I've just discovered that the final deforestation of the area surrounding Tysons Corner has been performed to construct HOT lanes. This is a grandiose and ultimately useless scheme to increase the capacity of a section of the DC beltway between the Springfield mixing bowl and the Dulles toll road.

It seems that America still isn't learning that the only thing bigger roads get you is more traffic. The web site promises that these new lanes (free to HOV users, available to other users for a charge depending on traffic volume) will reduce congestion. We'll see. One thing they certainly won't do is reduce the traffic.

The most noticeable change so far is that thousands of trees have been uprooted, thereby reducing the capacity of the environment to absorb carbon dioxide—which will, of course, increase as the traffic increases. Oh, and it looks like shit, too. The formerly pleasant driving environment is now an extension of the bleak concrete landscape that is Tysons. Give me back my trees, you fuckers.

If I were a tree in Virginia I'd be nervous.