Welcome to the next module in this course. This is Module 4. We 're going to be looking at a regional transportation case study in this module. In particular, it's going to be the Fairfax County Comprehensive Regional Transportation Plan. This is intended to give you some more detailed understanding of what a transportation plan involves, and this application is in Northern Virginia. Fairfax County is one of the largest income producing counties in the State of Virginia and it's located right next to Washington DC. The comprehensive transportation plan involves a all aspects of the county's transportation system, the light rail, the various bus options for the public to use, walkways, bikeways, and also a subway system. This is just a conglomerate example of some of the different aspects in Fairfax County, ranging from more rural areas to park areas to major developed areas such as in the Arlington County section where there's a dense high rise. This is also of the Tysons Corner area which is a very highly developed part of the county and it has a lot of new developments there as well as the metro rail system now serves that part of the county. Some of background of these regional case studies, let's look a little more closely at Fairfax County. It is served by an extensive transportation system comprised of roadways, bus and rail transit, paratransit service and an international airport. In addition, there's an extensive sidewalk system and trail system that serves pedestrian and bicycle travel. Both the roadway and the public transit systems accommodate hundreds of thousands of trips every day. However, the provision of transportation facilities and services has not kept pace with the increasing travel demand in the county. This increased travel demand is fueled by both growth within Fairfax County and the growth in the surrounding area. Over the past three decades, Fairfax County has been one of the most rapidly growing jurisdictions in the United States in terms of population growth, more than doubling in size for its population since 1970. This slide is intended to give you a brief overview of the characteristics of the county. In addition to the population growth, the number of households in Fairfax County is projected to grow from 380,000 in 2005 to 482,000 in 2030, an increase of over 100,000 households or a 28 percent increase. Going back to the population where the rate of growth is expected to decrease, overall population growth will continue with a 28 percent increase projected from 2005- 2030. This is aided by the strong regional economy. Growth in Fairfax County is projected to be significant further in the future as well. Even more dramatic is the projected increase in jobs in Fairfax County from 600,500 in 2005 to 845,000 in 2030. That's an increase of 244,500 new jobs or a 40 percent increase. That will make Fairfax County the second largest employment center in the Washington DC metropolitan area. That being just slightly behind the job situation in the District of Columbia. In addition to experiencing growth, the demographic and social-economic characteristics of the population in Fairfax County have changed significantly over time and will continue to change in the future. Two examples are the cultural and ethnic diversification and the aging of the population. These demographic changes contain challenges for the provision of transportation facilities and services. For example, as the county's population ages, it becomes more important to provide transportation options and services geared to their needs. One of the primary implications of the trends and forecasts for Fairfax County is that traffic conditions are likely to deteriorate further, even with extra ordinary expenditures to improve the transportation infrastructure. That includes both roadways and transit. In addition, many forces outside the county which generate increasing levels of traffic demand are out of the county's direct control thus, it becomes imperative to explore possible options for reducing current and future demands on the transportation system. The Fairfax County Regional Transportation Plan does emphasize the need to maximize the efficient use of existing and future Fairfax County transportation systems by reducing automobile traffic, and by coordinating balanced land use decisions and transportation planning within Fairfax County and the larger region as a whole. In this case, it's important to coordinate and collaborate with surrounding regions because of the influence changes that are happening there impact on Fairfax County's transportation system. One of the keystone policies for future planning and facilities includes achievement of a multi-modal transportation system to reduce excessive reliance on the automobile. Regional and local efforts will focus on planning and developing a variety of transportation options. Sidewalks, trails, on-road bicycle routes should be developed as alternative transportation facilities, and all of these leading to mass transit and high density areas including public facilities and employment areas. One of the options for bringing about long-term improvements to the transportation system is to exercise its ability to influence the pattern of land use in the county. Specifically to establish more effective land use plan patterns with respect to transportation. Since it is apparent that roadway improvements cannot be relied upon to provide unlimited transportation capacity for the future, measures to bring about less demand for roadway capacity will be a focus and is a focus of the county's comprehensive plan. Basically, it will be impossible to meet travel demand solely by roadways. Fairfax County has developed a comprehensive bicycle program as part of the countywide transportation plan. The program's primary goal is to make bicycling a viable transportation mode and to make Fairfax County bicycle friendly and safe. A comprehensive bicycle master plan was identified as a major need to address the bicycling as a transportation mode. Development of a long-range plan defining both infrastructure and improvements as well as policy objectives specific to bicycling are all included in this plan and the process that has been developed in creating it. For the bicycle plan, program management and implementation was assigned to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. The Board of Supervisors established four program priorities for the bicycle program. One, established a staff position with substantial responsibilities devoted to bicycle facility planning , implementation and coordination. Two, create a county-wide bicycle route map. Three, create a pilot program in a specific area of the county for the establishment of an interconnected bike route. Four, to review the overall progress of the implementation of the plan. The Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County is the overall governing body that the county administration office works under. The supervisors are elected by the citizens of the county and have final approval or disapproval of the activities of the government. Some of the specific guidance from the County Board of Supervisors included these two items. One, land use must be balanced with the supporting transportation infrastructure, including the regional network, and there should be credibility to be established within the public and private sectors that the transportation program will be implemented. There has been some situations in the past where plans were announced and approved by the Board of Supervisors but we're not fully implemented. That had a very negative aspect for public and private participation. In some cases, cost-sharing and tensions with the county transportation program. Second, the Fairfax County will encourage the development of accessible transportation systems designed through advanced planning and technology to move people and goods efficiently while minimizing environmental impact and community disruption. Environmental impact is one that has been an important issue with the Board of Supervisors and this guidance highlights that again, as well as minimizing disruption in the communities when construction and other disruptive activities are required to update transportation systems, either existing or new systems. Looking at the timeline for the transportation plan, the current county comprehensive regional transportation plan was developed in 2017 and covered the five-year period between 2017 and 2022. However, it was amended in 2018 to put more focus on bicycle aspects of the overall transportation system. The comprehensive plan has 13 major recommendations with detailed actions described for each to include references to specific project location plans that are presented in the plan appendix. In this module, we will be evaluating each of the 13 major recommendations in the plan. The next three parts of this module will focus on those 13 countywide objectives and policies. This completes Part 1 of this module and we'll be moving on to Part 2.
