Survey Takes Aim at Region's Transportation Needs

The , the and bus rapid transit are the top transportation priorities for the Washington metropolitan region, according to results of a survey of transportation experts released Thursday.

But experts surveyed list only one of those priorities—bus rapid transit—in the top three on a list of “game-changing” transportation investments that would have the greatest impact on the region in the next 20 years.

Experts said that Metro improvements—particularly system maintenance, “would make the greatest difference in the next 20 years,” according to a report on the survey conducted by “The 2030 Group,” a partnership of theNorthern Virginia Transportation Alliance and the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance.

The region’s governments have long-range transportation plans that “include hundreds of highway and transit projects but no short-lists of performance-based, ‘game-changing’ priorities, i.e. projects that would do the most to improve surface transportation mobility and reduce congestion over the next two decades,” the report said.

The Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, modeled after its Northern Virginia predecessor,formally launched this week with former Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) as its chairman and Richard Parsons, a transportation advocate and former Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce president, as its president.

The group conducted telephone surveys of 43 veteran transportation experts, including traffic engineers, transportation administrators, designers and urban planners in Northern Virginia, Suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia.

The report drew criticism from smart growth advocates.

"The 2030 Group's ‘Priorities Report’ is clearly designed to promote the same tired and ineffective Outer Beltway proposals, along with an unending series of highway widenings," Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said in a news release.

The report includes several lists of priorities for the region and for each of the three jurisdictions.

“There’s a pretty surprising consensus of what those projects should be and it’s a mix of transit and highways and land use practices,” said Parsons, who is .

Actually getting those projects moving is the aim of SMTA, Duncan said.

“Clearly we need more of everything,” he said. “Let’s just start getting something done.”

While there are many groups advocating for other regional issues, such as education, transportation initiatives have lacked a unified voice of support, Duncan said.

“As an elected official, I would have welcomed a group like this to support what I’m trying to do,” said Duncan, who left office in 2006.

SMTA plans to tap established lobbyists to represent the group in Annapolis, Rockville and Upper Marlboro. For now, it is focused on building its public education efforts and its organization with the objective of hiring a full-time staff, Parsons said.

The nonprofit group is looking not only for expert input, “but also grassroots voices of average people who want to see things done better,” he said.

To that end, the SMTA Web site includes an online petition urging Maryland elected officials to “stop raiding the ‘Transportation Trust Fund' for other purposes.”

Maryland governors from both major parties—including Gov. Martin O’Malley (D)—have moved dollars out of the fund to plug holes elsewhere in the budget over the years.

“It’s been raided for good reason because of the economic crisis,” Duncan said. “But it’s put us in a real hole for transportation which is the backbone of our economy.”

In February, the national transportation research organization TRIP issued a report saying that.

Two weeks later, a state panel said that Maryland must begin pumping $800 million per year into the fund in order to keep pace with its transportation infrastructure needs.

One way to do that is increasing the gasoline tax, a proposal both Duncan and Parsons said they would support.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach also support a gas tax increase. Miller said earlier this year that the legislature would .

A tax hike might not be popular but is necessary, Duncan said.

“We need to take a hard vote and do the right thing or continue to let our transportation infrastructure crumble,” he said.

Duncan said that he is “worried” that while there Virginia is building projects like  and High Occupancy Toll lanes on the Capital Beltway, “we’re not seeing them in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.”

The survey is evidence of the need for the regional approach for which SMAT will push, Parsons said.

“We think the process is too political and too parochial and not substantive enough,” he said.