The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is updating its Visualize 2045 long-range transportation plan for the metropolitan Washington region. The draft, however, is woefully unbalanced against transit and other forms of multi-modal transportation, including bicycling.
We need to Speak Up! now to improve that balance by devoting more funding to multi-modal transportation, including protected bicycling infrastructure.
Smart growth analysts assess that the plan spends twice as much on highways as on transit and other modes of travel. It only reduces per capita miles of driving a modest 3% by 2045 despite TPB’s own climate study showing the region needs a much larger and quicker reduction in car dependence. Because transportation is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions, the proposed plan makes no progress in reducing greenhouse gas, one of its claimed goals.
The TPB is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for metropolitan Washington. It works with local, state, regional, and federal partners to coordinate future plans, provides data and analysis to decision makers, and coordinate regional programs to advance safety, land-use coordination, and more. Visualize 2045, unfortunately, falls short of the board’s own analysis and fails to respond adequately to TPB public survey results and overwhelming public comments demanding climate action and more sustainable and equitable transportation investments.
TPB still has the opportunity to change this plan but won’t unless we Speak Up! We need to let the board know that it needs to deemphasize plans for bigger highways that contribute to sprawl, congestion, and pollution and instead increase funding for transit, biking, walking, and robust multimodal transportation networks.
Submit your comments to TPB by Sunday, May 1, 2022 and urge the board to:
- Prioritize infrastructure spending to shift more travel to transit, biking, and walking.
- Expand existing and build new trail and shared use path networks and install connected and protect bike lane networks.
- Set specific, numerical targets for adopting electric vehicles (20 to 25% of vehicles on the road by 2030) and expand bike share networks featuring e-bikes.
- Alter plans to reduce per capita passenger vehicle miles traveled by 15 to 20% by 2030.
- Commit to pursue the full slate of strategies that TPB’s own climate study shows are necessary.
- Adopt a plan that will foster more walkable, transit-oriented communities.
This is a short deadline, so don’t wait. Act now and send your comments to the TPB today.
Interested in doing more to promote bicycling and transportation reform? Contact us at [email protected].
