117,000 employees and 17,000 residents
11 December 2008 1 Comment
From an All Things Considered story on Tyson’s Corner, just outside of Washington D.C.:
“About 17,000 live here and about 117,000 — give or take — come to work here every day,” Lecos says. “So that incredible imbalance is why you have the absolute commuter nightmare of trying to get 117,000 people in, in one period of time in the morning, and out again at 5 o’clock.”
Commuter nightmare I’d say. The interview also calls Tyson’s Corner, which offers a whopping 167,000 parking spaces, a traffic engineer’s worst nightmare. The All Things Considered story focuses on a potential remodel for the community, trying to raise it’s population to 100,000 and cut down on the number of commuters. The key to that, it appears, is building up instead of out. This is a piece of advice my grandfather has suggested for years, long before the term New Urbanism was coined.
Sounds like a plan. Illustration from the Tyson’s Tomorrow website.
We definitely need to learn to live in cities, and do it right.
I live in a neighborhood where – even in good weather – you’re not likely to see many neighbors out as you walk past. Everyone is gone or inside most of the time, and driveways are long enough that it seems a little intimidating to approach the houses… not like if the doors were closer to the street (no sidewalks here, either).
The plant where I work is located in an industrial park, and while there is a nice-enough walking trail nearby where you can get a look at some nature, again, you’re unlikely to meet a soul as you walk. It’s depressing.
I’d love to walk to work in the mornings, pick up a cup of coffee at one shop, a bagel at another shop, a newspaper at another… greet people.