Calling attention to the Council of Governments’ work to address regional transportation coordination Congresswoman Donna Edward (D-MD 4th District) addressed the COG Board today highlighting the critical need to “have a lot of cooperation across jurisdictional lines.” Representative Edwards who lives in Prince George’s County captured the complex issues affecting the densely populated Washington Metro areas as “a region where people live one place work someplace else take their children to soccer and basketball games in another.”
We’ve posted video of her speech here:
Congresswoman Donna Edwards Addresses The Council of Governments from COG Video on Vimeo.
From the daily commute throughout the region to weekend activities the Congresswoman highlighted that our transportation needs sync with how we use our common spaces. Focusing development around activity centers which is a central part of the Region Forward vision is a Federal priority for Edwards noting that “The GSA is working on a plan to get our development fully around where we work and live and play using our transportation infrastructure as a lynchpin for development.” Edwards also called for balance between new development and preserving valuable green space in the community. To achieve this balance she urged new transit oriented development around “Metro Stops that have completely underdeveloped…you need to go there first.”
Prince George’s County home to 15 Metro stations accounts for tens of thousands of the Metro system’s daily ridership. Edwards noted that to add capacity to these stations that “all Metro stops must be ready to embrace transit-oriented development so we all have a shared equity in where jobs are located.” TOD is at the heart of resilient thriving activity centers which in turn seeds communities for healthy economic activity. Edwards who also serves on the Space Subcommittee of the Transportation Committee stressed the importance of the space industry to the region because it supports thousands of jobs. Many of these are accessible to mass transit.