Dear Purcellville: How much more traffic can we take?

By John Ellis

The citizens of Purcellville love their beautiful small town, as do many others like me who live nearby. However, we do have some complaints, including our frustration with traffic congestion. And, unfortunately, that particular problem keeps getting worse. 

So how do we fix it?

There are two general approaches. The “go to” instinct of Town and County planners and engineers is to keep on building more road infrastructure, such as the new ramps going in at the intersection of Hillsboro Road and Route 7. Their premise is that traffic flow will improve because there will be more road for the same number of cars. And that could be the case—at least for a little while.

The problem is that the number of cars never stays the same. When a new road or intersection is finished, drivers take advantage of the opportunity by taking more trips on it. The County’s planning documents recognize that the 7/690 interchange will draw more traffic down Hillsboro Road and into town or on Route 7. This is called “induced demand.” It has been documented in many national and international studies and is easy to see on all the major highways in our region, like I-66 and I-270.

In addition, road improvements in less densely developed areas, such as the rural areas around Purcellville, create strong incentives to fill up those areas with more houses. Almost immediately after Loudoun County decided to spend half a billion dollars to expand a section of Route 15 north of Leesburg, a subdivision developer announced plans to build another 70-unit subdivision along that section of road. 

Residences in rural areas are heavily car-dependent. The Virginia Department of Transportation estimates that each new residence generates an average of 10 vehicle trips per day. That one new subdivision on Route 15 is expected to generate about 700 more vehicle trips per day. Opportunistic development blows a hole in the argument that “the number of cars will be the same” after a new road improvement is completed.

The developer of a new 60-unit subdivision on Route 287 south of Lovettsville advertises that the people who soon will be moving in there will be able “in minutes” to drive into Purcellville. When they try, those 600 or so additional vehicle trips will be going straight into the existing mess at the intersection of Routes 287 and 7. Technically, the developer’s not lying—although it may turn out to take a lot more minutes than the new residents expect or the current residents of Purcellville want.

Rather than trying to out-build growth, another approach is to establish some limits, so that expensive road projects will actually create more room for the current traffic. For years, my organization, Save Rural Loudoun, has been trying to persuade the County government to change the zoning that allows over 10,000 more car-dependent residences to be built “by right” in the rural areas around Purcellville. If fully built out, that would put 100,000 more vehicle trips per day on the roads in and around the town. 

Unfortunately, our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. County supervisors, including the supervisor representing our own district, have responded in no uncertain terms that they intend to leave the rural zoning as it is and let the cards fall where they may. They’re keen not to upset developers who hope to make lots of money converting more farms into more rural subdivisions. And, like the developer on Route 287, they show no concern for how that might affect traffic and the quality of life in Purcellville.

People who live in Purcellville may tend to think suburban sprawl in Loudoun’s rural areas isn’t their business. But if things keep going as they are now, Purcellville will eventually have no choice except to build more and bigger roads in and around town to accommodate a much larger population in the surrounding areas.

And we could be faced with another sore subject. If a larger rural population taps out all their wells—as has already happened around Round Hill—Purcellville will also have to start thinking about investing in a much larger water and sewer system. Isn’t that something to look forward to?

So again, as a practical matter, how do we fix this? 

The definition of insanity is to keep doing what we’ve always been doing (building more and more expensive roads) and expect it to produce a different result (less congestion). To fix the problem, we have to try something different. Something that actually works and has been successfully implemented in the counties around us. We need to put limits on dense, car-dependent subdivisions in rural areas.

That doesn’t mean we should have no more residential development at all. But the growth should be concentrated in areas closer to shops, schools, workplaces and public transportation—places that don’t force us to be in our cars for half our lives. We don’t need to stampede to ideological extremes on this issue, just apply some common sense.

Those of us who live in and around Purcellville need to speak with one voice and tell the County that it must make an intentional effort to reduce the number of additional vehicles we keep putting on our crowded streets and roads.

John Ellis lives in the “Between the Hills” area north of Hillsboro. He is the President of the Board of Directors of Save Rural Loudoun. The Board includes residents of Purcellville, Leesburg, and Sterling.