A 'New' Road in Northern Virginia...50 Years Later

In a few weeks officials in Northern Virginia will open the missing two-mile segment of the Fairfax County Parkway, ending a 50-year struggle to build a central road through Fairfax County. This Washington Post article about the Parkway begins by recounting the process to get the road completed. The road was first envisioned over 50 years ago, but due to intermittent funding from all levels of government the Parkway has been built in pieces. With the money to complete the final segment nowhere to be found, the project was on hold until funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act finally broke the gridlock. Nevertheless, if Milton Friedman were still alive he would probably use the Parkway as an example of government inefficiencies and why government should not provide roads as a public good.

After discussing the road’s funding saga, the article talks about the Parkway’s positive and negative externalities. On the positive side, the road has an external benefit in production because it is a critical link to highways and other roads throughout Northern Virginia. Not only that, but it allows for the continued commercial and residential growth that helps Fairfax County remain one of the economic pillars of the Washington, D.C. metro area. (On a personal note, my neighborhood would likely not have been built if the Parkway wasn’t right next to it.) This growth is one of the main reasons why the road needed to be completed: the Parkway allows for easy access to Fort Belvoir, which is in the process of adding thousands of jobs due to the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure plan.

Unfortunately, these positive externalities contribute to a major negative externality in consumption: traffic. The same Parkway that is a transportation link and engine of economic growth has led to the addition of thousands of cars on Northern Virginia’s roadways. I personally know how congested the Parkway becomes when both commuters and local residents are on the road during rush hour. In fact, in a perfect world transportation officials ought to be working on widening the road, though with both Virginia and Fairfax County still working to recover from the Great Recession, funding will likely not be available anytime soon.

Note: You might have to register for a washingtonpost.com account to see the article. You can also log in using a Facebook account to read the article.