Category: Transportation
Active Transportation Webinar: Complete Streets in Arlington
Click here to watch our Active Transportation Webinar featuring transportation officials and advocates in the Northern Virginia region discussing how they are working to create safe streets for all. The event was cosponsored by Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County, and George Mason University’s Department of Parking and Transportation. Stay tuned for our Active Transportation Summit in Spring 2021!
CSG Testimony Re: Montgomery County Complete Streets Design Guide
July 21, 2020
Montgomery County Planning Board
8787 Georgia Ave
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Item 12 – Complete Streets Design Guide (Support)
Testimony for July 23, 2020
Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager
Good evening and thank you to Chair Anderson and Planning Commissioners. My name is Jane Lyons and I’m speaking on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. We enthusiastically support the Complete Streets Design Guide.
Thank you and congratulations to the staff who worked on this project – who has yet again solidified Montgomery Planning as a national leader in creative suburban planning. We are pleased that the Complete Streets Design Guide is clear in prioritizing safety, sustainability, and vitality, and provides a roadmap for how to balance competing needs. When we prioritize street space correctly, streets can become an engine for healthy people, a healthy economy, and a healthy environment.
The biggest challenge in actualizing safe, green, vibrant streets is reengineering the county’s arterial roads, especially in lower income neighborhoods where traffic fatalities are more common. The vision in Thrive 2050 is for these arterials to become safe, green, multimodal boulevards, and this document will be a critical guide for those changes.
A few constructive comments:
• Page 55: We’d like it to be clear that a sidepath is always preferable to bikeable shoulders.
• Page 57: We recommend that bikeways be listed as a high priority for downtown boulevards, downtown streets, town center boulevards, and town center streets.
• Page 82: Bus shelters, in addition to BRT stations, should consider opportunities to provide additional passenger amenities such as seating, local area information, wayfinding, and real time traveler information.
• Page 88: We urge the county to update its policy for snow events. Especially in downtowns and town centers, the county – not the building owners – should be responsible for clearing snow on sidewalks, sidewalk ramps, and sidewalk-level bicycle facilities.
• Page 232: Public engagement should also include on-the-street direct outreach strategies, as well as strongly encourage paid community focus/advisory groups to ensure diverse input for major decisions.
• Finally, we ask that the design guide be open to amendment upon the completion of the Pedestrian Master Plan and Vision Zero Action Plan.
Implementing the Complete Streets Design Guide is key to achieving the county’s Vision Zero goal, as well as improving connectivity and helping shift mode-share away from single occupancy vehicles. We look forward to the comprehensive update of the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways that is necessitated by the guide, along with its implementation throughout new projects, resurfacing, construction, and maintenance. Wherever possible, we encourage the Planning Board, MCDOT, DPS, and the Council to codify the guide into law and regulation.
Thank you for your consideration.
Keep transit moving by wearing a mask!
Public transit has been a lifeline for essential workers who keep our society and economy moving. Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that masks work to keep people safe. Reports from countries like Japan and France suggest that public transit is relatively safe, so long as passengers wear masks, don’t talk, maintain distance, and agencies maintain regular cleaning.
Be sure to wear the mask correctly on your face, and avoid touching it whenever possible. Avoid N95 masks with vents, as they do not prevent virus transmission.
All transit agencies in the DC region require masks. For those in Montgomery County, Ride On buses are equipped with limited supplies of disposable masks available to riders without masks, but please do your best to bring your own!
By wearing a mask, you will be protecting your fellow passengers, your transit operators, and yourself! As CDC’s Dr. Robert Redfield recently announced, transmission will decrease sharply if we can all commit to wearing a mask for the foreseeable future.
We know, masks aren’t always comfortable, especially in the hot summer months in the DC area, but masking up is a relatively easy way to make a positive impact in your community and keep transit moving. So wear your mask, travel with hand sanitizer, and please continue to stay safe and healthy. We will get through this together!
Active Transportation Webinar: Active Transportation during COVID-19
Click here to watch our Active Transportation Webinar featuring transportation officials in the Northern Virginia region discussing how they are responding to COVID-19. The event was cosponsored by Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County, and George Mason University’s Department of Parking and Transportation.
495/270 Update | July 2020
Last Friday, the Maryland Department of Transportation released an 18,000 page draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on Governor Hogan’s plans to expand the Capital Beltway (I-495) and I-270 with private toll lanes. The study details the impacts on air, water, parks, noise levels, traffic, and more. The DEIS is available to read here.
More than 140 acres of public parks and historic sites, as well as 70 acres of wetlands and 1,400 acres of forest canopy, could be affected. We’ve said from the beginning that Governor Hogan began with the conclusion, and failed to consider a comprehensive transit, demand management, and land use option. Maryland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet toll lanes will fuel more long-distance living and commuting.
It’s overwhelming, but there’s still plenty that you can do to help. Here are three easy ways:
1. Sign up for a virtual or in-person public hearing.
2. Tell Maryland to extend the comment period to 120 days.
3. Sign up to be a community reviewer — no experience required!
At first, Governor Hogan claimed the project wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime due to the public-private partnership (P3) structure. Now, the DEIS finally admits that the project could require a government subsidy up to $1 billion. Imagine if Maryland invested $1 billion in sustainable transit and transit-oriented development instead. That cost doesn’t even include the costs imposed directly on residents: water bills could nearly triple in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties due to water and sewer relocation.
We’ll continue to keep you updated and work on this issue with our partners, including the Maryland Advocates for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) coalition. You can visit MAST’s website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.
RELEASE: Advocates Alarmed at 18,000 Page Environmental Impact Statement on Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Widening Plan
July 10, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 10th, 2020
CONTACT:
Lindsey Mendelson, Maryland Sierra Club
lindsey.mendelson@mdsierra.org | (240) 706-7901
Jeanne Braha, Rock Creek Conservancy
jbraha@rockcreekconservancy.org | (301)-312-1471
Advocates Alarmed at 18,000 Page Environmental Impact Statement on Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Widening Plan
MARYLAND- Today, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released an 18,000 page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Gov. Hogan’s plans to expand I-495 and I-270 with two private toll lanes in each direction. The DEIS outlines the impacts of the plan on the region’s air, water, parks, noise levels, traffic and other categories.
Residents and community organizations have just started to sift through the 90 pound document to assess the damage that the over $11 billion project could cause to Maryland’s environment, health, and economy, especially in the midst of a global pandemic and economic downturn. Advocates are concerned that the DEIS, despite its size, does not adequately examine key alternatives to the widening such as public transit and better land use planning nor effectively examine telecommuting’s role in reducing congestion.
In the last two weeks, over 40 organizations and U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Anthony Brown and Jamie Raskin asked for the comment period to be at least 120 days to accommodate the public’s ability to comment during the pandemic and complete the approximately 600 hours it would take to read through the document completely. Despite this request, the public comment period remains at 90 days, which would not be enough time for a person reading 40 hours a week to get through all the pages of the document.
“The Draft Environmental Impact Statement weighs 90 pounds. That alone indicates that this project warrants intense scrutiny. We are concerned that this massive highway project will exacerbate harm to our health and environment. The Sierra Club and other organizations have been denied, delayed or charged $300,000 for public information requests that would have shed more light on this project. We need more time to comment on this controversial proposal.” –Josh Tulkin, Director, Maryland Sierra Club
“Experience shows that highway expansions increase, not decrease, driving demand. By fueling more long-distance living and commuting, toll lanes are a massive, generational alteration of our landscape and come at high cost to homes and neighborhoods, people and health, and the natural environment.” – Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager of the Coalition for Smarter Growth
“The $11 billion I-495/I-270 expansion is too big and will affect too many lives over the next 50 years for Marylanders to accept an 18,000 page draft environmental impact statement that offers vague assurances that pollution and flood risk won’t increase and parks and communities will be protected. We urge MDOT to give the public the time it needs to review this draft statement and to release the secret traffic and revenue studies being used to justify this massive, high-risk project. Maryland cannot afford a repeat of the crisis plaguing the Purple Line, the Hogan administration’s first public-private partnership. –Brad German, Co-Chair, Citizens Against Beltway Expansion
“This proposed expansion threatens our national parks, including Greenbelt Park, C&O Canal, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Suitland Parkway, and Baltimore-Washington Parkway, without solving the region’s transportation needs. Should this proposal move forward, over 300 acres of local parkland – including valuable green space in an increasingly urban area — could be paved over. Instead of pursuing this new and costly highway expansion, the National Parks Conservation Association urges the Maryland Department of Transportation to examine the many alternatives available that will address our transit needs without sacrificing our parks.”-Pamela Goddard, Mid-Atlantic Senior Program Director, National Parks Conservation Association
Rock Creek is just one of the many special places that will be impacted by the proposed $11 billion expansion of I-495 and I-270. These impacts will extend far downstream, including into the creek through the nation’s first urban national park, Rock Creek Park. The public deserves a full range of alternatives for these sensitive waterways, habitat corridors, and public lands and time to fully consider them.-Jeanne Braha, Executive Director, Rock Creek Conservancy
“How precious is breathing? How important is it to preserve natural spaces and protect the health of residents of this region? We at the Audubon Naturalist Society want MDOT and the SHA to tell us, because the delivery of this 90-pound EIS for an $11 billion project with only 90 days to review it suggests that our health and well-being are not a top priority. Taxpayers deserve better.” –Denisse Guitarra, Maryland Conservation Advocate, Audubon Naturalist Society
“MDOT gave assurances that the public would have an opportunity in the DEIS process to actively participate in the consequential decisions related to the I-495 & I-270 project. However, in releasing an 18,000-page DEIS in the middle of a health and fiscal emergency, and then failing to provide adequate time for document review, MDOT shows disregard for public input. No one knows what post-pandemic commerce, employment, and traffic patterns will look like — the entire effort should be paused until the pandemic subsides.”-Linda Rosendorf, Don’t Widen 270.
Had the Governor and the Maryland Department of Transportation followed a process that allowed for sufficient constituent input and alternative proposals before announcing this massive, destructive plan, the citizens of Maryland would not be in the position of pointing out the obvious. The plan is deeply flawed and may very well cause more harm than good.- Cecilia Plante, Maryland Legislative Coalition.
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