“That the additional capacity of the HOT lanes would generate more traffic trying to travel to and from the lanes via connecting roads like Route 1, Telegraph and Van Dorn wouldn’t be surprising,” Bill Pugh, a senior policy fellow at the organization, said in a statement released by CSG after the committee meeting.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on these SHA concepts for MD 410. We greatly appreciate the efforts of MDOT and SHA to address safety and access for all users through the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan process and the Complete Streets Program. We wish to endorse the thoughtful comments submitted by Dan Behrend. Here are additional specific comments: 

“In addition to ignoring induced demand and relying on flawed traffic models, VDOT’s study is compromised at the outset by its ‘conclusions-first’ approach,” said Pugh. “The agency’s stated project purpose is ‘to extend and provide continuity of the Express Lanes system’ and their evaluation criteria reinforce this predetermined conclusion. They have also excluded viable alternatives from study.”

In short, sustainable land use, transit, and a fix-it-first and resilience-first approach to Maryland transportation and infrastructure spending is essential for Maryland’s future.

Overall, we want to commend the MDOT’s priorities in a difficult budget year. We applaud the state’s leadership on meeting the obligation for WMATA funding.