A tale of two cities: Transportation and corporate recruitment
December 21st, 2007By Stephen Lee Davis
As long as local and state leaders in Georgia fail to grasp that Atlanta can’t pave its way out of traffic congestion, Atlanta could be in danger of becoming a case study in what may happen to a city’s business climate when an economic model based largely on growth and continual outward expansion hits the wall.
A top corporate recruiter made a presentation to the city’s Chamber of Commerce this week, letting them know that Atlanta’s mounting traffic congestion could potentially keep major companies from bringing their offices and jobs there. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered the meeting:
“Up until seven or eight years ago when we had Atlanta on a recommended short list” for places to relocate or expand a business, “we rarely heard grumbling,” he [Dennis Donovan, the recruiter] said. That has changed. Now, he said, when Atlanta shows up on a short list, “every one of our companies, every one of them, says, ‘Boy, isn’t there a lot of traffic down there?’”… A region’s talent pool is the top factor for executives deciding where to go. But when traffic gets so bad that people are no longer willing to take certain commutes, Donovan said, that means traffic is effectively cutting off part of the metro area’s labor pool, Atlanta’s greatest attracting asset.
Consider another story this week from a place that walked down a very different path from Atlanta over the last 30 years.
Arlington County, the small county on the other side of the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., pushed to bury the Metro underneath their “built-out” suburban commercial corridor, resulting in 30 years of mixed, compact, transit-oriented development — without the typical traffic. (Because residents of more compact neighborhoods with access to transit and other options drive 20-40 percent less, according to “Growing Cooler.”)
Go to Arlington today, get out at a Metro stop, and you can walk 10 minutes in any direction and see a wide variety of housing types within close proximity to thousands of square feet of office and retail space. You can bike, you can walk, you can take transit, or you can drive.
As other growing areas in the region have struggled with traffic, Arlington has grown sizably — adding housing, jobs, schools, and shopping — without being choked to death by traffic. And that’s resulted in favorable environment for business, according to a new three-year study commissioned by the Arlington County Commuter Services. It finds that the past investments in transportation are “paying big dividends in our quality of life and business climate.” From the study:
CEOs in Arlington cite Arlington’s transportation system and services as the NUMBER ONE reason for locating a business in the county. Arlington employers say commuting services (Such as provided by ACCS) result in significant benefits to their business, including improved employee morale, easier recruitment and retention, increased productivity, and less parking demand. Twice the percentage of Arlington residents take mass transit to work as compared to the Washington regional average.
Attracting a talented labor pool is important to a city and region’s economic growth. But if the talent can’t get to the jobs they want from the region’s neighborhoods they choose, they’ll go elsewhere.
Like Arlington.
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| This is the Rosslyn, Va. area looking east across the Potomac River towards Georgetown and Washington, D.C. before the Metro was built. | This aerial photo [from EPA and Arlington County] demonstrates the effectiveness of Arlington’s approach around the Rosslyn and Court House stations. |
January 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Your article about Arlington is very misleading. First of all, the photograph that you illustrated of Rosslyn “before the Metro was built” was taken in 1962 or earlier. This is evident because the photograph shows the bases of all of the piers of the Aqueduct Bridge (to the left of the existing Key Bridge). The federal government removed all of these piers except for one in 1962.
Metrorail came to Rosslyn in 1977, at least 15 years after the photograph was taken. High rise development began in Rosslyn during the 1960′s. By 1977, Rosslyn already contained a number of such high-rise buildings. While additional high-rises were built after Metro opened, this was simply an extension of an continuing process that was already vastly increasing Rosslyn’s building heights and densities by the time that Metro opened.
Further, I-66 opened in Rosslyn in the early 1980′s, shortly after Metro opened there. The new interstate highway created an additional impetus to Rosslyn’s high-density development, as the highway’s exits and entrances in Rosslyn permitted motorists to rapidly travel between Rosslyn and suburban Virginia. It is not possible to determine whether Metro had a greater impetus for Rosslyn’s continuing high-rise and high-density development in the 1980′s and 1990′s than did I-66.
While I-66 was not congested in Arlington when it opened, it is now heavily congested in that area. Efforts to widen the interstate highway have been proceeding for several years in an effort to decrease this congestion. Much of the traffic congestion occurs in outbound lanes in the morning and in inbound lanes in afternoon. This reflects the increased residential development in Rosslyn and in other areas in Arlington near Metro stations. Many people who live in these new residential developments commute from Arlington to suburban Virginia in the morning and return in the afternoon.
It is therefore clear that Arlington’s so-called “smart growth” is really very dumb. Traffic congestion on I-66 has greatly increased because of this growth, especially near entrances to the interstate at Rosslyn and Ballston (another area in Arlington whose heights and densities increased after an entrance to I-66 and a Metro station opened within it). Indeed, the present traffic congestion on I-66 provides an outstanding example of a situation in which the construction of a rapid transit system and so-called “smart growth” actually increased automobile use, rather than decreased it.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
While Mr. Berne makes some interesting points about the historic accuracy of the photos and the interconnection between growth, Metro, and I-66, I must add, as a former resident of Atlanta who saw the redevelopment of Atlanta’s 3 mega-Interstates (I-20, I-75, & I-85) during the late 80′s, that Mr. Berne misses the point of the comparison. While congested at times, I-66 is essentially a 4 lane interstate (even adding in I-395 you only get a sum of 12 lanes) while the 3 aforementioned Interstates in Atlanta combine to a staggering 20-30 combined lanes depending on where you count.
Arlington offers a choice where people can choose a high quality life and job within easy walking, cycling, or public transit. Residents may still choose to live in Fauquier county or work Cascades. Atlanta has developed in a way that allows far fewer opportunities to choose the high quality of life and proximate job.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am
As a resident of Arlington and individual who works in Arlington, I concur with Mr. Oliver. The basic point is that ALL growth will increase traffic in some manner. The question is does the style or pattern of development provide choice in transportation options in a manner that minimizes the increase. Smart growth does not profess to eliminate congestion. It does, however, offer alternatives such that congestion can be minimized andwill not halt economic activity.
This is the case that the blog post presents – Atlanta following conventional suburban development patterns is seeing a slowing of growth whereas Arlington which embraced a new model did not.
Finally, your suggestion that because Rosslyn’s office development occurred largely before the opening of the Rosslyn Metro indicates that one cannot attribute the new development in Arlington to good, sound planning is false. Of course development economic already favored Rosslyn due to proximity to the District as well as beautiful views of monumental Washington. Arlington, however, was able to leverage the development potential of the metro along the entire Rosslyn Ballston corridor, which prior to Metro’s opening was an aging strip of suburban shopping areas. Businesses and residents have a lot of choice in the metropolitan area and the pricing and low vacancy rates of these areas have demonstrated that these areas are in demand and more need to be built.