Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. We are a regional organization based in the District of Columbia focused on ensuring transportation and development decisions are made with genuine community involvement and accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving

We don't need a ranking to know our traffic is bad. What the headlines miss is the crucial role our Metro and our other transit investments have played in preventing gridlock, in offering us an effective alternative to sitting in traffic, and in fueling an economic boom that has revitalized our city and transit-oriented suburbs. "Fifty years ago, visionary leaders conceived, planned and built Metro, and reshaped the Washington, D.C. region. The first order of business is to complete the reinvestment and full rehabilitation of this system that is so critical for our regional economy. We are also calling today for a new vision for a new generation -- for a Next Generation of Transit investments and the leadership to make it happen," said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. "We believe our region's leadership is ready for the challenge."

Thinking Big Planning Smart presents a broad synopsis of major ongoing and planned transit projects in the region to serve as a starting point for what we hope will be a constructive dialogue and strategic planning process by planners, policy makers, developers, smart growth advocates and the public. With D.C. studying and implementing streetcars, Montgomery County pursuing the Purple Line and BRT, Arlington streetcars and Alexandria BRT, and Fairfax new transit corridors, it’s an exciting time.

The TRIP group ("The Road Information Program") just issued its annual report on the bad condition of state roads, featuring Maryland and other states and conveniently timed for the state General Assembly debates about transportation funding. "We agree with TRIP that Maryland's roads and bridges are in need of repair, but TRIP's primary recommendation has traditionally been highway expansion," said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. "This simply doesn't track. Too often when we see the alarm raised about aging infrastructure, we see new funding go into capacity expansion even as the maintenance needs continue to mount."

All Prince George’s County residents have a vested interest in getting the decision right about where to locate and how to design the new county and state-supported $650 million Regional Medical Center with a workforce of more than 2000 employees. To leverage the most competitive healthcare benefits and economic development opportunities, we need