potential for increased bus and VRE service, and additional carpool incentives and facilities as alternatives to more lanes and more single-occupant vehicles. They have failed to focus on what would move the most people, rather than simply moving more cars and adding to traffic.”
“It is particularly important that the Arlington lawsuit also focuses on the air quality impact of the HOT lane project and the increased number of vehicles adding pollution to nearby neighborhoods,” said Ana Prados, of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The HOT lanes project takes public lanes originally built with transit funds as a dedicated busway -- which now serves as one of the nation’s most successful bus and carpool corridors, and turns it over to private companies potentially for up to 75 years. The project would squeeze a third lane into the current HOV lane corridor and add ramps at some major interchanges, while crowding the lanes with single-occupant vehicles. Fluor and TransUrban, have already been given control of the Beltway HOT lanes for 75 years, under a deal in which they keep all of the revenues and the state taxpayers have to pay the companies if more than 24% of the vehicles in the lane are carpools.
“VDOT’s failure to evaluate alternatives here fits a pattern common to most of their major projects involving multi-billion dollar decisions,” said Schwartz. “Here they failed to study any alternative whatsoever, but even where alternatives are considered they are either placed in separate studies that are put on a shelf and forgotten, like the Beltway transit alternative to the Beltway HOT lanes, or the official alternatives do not include comprehensive land use, transit, and demand reducing approaches that would better address the problem and save taxpayers money. This was the case in the Tri-County Parkway and I-81 studies.”
“The most significant VDOT reforms still needed are in their planning of major transportation projects and in the Public-Private Transportation Act, which continues to limit public involvement and consideration of alternatives, and has resulted in poor deals for the public.” said Diedrich. “We hope that VDOT will quickly respond to the Arlington suit by agreeing to do a full Environmental Impact Statement, and to consider and adopt more effective and less destructive solutions.”
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