CSG and 38 other organizations continue to push for regional transportation reforms at the Transportation Planning Board.
Tag: TPB
CSG in the News: D.C. Region Will Now Consider Climate Impacts In Transportation Planning, Aiming To Cut Emissions In Half
“It was a historic vote today,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “As they said in the movie, failure is not an option. We have just eight years to slash our emissions to avoid truly runaway climate change.”
RELEASE: CSG and Sierra Club Hail Historic Vote at the DC region’s Transportation Planning Board to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
TPB members, led by Maryland jurisdictions and DC, adopted a resolution to slash climate pollution from cars and trucks by 50% by 2030 and identified strategies to pursue towards that goal.
ACTION: A Win for Climate Action – Email your Elected Officials to Take Next Steps!
We won a historic vote at the regional Transportation Planning Board (TPB), which set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our regional transportation network by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 – just 8 years from now.
CSG Comments: May 2022 Visualize 2045
Our primary comments are contained in the joint letter with over 30 other organizations from
across TPB’s region.
LETTER: May 2022 Visualize 2045 Sign-On
Yet the TPB board members made no substantive changes, and the
Background & Analysis on Visualize 2045 (April 2022)
Despite a new climate action plan by TPB’s parent agency the Council of Governments, this Visualize 2045 makes no real changes and fails to reduce emissions any more than the last one.
ACTION ALERT: Demand climate action from your local elected officials
Transportation is the #1 source of our regional greenhouse gas emissions, and we have just 8 years to slash those emissions. Yet, our local and state elected officials who sit on the regional Transportation Planning Board (TPB), are not taking the urgent – and feasible – steps necessary to reduce emissions from our region’s transportation system. They need to hear from you!
TESTIMONY re: TPB Climate and Transportation Study Findings
The findings from your climate and transportation study are clear: The region can achieve necessary levels of greenhouse gas reductions under its adopted 2030 climate plan, We cannot depend solely on electric vehicle adoption and a cleaner grid, the region must reduce per capita vehicle miles traveled by 15 to 20% by 2030.
TPB’s 2021 Voices of the Region Survey – Highlights
- Scientific survey of over 2,400 regional residents conducted by TPB that was representative of urban, inner suburban and outer suburban jurisdictions.
- Shows that the region’s residents generally demand more walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly communities and climate action, and prioritize this much more than expanding roads and parking
- Climate Action
- 84% of the region’s residents want elected officials to consider the impacts of climate change when planning transportation.
- For residents under 30 years of age, those most impacted by our long-range planning decisions and by climate change, that percentage rises to 92%.
- Overwhelming majorities of suburban as well as urban residents across the region’s jurisdictions agreed.
- Even in outer suburban jurisdictions, between 72 and 78% of residents wanted climate change considered in transportation planning.
- These percentages are much higher than those expressing congestion to be a significant concern that impacts their lives a lot (44%).
- Support for expanded pedestrian zones, bike lanes, and bus lanes
- Three quarters of survey respondents said they support post-pandemic use of street space for expanded pedestrian access and restaurant seating.
- Strong majorities also support bike lanes (63%) and bus lanes (71%), and a narrow majority (54%) support dedicated bus lanes even in situations that involve removal of on-street parking.
- It’s not only city residents who want dedicated bus lanes, either: the majority of survey respondents live in suburban areas, with a plurality from outer suburbs.
- “What transportation investments should we make today that future generations will thank us for tomorrow?” – only a small minority (134 out of 637) called for more or wider roads:
- 259 responses called for improving transit, walking and biking
- 172 responses called for clean transportation investments
- 134 responses called for more roads and more/wider car lanes
- 72 responses called for improving the condition of existing bridges and roads
- Dissatisfaction with region’s transportation system is by far the highest in the car-dependent outer suburbs