A letter from the Coalition for Smater Growth urging regional leaders to contribute funding to help ease WMATA’s FY2011 deficit and avoid further fare increases and service cuts.
Category: Resources
DC: Metro Budget Hearing Testimony
Our core position on the Metro budget proposal is to oppose the severe service cuts. In a joint campaign with partner conservation and transit advocacy groups, www.fairshareformetro.com, we advocate for $74 million in additional funding from the Metro jurisdictions. This will fund the $40 million unaccounted for and avoid the $34 million in service cuts. If the public is being asked to pay higher fares, then they should not also be asked to endure severe service cuts as well. It is fair to ask for the jurisdictional member governments to provide the additional funding.
Fairfax County: Draft Plan for Tysons Corner Redesign
Fairfax County is in the midst of an evolution, where the focus for future growth will of necessity be transit stations and commercial corridors. Places that will evolve into mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, bikeable and transit oriented communities. This is the best way to protect suburban neighborhoods, to accommodate population growth and changing demographics (including downsizing empty nesters and retirees), to address traffic, and maximize the energy efficiency and competitiveness of the county. We hope that the experience from the Tysons Corner process will result in new and enhanced public planning processes, and multidisciplinary staff teams for re-planning the commercial corridors of the county.
From Mean Streets to Main Streets
Walkable neighborhoods are not only more vibrant and convenient, but safer, too. In this 2010 presentation, CSG Policy Director Cheryl Cort shows how missing sidewalks create hazardous walking conditions for pedestrians and lead to more traffic fatalities, as evident in local data. She argues that streets need to be more pedestrian-friendly, especially in high-demand areas with lots of traffic.
DC: Skyland Shopping Center
We support the redevelopment proposal for the Skyland Shopping Center. We welcome this mixed use development that provides a modest amount of below market rate housing. Our chief concern is that the project is excessively over-parked – wasting resources on too much parking that could be used for more productive uses.
Maryland Transportation Authority Response to ICC Tolling FOIA
Response by Ronald Freeland, Executive Secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority, to a Freedom of Information Act request by CSG, Audubon Naturalist Society and Community Research on ICC tolling forecasts.
Maryland State Highway Administration Response to ICC FOIA
The November 19, 2009 response by Neil J. Pederson, Administrator for the Maryland State Highway Administration, to a request for ICC tolling forecast data by CSG, Audubon and Community Research.
Request for ICC Toll Revenue Forecasts
A Freedom of Information Act request by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, Community Research and the Audubon Naturalist Society submitted to the Maryland Transportation Authority on October 23, 2009
Transit and Highway Safety Statistics
The Metrorail collision in June 2009 prompted a spate of articles about the Metrorail system. To evaluate the relative safety of Metrorail compared to driving, the Coalition for Smarter Growth collected the following statistics.
Montgomery County: White Flint Sector Plan
We would like to express our support for the White Flint Sector Plan and urge the Council and County Executive to support it too. We strongly support the County focusing growth here at a Metro station rather than new areas that require major new public infrastructure investments like the Gaithersburg West Plan, which we oppose in its current form. We need to make the distinction – we should focus growth around our Metro stations and revitalize major commercial corridors like Rockville Pike. Conversely, the great amount of development proposed in the Gaithersburg West Plan fosters sprawl, long distance commuting, increased traffic, air and water pollution. Overzoning Gaithersburg West undermines the redevelopment of Rockville Pike and Metro station areas – the very areas where we should be encouraging sustainable, transit-oriented development and great urban boulevards and streets.