As reported by several outlets, WMATA just put out an interesting study that looked at what DC would look like if Metro were never built. While the focus elsewhere has been on how devastated a neighborhood like Mt. Vernon Triangle would be in this alternate universe, Georgetown wouldn’t fare that well either.
The study estimated what the road network would have to look like in order to deliver the same number of workers downtown. Here are what roads would have to be expanded:
It’s difficult to see, but this map indicates that it would be necessary to build two extra lanes on Wisconsin Ave. and what looks like three extra lanes along M St. and/or the Whitehurst.
The M St./Whitehust part of this map probably relates to the proposed I-266, which was a proposed interstate highway spur that would have split off I-66 in Arlington, headed north through Spout Run, and across the Potomac on the proposed Three Sisters Bridge. From there it would travel along an expanded Whitehurst Freeway and link up with I-66 near Foggy Bottom.
Thanks to tireless efforts of anti-highway organizations, this plan never came to pass.
For practical reasons (not political) no Metro station was built in Georgetown, but this study demonstrates how much Georgetown benefits from the system at large, even though it lacks its own dot on the map.
