The Board of Supervisors candidates are no strangers to Fairfax County’s traffic problems. Many even agree on the biggest problem areas: The Interstate 66 corridor, Route 7 and Route 1 and, thanks to the recent relocation of Defense Department personnel, the roads around Fort Belvoir. But traffic problems run deeper than a few clogged lanes in Fairfax, and that fact of commuter life has become a prominent part of many candidates’ campaigns.
Their supervisor campaigns distinguish themselves in the details. Candidates — there are 20 running in Tuesday’s election for 10 board seats — built campaign platforms around specific intersections that need work or calls for fewer speed bumps on residential streets. In Fairfax, there are more than enough traffic issues to go around.
In Braddock, Republican incumbent John Cook is asking for improvements to the intersection of Braddock Road and Route 123. Board chairman candidate Spike Williams, a Republican, wants the county to make the Fairfax County Parkway a higher priority. Republican candidate Dennis Husch, who’s running for the Dranesville seat, wants to compile a list of “little bitty spot improvements” needed in his district — longer turn lanes, for example — to review with the board if he’s elected.
Candidates say identifying with specific projects is a campaign tactic that reassures voters that their elected officials are in touch with the community.
“We couldn’t just sit back and say, ‘Oh, the traffic’s really bad in Northern Virginia, we need to fix that,'” said Garrett Payne, Williams’ campaign manager. “Don’t complain about something unless you have a solution. We have to get voters to understand that we would have specific ideas in place.”
Other candidates, like Board Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, a Democrat, take a longer view of the situation, pushing for mass transit expansion to solve the county’s overall gridlock problems. Still, Bulova says, she wants to help other board members identify specific problems in their districts.
“The way to address our transportation challenges needs to be a mosaic of solutions,” she said. “That mosaic needs to include transit but also our needed road widenings. I’m a believer in making sure they connect and work together efficiently.”
