Category: News

CSG in the News: New transportation dollars will soon flow into Central Virginia. But, what will it be used for?

Posted on by Emily Maurer

By Wyatt Gordon | Greater Greater Washington | March 4, 2020

With the unanimous blessing of the Virginia Senate’s Finance Committee, the creation of a new Central Virginia Transportation Authority is all but a done deal. The projected $170 million the tax hikes are expected to raise will transform the region, but will Greater Richmond use the money to fund smart growth or sprawl?

After the passage of a transportation funding deal for the I-81 corridor last year, Central Virginia felt like the hole in a donut with regions to its east, north, and west all raking in dedicated transportation dollars. To ensure the nine localities which make up Plan RVA—also known as Planning District 15 (Hanover, Ashland, Goochland, Powhatan, Richmond, New Kent, Chesterfield, Henrico, and Charles City)—did not get left behind, Delegate Delores McQuinn introduced HB1541 this session right before the filing deadline.

Central Virginia’s new transportation monies will flow in from increases in two taxes. Residents of the nine localities will pay an additional 0.7% on sales and use taxes and an extra 2.% on the wholesale gas tax. Half of those new dollars will remain in the hands of localities to do with as they see fit. Thirty-five percent will be disbursed under the auspices of a newly created Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA) and its 16 member governing board. The smallest portion of the new funding—just 15%—is allocated to transit.

A transit conundrum

Twenty-five million in dedicated dollars is an exciting prospect for a transit system that has for decades been fully reliant on year by year funding decisions from the localities it serves. The changes outlined in HB1541 will mark the first time the Greater Richmond Transit Company will achieve any level of budget autonomy. However, the bill fails to fully free GRTC from the caprices of the localities. In fact, HB1541 creates a surreal loophole that could tank transit funding for what is already America’s worst-funded public transportation system per capita.

In exchange for the CVTA’s two tax increases, the bill mandates all nine localities continue to spend at least half of what they currently alot for transportation expenditures. The benchmark date to determine their 50% “maintenance of effort” is July 1st, 2020.

By signing off on a date in the future, lawmakers established a loophole through which the County of Henrico or the City of Richmond (the only two localities that currently fund GRTC) could scrap their transit funding altogether in this spring’s budgets and lock themselves in with no obligation to continue locally funding transit at all.

The anticipated $25 million GRTC will receive from their 15% allocation in the CVTA bill isn’t even enough to cover even half of their current budget. If that happened, Richmond’s award-winning, trend-bucking transit system could face service cuts this summer.

Spending on sprawl

What is guaranteed to receive funding out of the CVTA bill is sprawl. The original version of HB1541 included language which only allowed the new regional authority to spend its budget on new road construction. Lacking any mandated provisions for bike, pedestrian, or multimodal infrastructure—let alone maintenance of existing roadways—Delegate McQuinn’s bill could potentially result in 85% of the new funding flowing directly into new highways.

That means as much as $145 million annually could go to build out further sprawl. Chesterfield County, the largest locality in Planning District 15, already has a litany of new highway projects it plans to fund with the new tax dollars. A proposal to extend Powhite Parkway out to US Route 360 is projected to cost a half a billion dollars alone.

In an op-ed in the Virginia Mercury, Stewart Schwartz— Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth—warned lawmakers, “We are not confident that Richmond’s suburban jurisdictions are yet committed to transit-oriented land use and the rural land conservation necessary to reduce traffic and preserve the livability of the region. Instead, with a big infusion of tax dollars for road expansion and accompanying auto-dependent growth, the region could repeat the mistakes of traffic-choked Northern Virginia.”

View the full story in Greater Greater Washington here.

CSG in the News: “Could free Metro in D.C. be expanded to Maryland and Virginia?”

Posted on by Emily Maurer

“A ‘transformative’ plan has transit advocates looking beyond D.C. Council“

By Pete Muntean | WUSA9 | March 3, 2020

WASHINGTON — D.C. Council will now decide if it will pay for its residents to ride Metro for free.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen officially introduced his plan on Tuesday. If it passes, those in the District could get a hundred dollars on their SmarTrip cards each month.

“It’s great for businesses, great for employees,” said Allen of the Metro For D.C. 2020 Amendment. “But really, most important for those who have the least amount of access but have to pay the most for Metro, this can be transformative for working families.”

Allen says the program would be rolled out in stages. 

He says low-income families would be able to apply first. A family of four making less than 80-thousand dollars a year would qualify. Those behind the plan stress it includes extra bus service putting the total cost between $50 million and $150 million each year — a cost city council supporters say D.C. can afford.

“It’s an innovative approach that Councilmember Allen has proposed,” said Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. He said the idea could be expanded to Maryland and Virginia, but neither state legislature has proposed such a bill.

“We have to bring Virginia and Maryland on board,” said Schwartz, who said that free transit regionwide will benefit everyone with less traffic and cleaner air. He said that is the next step, but the District has the chance to take the first step.

“I’d love to be able to get to that,” said Allen. “This is going to be incredibly important to District of Columbia residents, but to be able to do free fare, we’re going to have to get Maryland, Virginia and the District all on the same page.”

Metro has not said what it thinks of this idea.

Those behind this bill also cannot say when this would go into effect. They tell WUSA9 this is a big effort — and say it could take a year and maybe longer.

CSG in the News: “Metro Might Charge Bus Riders More For Paying In Cash. How Will It Affect Low-Income Riders?”

CSG in the News: “Metro Might Charge Bus Riders More For Paying In Cash. How Will It Affect Low-Income Riders?”

Posted on by Emily Maurer

By Margaret Barthel | WAMU | February 25, 2020

Metro will hold three public meetings this week to solicit feedback on its proposed 2021 budget. The agency is suggesting a number of significant service changes, including fare changes, cuts to bus routes, free transfers between bus and rail and the return of late-night rail service.

In one proposal, Metro is suggesting a 25-cent surcharge — on top of the regular fare — for people paying cash to board the bus, or using cash to add value to their SmarTrip cards on the bus.

That’s been the subject of some concern from advocates worried about the way the proposal could affect low-income riders, especially those who are unbanked or under-banked. More than half of Metrobus riders make less than $30,000 per year, and a significant majority are people of color.

Speeding Buses Up

Metro wants to make bus trips more efficient, which could make the bus a more appealing transit option — one of the goals of the Bus Transformation Project, a vision for the region’s buses that the Metro Board endorsed last month.

But last year, a report found that buses on some of the system’s busiest routes arrive on schedule just 60% of the time and move less than 10 miles per hour, on average. Bus ridership has declined by 12% in the past 5 years, and the agency hopes to recoup its losses.

One way to do that is to minimize the “dwell time” a bus spends at a stop, waiting for passengers to board and pay for their ride. According to Metro research, payment takes 2-4 seconds with a SmarTrip card, but as long as 20 seconds for people paying in cash or loading a SmarTrip card with cash. About 96% of Metro passengers use SmarTrip cards, with 4% paying in cash on the bus.

A 25-cent surcharge on paying in cash would penalize those riders and, Metro hopes, would incentivize them switching over to SmarTrip cards instead.

“You could position it as a $2.25 bus fare with a 25-cent discount for using SmarTrip,” said Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel.

General Manager Paul Wiedefeld pointed out at a D.C. Council oversight hearing that a SmarTrip card can help riders unlock other savings, too, in the form of passes.

One such discount is also included in Metro’s proposed budget: a decrease in the price of a 7-day bus pass from $15 to $12. But that still requires riders to come up with $12 upfront, a fact Wiedefeld acknowledged.

“Now we’ve got to figure out how we get that done — how do we come up with that $12,” he said.

He suggested that Metro might work with the District to spread the word, perhaps through “book mobile-type things.” Another option Wiedefeld mentioned: a program modeled after Kids Ride Free, where the District could subsidize transit passes for low-income residents.

George Jones, who leads the nonprofit Bread for the City, told WAMU that the low-income residents his organization serves would be hard-pressed to switch to paying upfront for Metro passes.

“You’re talking about people who predominantly use buses, who probably aren’t just readily paying for transportation in advance, in long-term blocks, like those of us who have a Metro card we reload every month,” he said.

‘This Is Not The Way’ 

While some advocates agree that speeding up buses is an important priority, they also raise concerns about how the proposed cash surcharge could affect low-income riders.

“We all agree we need to speed up the boarding process, but this is not the way,” said Cheryl Cort, the policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a transit advocacy group.

“Some people don’t have easy access to load a SmarTrip card other than on the bus,” said Katherine Kortum, a transit policy expert and member of the Metro Riders’ Advisory Council. “Not everybody has access to the credit cards and the online access needed in order to top up a card online.”

About 8% of D.C. households are unbanked, and 21.2% are underbanked, according to a 2017 analysis from the FDIC.

“We’re talking about folks who are, at any moment, struggling just to figure out how to get from one place to another,” said Jones. He noted that Bread for the City spent around $50,000 last year in transportation assistance.

Kortum also notes that many bus riders don’t have close by Metro stations where they might add money to a SmarTrip card with cash. In addition to its own Commuter Stores, Metro has retail partnerships with some CVS and Giant locations to provide riders with additional places to add cash value to a SmarTrip. Just three of those places are east of the river.

Metro officials told the D.C. Council that there are about 500 retailers across the region where riders can buy or reload SmarTrip cards, predominantly CVS locations.

Cort told WAMU she hopes Metro will ultimately go cashless — but that that would be paired with deeply discounted or free fare passes for low-income residents, as well as many more options for fare loading.

View the full story on WAMU here.

CSG Comments Re: WMATA FY2021 Budget

Posted on by Emily Maurer

A copy of the letter below was sent on Tuesday, February 13, 2020 to the WMATA Board of Directors.

2020.02.13-CSG-Letter-re-WMATA-Budget-Final-2Download

Dear Chairman Smedberg, members of the WMATA Board, and GM Wiedefeld: 

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is a 23-year-old non-profit and leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. We partner with dozens of DC area conservation, housing, transit and smart growth non-profit, advocacy organizations, and the business community, and are founding members of the MetroNow coalition which was instrumental in helping WMATA win the first-ever dedicated funding for the agency. We also served on the Executive Committee of the Bus Transformation Project. Today, MetroNow and our non-profit partners are committed to winning implementation of the recommendations of the BTP, including dedicated bus lanes and network redesign for faster, more frequent and reliable service, more affordable fares for lower income residents, technology improvements for off-board fare collection, and more. 

We support a number of provisions in the draft budget but are concerned about others, particularly the proposed changes and cuts to bus service. 

We support: 

Restoration of late night service: Late night service is particularly important for service workers at late- night businesses, especially those who live in Virginia and Maryland. We support restoring late-night service, while still ensuring time for needed maintenance. 

Free transfers between bus and rail: Free transfers were a top recommendation from the Bus Transformation Project and the second-most requested bus improvement after bus lanes in the survey. They were the top recommendation among low-income riders along with more affordable fares overall. 

Low and lower pass costs: Lower pass costs are particularly helpful for lower-income riders and can support the transition to off-board fare collection which will speed buses. 

Improved weekend service for bus and rail: This will support the access to jobs for all those who do not have traditional Monday to Friday work schedules, and support the transition to car free and car-light living for the tens of thousands of residents moving into transit-oriented communities in the city and suburbs. 

We oppose: 

Increasing the cash fare for Metrobus: This should only be done in conjunction with a much-improved Metro SmarTrip Retail Outlet program, establishment of an off-board fare payment option for Priority Corridor Network routes, and a new integrated payment and trip planning system. 

Charging peak fares after midnight: This is inequitable for late-night workers. 

A $1 surcharge for MetroExtra: We should be encouraging people to use limited-stop service, which saves operating funds, increased ridership, and helps people get to their destinations faster. We should not create a two-tier system that hurts lower-income riders by discouraging their use of faster buses. 

Bus service changes and cuts: While some reconfigurations listed in the proposal may make sense, we have received significant negative feedback from our members about the proposed changes. To the extent that service cuts are being forced by the arbitrary 3% operating cost growth cap, we urge the Virginia and Maryland jurisdictions to remove the cap. 

We prefer that WMATA and the region initiate a process for bus network redesign. This process can start with the proposed development of common service standards for WMATA and local bus services based on the frequency and coverage needs of our region. But any allocation or reallocation of service to WMATA or the local jurisdictions and major service changes like those being proposed, should take place after a network redesign study. 

We also urge all area jurisdictions to continue to increase their operating funding necessary to expand bus service while making it faster, frequent and reliable. With climate change, we must maximize our investment in transit to support walkable, transit-oriented communities, access to jobs, and reduction in total vehicle miles traveled. 

Thank you, 

Stewart Schwartz Executive Director

CSG in the News: “Program Helps DC Homeowners Provide Low-Cost Housing — and Build Wealth”

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

by JARED BREY, Next City, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

…With the ADU D.C. program announced last August, UPO [United Planning Organization] is trying to find ways to make ADUs cheaper and easier to build for moderate-income homeowners like [homeowner Lawrence] Foster. The program is starting as a small pilot: just two handpicked homeowners are participating so far, according to Kay Pierson, director of the community reinvestment division at UPO. It was created in partnership with the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and supported with a $180,000 grant from Citi Community Development. (Note: Citi Community Development also provides funding to Next City.) A lot of UPO’s programs are focused on helping people in poverty, with services like emergency rental assistance, Pierson says. But the ADU D.C. program is part of a series of efforts aimed at “asset development” — helping build wealth in lower-income communities — she says. The organization went looking for homeowners who earned up to 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI is $121,300 for a family of four in Washington), and who had good credit, steady employment history, and equity in their homes. And the partners are hoping that the pilot program demonstrates ways that the city and others can help moderate-income homeowners create more ADUs….

The Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington had been advocating for those kinds of rule changes for several years. The benefits just pile on top of one another, says Cheryl Cort, the Coalition’s policy director: ADUs can take advantage of partially developed and underused space, provide space for seniors to age in place or for family members with special needs, provide rental income for homeowners, and promote small-scale living, which has a smaller impact on the environment.

“And adding rental housing options can bring new types of housing to established neighborhoods that might have few rental options today, including high-priced neighborhoods close to the Metro or in-demand schools and other amenities,” Cort says. “It’s natural diversification of the housing stock, rather than just being uniform.”

Still, Cort says, it can be expensive to build a new unit, even when taking advantage of existing space. She says she’s talked to a lot of architects who are approached by homeowners to consult about adding an ADU, only to have the homeowners walk away when they hear the cost, which is typically around $150,000, according to Cort. (Other cost estimates for ADUs here.) As part of the ADU D.C. program, the Coalition is producing a manual for homeowners to help navigate the permitting process, and the partners are also working with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs about ways to make permitting easier and faster for accessory dwelling units. And they’re exploring how financing programs might be scaled up to provide financial help for more moderate-income homeowners.

Last fall, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a goal of producing 36,000 new homes in the District by 2025, with at least 12,000 of them being affordable to low-income residents. The city’s Housing Equity Report released at the same time has specific affordable-housing production targets for 11 different areas of the District. Those targets will help focus the city’s efforts, Cort says. And accessory dwelling units can be part of the mix of new housing that helps meet that goal, especially if the city can find ways to help moderate-income homeowners house lower-income tenants. The ADU D.C. program is meant to help show that tailored assistance and financing can produce more units.

“It’s a retail game,” Cort says. “We’ve got to be working individually with homeowners.”

This article is part of Backyard, a newsletter exploring scalable solutions to make housing fairer, more affordable and more environmentally sustainable. Subscribe to our thrice-weekly Backyard newsletter.

View the full story in Next City here.

RELEASE: CSG and partners launch a pro-transit coalition to counter Maryland’s I-495/I-270 widening

RELEASE: CSG and partners launch a pro-transit coalition to counter Maryland’s I-495/I-270 widening

Posted on by Jane Lyons
Press-ReleaseDownload

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, January 3, 2020

CONTACT:

Jane Lyons, Coalition for Smarter Growth

jane@smartergrowth.net | (202) 675-0016

Lindsey Mendelson, Maryland Sierra Club

lindsey.mendelson@mdsierra.org | (240) 706-7901

Maryland Advocates React to Hogan-Franchot Agreement and 

Launch Coalition to Change Direction of State Transportation Policy

MARYLAND — Following today’s announcement of an agreement between Governor Hogan and Comptroller Franchot and in advance of Wednesday’s Board of Public Works vote, 18 non-profit and community advocacy organizations launched a new coalition to change the direction of state transportation policy. The groups share a concern for protecting the environment and communities, and more effectively addressing the state’s transportation problems — through transit, transit-oriented development, and demand management strategies. 

Formation of Maryland Advocates for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) follows public outcry against Governor Hogan’s and former Secretary Rahn’s ill-conceived and harmful plans to expand the Capital Beltway and I-270. The outcry prompted a delay in the December Board of Public Works vote to approve a hastily revised Public-Private Partnership (P3) proposal for the highways. A premature vote is now scheduled for January 8th. 

The coalition is calling on the Governor and incoming secretary to reverse course on the administration’s misguided highway expansion plan and to steer the state toward better solutions. MAST members sent a letter to Administrator Slater calling on him to change MDOT’s approach to transportation policy if he is confirmed by the Maryland Senate.

Reliable, transit and land use focused solutions — MAST supports transportation solutions that effectively address the climate crisis and our transportation problems, rather than exacerbate them. These integrated solutions include expanding reliable transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure; using transportation demand management; encouraging more transit-oriented land use with affordable housing; and a maintenance-first approach to road and bridge infrastructure. This approach will allow Maryland to grow without increasing driving, traffic, and greenhouse gas emissions.

MAST will support a bill to increase capital investment in the Maryland Transit Administration, which has a deferred maintenance backlog of $1.5 billion and is facing funding cuts by MDOT, and another bill that addresses the weaknesses in the state’s P3 law.

Flaws in the I-495 and I-270 proposal: MAST joins with state legislators and local elected officials and planners who have identified significant shortcomings in MDOT’s toll lanes proposal, including:

  • Faulty P3 process and lack of transparency — MDOT’s P3 process for I-495 and I-270 has been flawed from the outset, including being rushed ahead of the environmental review process and the lack of objective alternatives analysis. MAST calls on MDOT to release their financial analyses, toll projections, and traffic modeling for independent review.
  • Failure to account for induced demand and increased air pollution — Research and experience shows that adding highway capacity inevitably leads to more vehicles on the road and more pollution from those vehicles, with expanded highways filling-up in as few as five years. MDOT’s study fails to consider an integrated transit-oriented development, transit, and demand management alternative.
  • Financial risks — The early Virginia experience shows that poorly structured P3 deals carry heavy financial risks, with taxpayers shouldering the bill when tolls cannot cover the costs of the project as planned or other problems occur.
  • Environmental harm — The highway expansion proposal would take valued park land, streams, and rivers in a number of locations; exacerbate stormwater runoff; require the loss of a number of homes; and directly affect 1,000 or more private properties.

“It is unlawful to proceed in securing implementation partnerships and contracts without completion and consideration of Environmental Impact Studies and related mitigation,” said Audubon Naturalist Society Executive Director Lisa Alexander.

“Transit and walkable, transit-oriented development are not only more effective in reducing vehicle trips, they attract jobs and residents. Marriott’s move to Bethesda Metro and Amazon’s move to Crystal City/Pentagon City are a testament to the value of transit-oriented development,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“Maryland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet toll lanes will fuel more long-distance commuting, which increases driving, emissions, air pollution, water pollution, and traffic,” said Nancy Soreng, League of Women Voters of Maryland.

“Sustainable transportation solutions also spur more economic development and increase opportunities for socioeconomic mobility,” said Kimberly Brandt, Director of Smart Growth Maryland.

“The state must work together with local jurisdictions to find transportation solutions that are good for local residents, good for the environment, and good for Maryland taxpayers” said Brian Ditzler, Chair of Maryland Sierra Club.

Presently, 18 organizations have signed MAST’s principles statement. Follow the coalition by visiting MAST on Facebook and Twitter. A MAST website is now in development.

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Maryland Advocates for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) is a coalition of 18 non-profit and community advocacy organizations pushing for more sustainable alternatives to highway expansion. Signers of the coalition’s principles statement include: 350 Montgomery County, Audubon Naturalist Society, Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, Bike Maryland, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Corazón Latino, Friends of Sligo Creek, Greater Farmland Civic Association, Greater Greater Washington, Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA), League of Women Voters of Maryland, Maryland Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Neighbors of the Northwest Branch, Rails to Trails Conservancy, Smart Growth Maryland, and Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

CSG in the News: Reaction to the New American Legion Bridge Announcement

CSG in the News: Reaction to the New American Legion Bridge Announcement

Posted on by Teddy Owusu

‘We are distressed’ | New American Legion Bridge will amplify traffic, experts say

by Pete Muntean, WUSA9, November 12, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Governors of Maryland and Virginia are promising an end to crippling congestion over the American Legion Bridge, but opponents say the idea will make Beltway traffic even worse traffic for years to come.  

“We are distressed,” Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. He criticized Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s announcement that the traffic-choked Potomac River crossing would be rebuilt and widened. “There’s a natural feeling that adding capacity to roads will make a difference and what we’re seeing is it doesn’t,” Schwartz said.

Read the full story by WUSA9 here.

CSG in the News: “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

CSG in the News: “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

Posted on by Teddy Owusu

The new book “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

by David McAuley, Greater Greater Washington, November 12, 2019

Author Steven Higashide describes his new book Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit as “half technical backgrounder, half political field manual” for public transit – especially bus – advocates. 

Local transit activists (and GGWash contributors) Cheryl Cort, Aimee Custis, Kishan Putta, and Dan Malouff all get shout-outs, mostly for pushing forward the 16th Street NW dedicated bus lane, scheduled for next year. 

Read the full story on Greater Greater Washington.

CSG in the News: What’s being done to avoid another infrastructure crisis

CSG in the News: What’s being done to avoid another infrastructure crisis

Posted on by Teddy Owusu

by Al Jones and Steve Burns, 1010 WINS, November 7, 2019

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Over 60 plus years ago, the dream for America’s highway system was the orderly, rapid movement of shiny sleek vehicles traveling 100 miles an hour on roads that connected population centers. Today, that long ago dream seems like a scene from a cartoon. In reality, our roads are a rough, hot mess.

Bringing transit back to its former glory will of course take more money, and a lot of community buy-in, especially in how those communities are built. In the words of one expert, “office parks are dead.”

“Those separated office parks and shopping centers and homes have meant more traffic than we can handle,” said Stewart Schwartz, from the Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington, D.C.

View the full story here.

Photo credit: Getty Images