Press Release: New DC region transportation plan misses the mark on our climate change, safety, and affordability challenges

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 17, 2025

CONTACT
Bill Pugh, Transportation & Climate Director
bill@smartergrowth.net; (202) 675-0016, ext. 7084

New DC region transportation plan misses the mark on our climate change, safety, and affordability challenges

TPB votes today on regional long-range Visualize 2050 plan

Today, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) will meet between 12 noon and 2pm to consider adopting its latest long-range transportation plan update, Visualize 2050. Despite a 2021 TPB resolution to do a vastly different and improved plan, this new Visualize plan fails to move the needle in helping the region use safer, more affordable and sustainable transportation modes. 

The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) analyzed Visualize 2050 and found that the Greater Washington region would fail to meet its 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets under the plan. 

“Transportation is the number one or two top sources of global warming pollution in the National Capital Region. So if our region’s policymakers are falling short on promoting clean transportation, they’re failing overall in addressing climate change,” said Bill Pugh, AICP CTP, Transportation & Climate Director for CSG. 

TPB’s own studies have shown that to reduce CO2 emissions to safe levels, regions like the DMV area must both quickly transition to electric vehicles and reduce the amount that residents and workers have to drive. At the same time, TPB’s statistics show that the region isn’t moving fast enough in the large middle and outer suburbs to create more walkable and transit-accessible neighborhoods. 

“While parts of our region have great transit and walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods near jobs, other areas require residents to drive long distances for daily needs. Visualize 2050 hardly makes a dent in this problem. It fails to meaningfully shift our region to safer, more affordable and more sustainable travel alternatives. And the underlying housing and land use planning of our jurisdictions is also a major factor – DMV area local governments are not allowing enough homes near transit and walkable mixed-use job centers,” said Pugh. 

For example, in the outer suburbs (e.g., Prince William, Loudoun, Frederick, Charles counties), over 90% of daily trips in 2050 will continue to be done by car, often for long distances, putting a strain on household budgets. In the middle ring (Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties), it’s not much better at over 80% of daily trips by car in 2050. Overall regionwide, the share of trips by car only drops from 81% to 78%.

In contrast, in DC, Alexandria and Arlington, half of trips will be done by transit, walking and biking. Residents of walkable areas with transit – both in cities and suburbs – can save $13,000 per year by using transit instead of relying on driving, according to the American Public Transportation Association. And combined housing and transportation costs are typically less in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods with good transit and access to jobs, according to the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The National Association of Realtors showed that most Americans want to live in these areas, and many would trade off things like larger yards. 

CSG applauds good projects in the plan like Bus Rapid Transit lines in Montgomery County, Fairfax County and Alexandria, completion of the Purple Line in Maryland, and the regional Long Bridge rail project. The exclusion of the proposed Beltway expansion of I-495 Southside by the TPB also opens the door for transit, HOV, and commuter incentive solutions in Prince George’s County and across the Wilson Bridge into Fairfax and Alexandria that also support these jurisdictions’ transit-oriented development economic plans. 

“Public comments on Visualize 2050 overwhelmingly favor a future of walkable, transit-friendly communities over more highway expansion. This is also the DC Metro area’s adopted vision in the Region Forward plan of TPB’s parent organization, the Council of Governments. So we need to be implementing that instead of wasting upwards of $30 billion on expanding highways and arterials,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of CSG. 

“If the region comes together and approves the DMVMoves transit funding package, we can move in a direction that our adopted goals support. This would address some of the shortcomings in Visualize 2050 but also depends on a regional commitment and funding for the bus prioritization recommendations of the DMVMoves Task Force, and in shifting away from highway and arterial expansion to walkable communities,” said Schwartz.

Learn more:

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The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, DC region advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the region to grow and provide opportunities for all.


Coalition for Smarter Growth  — smartergrowth.net