As the TPB completes the FY 2024 Transportation Land-Use Connections (TLC) and Regional Roadway Safety (RRSP) program application period, this is a timely opportunity to hear from communities in the region that have participated in the TLC and RRSP programs in recent years.

Last year, the TPB approved 11 projects totaling $630,000 in TLC consultant services technical assistance. The Regional Roadway Safety Program funded four projects at $250,000. For FY 2024, both programs will provide up to $80,000 per project in consultant assistance for planning, design, or preliminary engineering.

Both programs are open to TPB member jurisdictions. The District of Columbia and local governments in Maryland and Virginia have used TLC consulting services to promote mixed-use, walkable communities that support transportation alternatives. For the Roadway Safety program, the focus has been on projects that help reduce fatal and serious injury crashes.  

Take a closer look at recent TLC and RRSP projects in the cities of Alexandria, Laurel, Takoma Park, and Montgomery County in the TPB’s 2023 TLC spotlight videos. 

City of Laurel

The RRSP supported a Road Safety Audit (RSA) of Bowie Road in the City of Laurel, which is located in an Equity Emphasis Area and has experienced a high volume of crashes, including one pedestrian fatality, since 2019. Participating in the RRSP helped the city to comprehensively examine roadway safety risks for all road users along the corridor and develop countermeasures to address those risks, some of which have already been implemented. Brian Lee, Laurel’s Director of Public Works, commented that the RSA “was robust, it gave a lot of recommendations, and it gave not only short-term or mid-term recommendations but long-term goals that we believe will help facilitate safer roadways within the entire region.”  

City of Takoma Park

The TLC program supported the City of Takoma Park’s 2020 inventory of bus stops, ridership assessment, and transit accessibility. Participating in TLC helped the city create a prioritization plan that guides implementation of new bus stop infrastructure. Alex Friedman, Takoma Park’s Acting Planning Manager, noted, “The City of Takoma Park is really small, and we don't have a lot of time, staffing capacity, or financial resources to have conducted a study like this in house, so to have a strategy like this in hand has really helped us prioritize where and how we make bus stop improvements across the city.”

Montgomery County

In 2021, the TLC program supported Montgomery County’s creation of a toolkit and pilot design which resulted in the publication of the Montgomery County guide for planning and designing streets to be safer and more accessible for people with vision disabilities. Matt Johnson, Montgomery County Bikeways Coordinator, said, “TLC funding has allowed the Montgomery County Department of Transportation to take steps to get the conversation started within this region. The program has helped us to find better and more effective ways of engaging people with disabilities in the planning and design process and will result in projects that are more responsive to community needs and more accessible to all.”

City of Alexandria

In 2020, the City of Alexandria conducted a low-income fare pass assessment which helped inform the city's transition to free fares for all riders of DASH bus service. Through the TLC program, Alexandria was able to understand the benefits and impacts of various proposals to enhance transportation equity for fare reduction and fare elimination. According to Jennifer Monaco with the City of Alexandria, “The TLC program was instrumental in helping us not only understand the costs of a fare-free program, but it really boosted our application to fund free fares making Alexandria a more equitable city.”