Transportation Land Use Connections (TLC) projects aim to advance regional planning priorities and are showing success in numerous ways. These regional priorities include locating jobs and housing closer together, promoting development closer to transit stations, and improving multimodal transportation options. Public officials and planners see these priorities as important ways to accommodate an expected 1.5 million more people in the region over the next 25 years. TLC projects play a small role in helping the region’s transportation system accommodate a growing population.
The TLC program provides local jurisdictions with professional consultants to complete small-scale plans and projects that promote mixed-use, walkable communities. Throughout its 13-year history, the TLC program has funded 130 projects in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
The TLC Program is now accepting applications for FY 2021. Applications are due March 9, 2020. The TPB will approve projects in April or May, and they will begin this fall.
Learn more about the TLC program and apply
Over the past few months, TPB staff spoke with local jurisdictions to find out about the current status of 20 projects funded between 2016 and 2018. While previous articles have documented impacts of select TLC projects, this review allowed the TPB to gain a better understanding of how funding is benefitting local communities across the region. TPB staff categorized the impacts of the program based on their conversations with jurisdictions across six categories; capital improvements (or construction), new employees/committees, new planning tools, how they inform local plans, contribute to policy change, or stimulate conversations and summits.
Here are the ways TLC projects are making a difference in local communities:
Capital improvements
Project Spotlight – K Street/Water Street Bikeway and Pedestrian Connectivity Enhancements (District of Columbia)
Capital improvements are the finished construction products and are the most “high-profile” outcomes of planning and design projects. These projects have evolved from community meetings and consultant work to physical changes in the environment. Capital improvements can range in scale from new bridges and roads to reducing the width of car lanes (aptly known as a “road diet”) to make room for other transportation modes. The latter was the outcome of a TLC project in Georgetown that has improved safety for pedestrians and cyclists along the neighborhood’s southwest waterfront.
At the intersection of two converging trails, the Capital Crescent trail and C&O Canal towpath, this TLC project from 2016 made recommendations for redesigning the K and Water Street underpass to improve bicycle-pedestrian access and public space. Two years later, the first phase of construction was completed and resulted in a two-way bike lane while maintaining on-street parking. Prior to these improvements, cyclists would ride through the adjacent waterfront park to avoid sharing lanes with vehicle traffic, often travelling at high speeds. Pictured above, cyclists (and scooter riders) now have an alternative route that is safe, convenient, and conducive to the neighborhood’s goal of allowing visitors and residents to “spend more time in Georgetown, and less [time] coming and going.”
New employees and committees
Project Spotlight – Central Avenue Connector Trail (Prince George’s County)
Some TLC projects start a “snowball effect” in jurisdictions where initial funding for a study grows into a much larger project. Study recommendations may highlight missing services or larger issues that jurisdictions can only address by increasing their organizational capacity.
This effect has been observed in three Maryland TLC projects in recent years: a senior accessibility study in Greenbelt led to the hiring of a part-time mobility manager; a parking study in Takoma Park triggered the creation of the Parking Management Task Force volunteer committee; and TLC studies for a trail project in Prince George’s County helped to build the case for hiring a full-time project manager.
The Prince George’s project, known as the Central Avenue Connector Trail, looks to build a new walking and bike path along a heavily traveled corridor that provides access to four stations on Metro’s Blue Line.
The TLC program funded the trail’s feasibility study (2015) and preliminary design (2016), and Prince George’s County has since gone on to complete the trail’s design work in 2018. The trail’s construction is awaiting capital funding.
As of this summer, the county was seeking a full-time project manager to coordinate the completion of the multimillion-dollar trail project.
Learn more about the origins of the Central Avenue Connector.
New planning tools
Project Spotlight – Low Stress Bicycle Network Mapping (Arlington County)
Other impacts of TLC projects are felt “behind the scenes” with the development of new planning tools that can be used long after the project is completed. In particular, a number of TLC projects have used innovative technologies to improve data collection systems that inform traditional planning operations. For example, rather than relying on manual counts for traffic passing through an intersection, automatic strip counters that sense vehicles’ weight provide a more cost-effective and accurate alternative method. Through these improvements in data collection, jurisdictions can get a better sense of their transportation systems and make appropriate changes to future planning and policy.
One recent example of this type of TLC project is Arlington County’s Low-Stress Bicycle Network Mapping. The tool was developed in a partnership with Northeastern University, the University of Idaho, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. It assigns bicycle routes a “level of stress” between 1 - 4 that represents the difficulty of biking along the route. A route considered “Level of Traffic Stress 1” is either physically separated from traffic or shares the road with low-speed traffic but rarely more than one vehicle at a time, making it suitable for younger, older, and novice cyclists. On the other hand, a Level 4 route is suitable only for “strong and fearless” cyclists, given that cyclists mix with moderate- and high-speed traffic.
This planning tool allows the jurisdiction to visualize how planned road construction will impact the accessibility of the overall bicycle network. While the TLC project introduced the new methodology to Arlington County in 2016, the tool was left with the county to use and will likely be included in the next iteration of the county’s bike plan.
Contributions to plans, policies, and conversations
Throughout the rest of metropolitan region, the Transportation Land-Use Connections program is helping jurisdictions respond to changing transportation demands. Whether they are contributing to small area plans in Prince William County, providing data to lower minimum parking requirements for developments near high-capacity transit stations in the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance, or creating educational materials for drivers on new bicycle and pedestrian facilities in Montgomery County, TLC projects are encouraging walkable, bikeable, and transit accessible communities.
If you have an idea for a potential TLC project, we encourage you to submit an application. TLC applications will be accepted until March 9, 2020. Local jurisdictions in the National Capital region that are members of the TPB are eligible to apply. Click here for more information on the TLC program and how to apply.
Nick Suarez was the 2019 Transportation Planning Intern. He worked on the Transportation Land-Use Connections program. He is currently an undergraduate student at Bowdoin College in Maine studying Sociology, Environmental Studies, and Physics.