After a summer focused on the update of the region’s long-range transportation plan, the TPB dug into some other meaty topics at its September 22 meeting, including climate change and high-capacity transit station areas.

Approval of Transit Within Reach projects

Three projects to increase walk/bike access to transit were approved as part of the brand-new Transit Within Reach Program. Modeled on the TPB’s Transportation Land-Use Connections (TLC), the new program is funding more than $240,000 for preliminary design and engineering for sidewalks, crosswalks, and paths that will make it easier to get to and from Metrorail and commuter rail stations without a car.

The approved design work is for the following projects:

• A shared-use path near the Broad Run VRE station in Manassas
• The Walter Johnson Road shared-use path connection to the MARC station in Germantown
• Suitland-Silver Hill Neighborhood Ped/Bike Access Improvements

Briefing on the COG Board’s Focus on Transit-Oriented Communities

The COG Board in October is expected to pass two resolutions endorsing key tools to promote the advancement of Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC), a strategy for leveraging the land around transit stations to promote prosperity, accessibility, livability, and sustainability, and to elevate Equity Emphasis Areas as an explicit consideration in all planning and programming decisions.

The TOC strategy was presented as a unified planning construct that would advance multiple regional goals including those in housing, climate change, equity, and mobility. 

• High-Capacity Transit Station Areas (HCTs)  – By 2030, the region anticipates that 225 HCT stations – including Metrorail, commuter rail, light rail, and BRT – will be in place throughout the region. More than 40 percent of anticipated household growth and half of new jobs are expected to occur in HCTs. The TPB’s TLC Program and new Transit Within Reach support projects focused on leveraging and enhancing these places.
   
• Equity Emphasis Areas (EEAs) – First approved by the TPB in 2017, EEAs are small geographic areas that have significant concentrations of low-income populations, people of color, or both. The TPB already uses EEAs as a criterion for project selection for its grant and technical assistance programs. As national attention has turned to concerns about equity, the EEAs are available for use as a practical tool throughout the region.

Chuck Bean, COG Executive Director, and Kanti Srikanth, TPB Staff Director and a COG Deputy Executive Director, briefed the TPB on these concepts. The COG Board is expected to approve resolutions in October endorsing the widespread use of HCTs and EEAs tools to inform regional and local decision making and action. And the TPB plans to endorse the overarching unified planning construct and the TOC strategy in particular on October 20.

Climate Change Mitigation Study

Last spring, the TPB launched the Climate Change Mitigation Study to identify potential pathways, within the transportation sector, to help meet the region’s goals – targeting both 2030 and 2050 – for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At last week’s meeting, Michael Grant from ICF consulting provided a status report on this study, including a description of 10 scenarios that have been developed for analysis.

The scenarios include improvements in vehicle technologies and fuels; mode shifts away from solo driving, including examination of a road pricing scenario; systems management and operations improvements; and appropriate and logical combinations of the more unidimensional scenarios.

The study is expected to be finished by December of this year.

Car-Free Day

TPB Chair Charles Allen signed a proclamation on behalf of the TPB endorsing Car-Free Day, which occurred on the day of TPB meeting – September 22. The board invited people who live and work in the region to telework and try alternative forms of transportation such as transit, bicycling, walking, and “car-lite” methods such as carpools and vanpools.

The TPB’s Car-Free Day activities are conducted through its Commuter Connections program.
 

MORE: Visit the TPB meeting page for presentations and other materials.