Over the past three years and particularly since last summer, the TPB has asked the staff to review CLRP updates for conformance with the goals of Region Forward, the COG Climate Report, Access for All, and the Regional Transportation Priorities Plan. The COG staff, elected officials and a wide range of stakeholders have committed significant time and resources into developing these plans and associated goals.
Author: Elena Sorokina
Letter to TPB Regarding the 2014 CLRP Update
Dear Chairman Wojahn and Members of the Transportation Planning Board:
Please accept the following comments on the draft 2014 update to the Constrained Long Range Plan (CLRP). The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) urges the Transportation Planning Board (TPB) to fundamentally reevaluate the entire Constrained Long Range Plan this year in order to meet the Council of Governments’ (COG) own goals, including addressing climate change and meeting ever-stricter air quality standards for human health. This reevaluation should include the ability to remove projects which do not support your goals, including allowing for shifting funds to transit and the internal connectivity needs of the mixed-use, walkable and transit-oriented activity centers to which you have committed.
Rival bureaucracies are not the way to manage traffic congestion in Washington, D.C.
The D.C. transportation department is building a record of partially fulfilled promises on bike lanes, bus lanes, street parking, streetcar service and pedestrian safety. “In the 12 years since the District Department of Transportation was spun off from the Department of Public Works, no one has asked the critical question: Does the current agency structure work,” D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said last week.
DC region’s new long-range plan fail to meet its own climate goals
If sea levels rise just one foot in the Washington, DC, area, nearly 1,700 homes could be lost. Is the region’s transportation planning agency doing enough to stop that from happening? Several environmental and smart-growth organizations in the region are saying no. Seventeen groups have signed on to a letter, being delivered today, urging the agency to take action. The comment period on the agency’s latest long-range transportation plan closes tomorrow.
The Constrained Long Range Plan update must address regional climate change goals
The undersigned organizations call on the National Capital Transportation Planning Board (TPB) to commit to full disclosure of the forecasted climate change impact of the 2014 Constrained Long Range Plan (CLRP), and to take action to align the CLRP with the region’s climate change goals. One of the most important national and
multi-national public policy issues of our time, climate change must be tackled by every city, county, region, state, and nation. Given that our region has already adopted important goals, it is past time to begin implementing them.
DC council’s Cheh gains early support for major overhaul of city transportation agencies
D.C. residents and visitors would have to deal with one agency instead of four for transportation issues including parking tickets, taxis, bike sharing and other problems under a new proposal that is likely to pass.
Takoma Metro development moves forward
A new apartment complex at the Takoma Metro station got the go-ahead Thursday from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors, though some neighbors disapprove.
Prince George’s adds incentives to get developers on track
Developers just received more reasons — a package of reasons, to be exact — to bring business plans to five Metro stations in Hyattsville, Largo, New Carrollton and Suitland. Prince George’s County officials announced the new incentives Monday at the University Town Center, a mixed-use project located near the Prince George’s Plaza Metro, and in front of the site where a $23 million Safeway supermarket project is expected to break ground in May.
Prince George’s County pushing development around five of its 15 Metro stations
Prince George’s County announced a new strategy Monday that officials say is aimed at spurring development and growth around the county’s transit centers. Officials plan to focus on five of the county’s 15 Metro stations, using investment in infrastructure, financial incentives and regulatory policies to jump-start development.
Support for Sherwood Hall Lane bike lanes and traffic calming
We the undersigned organizations are writing in support of the proposal to include bike lanes and other traffic calming measures on Sherwood Hall Lane between Fort Hunt Road and Route 1 as part of the repaving project. The project is an excellent opportunity to improve safety for all users, including those who walk, bicycle and drive along Sherwood Hall Lane. Today the road offers overly wide travel lanes for extended stretches, inviting speeding and putting pedestrians, cyclists, joggers and other drivers at risk.