To BRAC with Ft. Belvoir Traffic

It's easy for DOD/Pentagon to decide to move some 22,000 people out of Arlington and Alexandria office corridor to Ft. Belvoir. What about the traffic we have to deal with, dude? According to a recent analysis, it shouldn't be too much a problem. Huh?

Via Washington Post.

The data show that after the realignment, the roughly 44,000 personnel who will be commuting to the post will be arriving from widely dispersed points: 41 percent will come from the south along Interstate 95 and Route 1; 28 percent will come from the north via the Capital Beltway and Interstate 395; 17 percent will come from the east via the Beltway and Route 1; and 14 percent will approach from the west via the Fairfax County Parkway. Current patterns show 60 percent of those at the base traveling there from the south.
......

Army officials and consultants cautioned against placing too much weight on the commuting estimates, noting that many employees are unsure where they'll be living in five years or even whether they'll be in the same jobs.

Don't know if these guys listening to rush hour traffic report or not. Somehow, it looks like they don't undertand the ramification of having additional thousands of cars on the road going up and down the major roads like I-95, I-395, and Fairfax County Parkway. Okay, assuming that some of the employees might change jobs -- are they not replacing those who leave by then?

* Analysis of Fort Belvoir Jobs Shift Paints Clearer Commuting Picture [Washington Post]

Comments

[Dewita]

You're right. That's their assumption based on data they have on employees. But, that could not be used to predict the future migrant of these workers to area closer to Ft. Belvoir, or driving pattern changes. Then we got a big problem.

[E]

What they are saying is that these people are already on those same roads. Coming from south of Ft. Belvior into Crystal City and DC. Apparently they thought everyone lived within the beltway and would move out to Fairfax County if their job moved from Crystal City to Ft. Belvior. Of course if these people are on metro or VRE now we have a problem - that does not go to Ft. Belvior.