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As the discussion over the plan for transforming Tysons continues before the Planning Commission, and finally, before the Board of Supervisors, a mythical thought has been presented: Before anyone approves more density for Tysons, a series of road improvements must be put in place.

The goal in trying to transform the area is to enable people using Tysons to shift to public transit, and away from the automobile. Transportation improvements must focus primarily on making Metrorail a success. This can only be done by creating a viable circulator system: enhancing community shuttles from places such as McLean, Vienna, Great Falls and south county; building a grid of streets with completed sidewalks and bike lanes; and forgetting about such things as more lanes on Route 7, Route 123 and the Dulles Toll Road.

These latter "improvements" -- the province of the Virginia Department of Transportation -- are largely unplanned, unfunded and are probably unnecessary. Nearly 50 percent of the traffic on these roads has little to do with Tysons. It is through traffic.

For 40 years, Tysons' projects have had mostly an auto-centric effect, including double-turning lanes, gentle curves and wide lanes, not to mention the engendering of 167,000 parking spaces, with most of them offered at no cost to the user. Without the circulator -- the grid of streets and community shuttles to enhance the use of Metro -- people visiting Tysons will have no choice but to use their cars.

If a serious effort is focused on the reduction of auto trips, the extra lanes some citizens are talking about will be unnecessary. Many authorities have pointed out that such road improvements induce more traffic than they mitigate. One has only to look at the "improvements" to I-270 and I-66 to see the depressing reality of "build it and they will come."

To apply this same thinking to arterial roads in Tysons is more "business as usual" and suburban development type of planning. One has only to look at recent regulations instituted in California to see why this is true. Most road improvements have been justified around a set of standards called "level of service." These are clearly suburban-biased and tend to make auto traffic easier and quicker -- not providing any incentive to take transit or promote pedestrian or bicycle access. The National Academy of Sciences, together with the Transportation Research Board, published a report saying that more compact, mixed-use developments can reduce auto trips by as much as 25 percent.

Scare tactics -- such as saying that planned Tysons development will require five additional lanes on the Dulles Toll Road -- are not only silly, but are a smoke screen for saying, "Let's allow Tysons to develop as it has developed, auto dependency and all!"

As the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors consider the bold and innovative plan for transforming Tysons into a workable, walkable, livable and enjoyable urban center, the "more-lane" fetish should be brushed aside so the window of opportunity is not slammed shut.

In 1992, an earlier planning committee made recommendations that would have added up to 18 lanes on interior and exterior roads. Urbanologist and architect Roger K. Lewis, writing in The Washington Post, labeled such plans as "inducing traffic."

Now is the time to get it right by concentrating on the type of transportation improvements that will truly transform Tysons, and not just be more of the same.

Clark Tyler is chairman of the Tysons Land Use Task Force.