The Washington area, with the nation\'s second worst traffic, is getting more cars and more federal workers. The BRAC changes will have an impact on locals and ...
By Mike Causey
Senior Correspondent
Federal News Radio
If you live and work in the metro Washington area, or visit here for fun or to touch base with headquarters, you have sweat equity in the BRAC realignments taking place here. Tens of thousands of feds are or will be directly impacted. So will contractors, and merchants to support them and commuters and shoppers trying to get from Point A to Point B without aging in place.
This week Federal News Radio WFED and WTOP radio have been running a series on the BRAC changes which are both local and include an influx of thousands of workers from Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey to Ft. Meade, Md. that will involve big life-style changes for tens of thousands of people, including new schools, new shopping patterns, and changes in license plates and drivers licenses. Even people not directly involved in the BRAC migrations will be impacted.
Most of the publicity and comments on the BRAC changes has been, uh, negative. They range from this-wasn’t-a-well-thought out plan! to what-idiot-thought-this-one up?
One of the criticisms involves the impact of BRAC on local traffic, especially but not exclusively in nearby Northern Virginia which boasts the second worst gridlock in the nation. Another is that people are being moved from areas with great public transportation to already gridlocked locations where getting there is difficult at best.
But there are some people who are delighted with BRAC, understand why it is being done and who say the picture isn’t as bleak as the one painted by politicians and the media. Example:
“You need to do some research on the Mark Center availability.
“1. The Alexandria Dash bus AT2 route goes from King Street Metro (and VRE station) to a stop across the street from Mark Center in about 20 minutes.
“2. Metrobus has a route 28F from Pentagon to within about 2 blocks of Mark Center in about 15 minutes.
“3. Metrobus as a local route 7F from the Pentagon that goes to Mark Center but it takes about 30 minutes.
“Regarding Fort Belvoir, you also need to do more research.
“1. Metrobus Red line goes to the main (south) post from Huntington Metro, but it takes about 30 minutes.
“2. Fairfax County Connector goes to the DLA building from Springfield Metro.
“None of these are ‘perfect’ solutions, but they don’t imply a total lack of commuter routes to the BRAC affected destinations. What you need to do is contact the bus authorities to find out if Metrobus or Dash are planning on changing any of their routes in anticipation of the Mark Center and Fort Belvoir moves.” Douglas S., Alexandria, Va.
To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com
Check out the BRAC Impact series. You may not like what you hear, but you will definitely learn a lot that you need to know.
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