Voice Box: Local Experts Discuss Transportation Issues

Whether one travels into the District by way of concrete or Metro rail, the rush hour commute is a source of daily frustration. The crowded Beltway and District traffic jams are enough to inspire road rage in the kindest of souls. And while the Metro ride might offer a smaller carbon footprint and a cleaner conciouss, funneling in and out of crowded cars like lab rats and hustling up forever broken escalators is no cakewalk either.

Last Thursday on Arlington Independent Media's Voice Box, "a local program with a global perspective, tackling a wide range of issues," host Christian Dorsey invited a panel of experts to join him on live TV for a discussion of commuter traffic and all things transportation. Joing Dorsey on set was the Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock, also known as Bob Thomson, as well as Chris Hamilton, Commuter Services Transportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County, and former District Department of Transportation (DDOT) head Gabe Klein.

The overwhelming message from both Hamilton and Klein was their belief in the inevitability of the "car free diet." The vast majority of vehicular trips made in the Metro area, they pointed out, are less than two miles in length. Instead of guzzling gas and polluting the planet, walk, bike, ride a bus or Metro train, they insisted. Dr. Gridlock joked that a decline in car usage might mean a decline in the venting of frustrations that provides Thomson with his livlihood.

As Dorsey pressed Klein and Hamilton on the slim likelihood of convincing residents to give up the car entirely, each admitted that preaching was not the ideal way to curb car usage. All three panelists listed both education and marketing campaigns as essential tools in the quest to help individuals make smarter transportation decisions, insisting on both the economic and environemntal benefits of public transit.

It isn't all on the user, they admitted. Providing high quality, consistent, frequent and economically efficient Metro and bus service to all parts and neighborhoods of the Metro region is vital to making public transit a logical choice for District travelers. Klein and Hamilton hoped that the growing public bike share program, and eventually a public car sharing system, would also become a popular transit choice for District travelers.

Ultimately, Klein explained, it is about creating places where residents can and want to live, work, and play, enabling smart transit. "We don't want the congestion, we don't want the smog," Klein said, "We want livability." Championing density and smart urban land use, Klein encouraged suburbanites to move back into the city and its surrounding areas. And all three experts offered kudos to Arlington for becoming one of those livable and walkable urban centers with easy transit into the District.

While the show's host was able to coax out answers and possible solutions to many of the areas transit problems, he admitted not getting to half of the questions on his pre-show list, and promised to bring these three panelists back for another live discussion very soon.

For those who assumed television was only filmed in New York and L.A., think twice. Unbeknown to many Arlingtonians, live television like Voice Box is being shot daily in their own back yard. Arlington Independent Media, which airs Voice Box, operates a three camera studio just off Wilson Boulevard in the heart of Clarendon. For a full run through of the transportation discussion, a rerun of last week's Voice Box episode can be seen tonight at 7:30, and will be made available on their website very soon.