How about a developers tax. For each new home they build, figure 2.5 cars (I know just married couples with four cars). For each new one-bedroom or less apartment, 1 car, for each new two-bedroom apartment 1.25 cars and for anything more than that, 1.75 cars.

Now, you charge the developer a tax for each possible new car that will go to improvements. I know this'll bring up the blah-blah-blah about the eventual cost falling to the consumer, but it will anyway be it in higher state taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, etc.

Also, the Beltway has been taking a beating for quite some time, but I only remember Maryland really doing any work on it once every 10 years or so, then it takes 2-3 years to get the stretch they're working on done. Maryland does have a lot of problems with roads in general, more so than Virginia but something does need to be done.

In Virginia, at least, the difficulty in talking about new roads involves where to put them, at least once you're east of about the Fairfax County Parkway. There are a few places where roads have fit, such as the Van Dorn extension to Telegraph Road that finally opened last year after being on the books forever. But in general, the rights-of-way for many of the highways that were never built are now occupied by buildings and the like such that the cost of exercising eminent domain to build a new road would be prohibitive. Other than short connectors, such as the Van Dorn extension I mentioned or perhaps a road connecting Eisenhower Avenue to Duke Street in the Quaker Lane area, there just aren't many options.

The other point we often miss when talking about Virginia is that we face a natural limitation on what we can do--the river. As long as we have seven bridges in the DC area, we're going to have seven choke points because traffic going to DC must funnel down to those points. There's no real way to avoid the problem aside from ensuring that traffic flows freely on the roads feeding the bridges--and in this area, things are sorely lacking.

If Maryland was really concerned about the congestion between 270 and the American Legion bridge, they would cooperate with Va in building a new bridge further up the river. The truth is Maryland has always opposed any meaningful solution to the Potomac river bottlenecks because they disapprove of the Va suburban lifestyle and because they want to force Montgomery County business travellers to use BWI instead of Dullus.

"The truth is Maryland has always opposed any meaningful solution to the Potomac river bottlenecks because they disapprove of the Va suburban lifestyle and because they want to force Montgomery County business travellers to use BWI instead of Dullus."

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. It's the odious mix of petty politics (from both the Virginia AND Maryland side) and Montgomery Co. NIMBYism that will prevent the "Techway" from ever being built. In the mean time, bring on the horseshoe commute!

It's not that surprising that the State Highway Administrator is calling for "substantial and very expensive improvements," as that suits the interests of his agency and his workers. I just hope that some independent analysis is conducted to confirm these substantial needs before a great deal of money gets spent.

Another bottleneck (bridge) further up the river will do little to help the congestion compared to the damage it'll do Montgomery County.

Montgomery County's green area in the western part of the county just doesn't need to be paved. It's one of the main reasons that our quality of life is so much higher in Montgomery County.

Virginia does virtually no civic planning and is paying dearly for it. Let that side of the river figure out any of their problems before we pave our countryside.

Another bottleneck (bridge) further up the river will do little to help the congestion compared to the damage it'll do Montgomery County.

Montgomery County's green area in the western part of the county just doesn't need to be paved. It's one of the main reasons that our quality of life is so much higher in Montgomery County.

Virginia does virtually no civic planning and is paying dearly for it. Let that side of the river figure out any of their problems before we pave our countryside.

There is not even a really serious attempt to deal with the problems on Route 1 in the College Park area, yet developers are continuing to build and propose new housing and business developments.

It is really criminal, especially the intersection of Cherry Hill Road and Route 1.

When will they really do something to fix these problems...I don't see the intercounty connector or the purple line doing anything for us in College Park.

"Virginia does virtually no civic planning and is paying dearly for it. Let that side of the river figure out any of their problems before we pave our countryside."

In case you haven't noticed, the I-270 to American Legion back-up is on your side of the river.

We certainly have our bottlenecks but not like that. Of course we have 66, 50 and 7 to spread the westward traffic over several arteries. Meanwhile, Mont. Co. drivers face a horse shoe commute if they go to Va. and a second one to reach BWI or the I 95 corridor.

I spent 4 years as a mrketing rep in the Va. and Maryland suburbs. I guarentee you Virginia's traffic problems do not even come close to Maryland's.

I say build a new DC, out in Kansas or something...

Seriously. We could put a lot of government jobs anywhere in the USA. They don't need to be in DC which is stretched to the max. We should get some midwestern state to donate 10 sq miles and build a "DC Annex" that would handle a lot of the back office government work that simply doesn't need (or shouldn't be) inside the Beltway.

"Another bottleneck (bridge) further up the river will do little to help the congestion compared to the damage it'll do Montgomery County.

Montgomery County's green area in the western part of the county just doesn't need to be paved. It's one of the main reasons that our quality of life is so much higher in Montgomery County.""

Hogwash!

NIMBYism and elitism are the reasons nothing can be built between Fairfax and Montgomery Counties.

Here are drowning in traffic while silly snobs in western Montgomery County want to pretend they're still living in a "rural" area.

As for your "quality of life", I've seen the traffic in Rockville and Bethesda; it exists because of narrow-minded NIMBYism.

Look, pal. I've seen Montgomery County and I've lived in Kansas. I know rural when I see it. Montgomery County, all claims to the contrary, AIN'T rural!

You're in the suburbs of a major city in the 21st century. Deal with it.

To Andrew: Instead of building a new DC in Kansas or something (which would be very expensive), why not make the feds institute real telecommuting, so some feds could live in Kansas and/or stay here but not clog the roads every Monday through Friday. That would be much cheaper and make more sense.

"Substantial and very expensive improvements" will be needed for pavement and bridges."

I feel a scam here. It was not that long ago that I was waiting for significan bridge work between Silver Spring and the eastern side of the Beltway. Is that going to be done again?

"they disapprove of the Va suburban lifestyle"

Really? How is is different from Potomac? Or much of Montgomery County?

This sounds as if it were disconnected from reality. I always fighred tha life and style were an oxy in Virginia.

"It's not that surprising that the State Highway Administrator is calling for 'substantial and very expensive improvements,' as that suits the interests of his agency and his workers."

The state highway workers won't benefit much. You left out another group with significant financial interest in highway construction - the highway construction firms.

As for these looming multi, multi billion dollar outlays for the inter county congestor (billions and billions) and multiple light rail tracks (maybe 45 million per mile x many many miles), we and our children are going to get handed a huge tax bill. Are we paying too much to get solutions that won't solve much, fruitlessly trying to preserve transportation infrastructures that aren't viable long term?

More advanced solutions like http://www.unimodal.com are out there to be considered. Faster, more convenient, no waiting for a train to come, personal, much less expensive to build than light rail or metro, and cleaner and greener, too. That's the kind of modern transporation solution these firms and the government should be proposing.