To NCRTPB: please reject I-495 Southside beltway expansion and demand better alternatives

An alert sent out by the Coalition for Smarter Growth calls on members of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, which holds its next meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 15, to vote against a proposal from Virginia’s DOT to widen I-495. See this previous alert from May for more about why this proposal is a bad idea.

This is the letter I sent to two of DC’s representatives on the Transportation Planning Board, Councilmember Charles Allen (a past Chair of the Board) and Councilmember Matt Frumin (a current Vice Chair of the Board).

I am writing you as members of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board to ask that you vote to keep the flawed I-495 Southside Express Lanes project out of the long-range plan Visualize 2050.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has ignored the concerns of local communities like Prince George’s County, the City of Alexandria, and impacted neighborhoods in Fairfax County, and likewise ignored regional calls to study alternatives to highway widening. Over a year ago, the TPB board allowed VDOT more time to address these concerns (induced traffic on connecting roads, risks to future Metro, failure to study alternatives) but VDOT has chosen not to do this and simply wants to plow ahead.

Frankly, even if VDOT had meaningfully engaged with Prince George’s, Alexandria, and Fairfax communities and gotten them on board with the project, widening 495 would still be a bad idea. As with nearly every other road widening project ever studied, widening 495 will do nothing long-term to reduce congestion; it will simply induce further use of the road and “necessitate” further expansion at a future date. If VDOT is truly interested in providing additional travel choices, reducing congestion and improving travel reliability, or improving safety, it will stop widening highways and instead work to bolster and improve transit, safe cycling, and transit-oriented development.

This project may be claimed to be serving the many people who (for example) currently have no viable alternative to living and working on opposite sides of the Wilson Bridge and driving between them. However, they should be provided the ability to choose between continuing to drive, taking transit or biking to their destination, or moving to new housing that reduces their need to drive. Widening 495 will do only one of those things, and the increased air, water, and soil pollution, congestion, collisions, lost work and family time, and myriad other environmental and social impacts will vastly outweigh any positive benefits realized by this project.

Please reject VDOT’s preferred alternative, keep it out of Visualize 2050, and ensure that VDOT works with the Maryland DOT to develop alternatives consistent with our region’s vision for transit-friendly, sustainable communities.

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{swiderski2025,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {To {NCRTPB:} Please Reject {I-495} {Southside} Beltway
    Expansion and Demand Better Alternatives},
  date = {2025-10-10},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/csg-tpb-495.html},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Swiderski, J. I. 2025. “To NCRTPB: Please Reject I-495 Southside Beltway Expansion and Demand Better Alternatives.” October 10, 2025. https://jski.net/posts/csg-tpb-495.html.