Will Big Companies Really Be Able to Resist Sprawl’s Siren Song?

We’ve seen this shift in the increase in people who are choosingbikes for transportation. They are mostly younger people who are sickof being stuck in traffic, of paying $3/gallon for gas, and who wantbetter bike facilities. Communities like DC, NYC, and Arlington Countyunderstand this shift and are changing their environment in response.Older, less progressive communities like Fairfax are finding itdifficult to move away from the older mindset of moving more people in more cars on wider roads.

In the immediate sense, employers don’t directly benefit fromreducing car trips or pay for increasing them. Employees benefitthrough better transit or pay through worse traffic on commutes, butthe traffic impact also gets spread out to all other users of theroadways. The companies benefit in the long run, but often make choicesbased on short-term costs and benefits.

As a result, large employers like Northrop have strong economicincentives to choose sprawling areas with cheaper land, where theydon’t have to worry about sharing any space with pesky retail and onlytheir employees, the region, and the company’s long-termcompetitiveness lose out.

This dynamic often pits more walkable, inner jurisdictions like DCand Arlington against sprawlier ones like Fairfax, but not always. AsFairfax builds Tysons Corner into a real city, they’ll face similarissues within the County. Will Metro be enough of an incentive forcorporations to headquarter in Tysons, or will they continue to leantoward the easy yet harmful route of picking the sprawliest officeparks?