About Us

COG is the one place in metropolitan Washington that regularly brings leaders together to develop solutions to the region's major challenges. COG prepares plans enabling the region to receive federal funding, provides members with research and data to inform decision-making, and offers a wide range of programs, including commuter services, cooperative purchasing, technical assistance and grants, and public outreach campaigns.

Transportation

Through the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), area officials, planners, and engineers ensure a well-managed and maintained transportation system. The TPB, which is staffed by COG, conducts the federally mandated transportation planning process for the region and ensures the uninterrupted flow of federal transportation funds that area jurisdictions receive.

Environment

COG's work engages leaders in various environmental fields from water quality experts to climate scientists. Together, they are advancing regional efforts to restore local waterways, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change, promote recycling, and enhance and preserve green space and agriculture.

Community

Area officials and experts, including planning and housing directors and child welfare and health officials, work together with their counterparts at COG to help shape stronger communities throughout the region.

Homeland Security & Public Safety

COG brings police chiefs, fire chiefs, emergency managers, and other leaders together as part of its work to strengthen regional public safety coordination, homeland security planning, and emergency communication.

Transportation

Aspirations Study

The TPB's CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study integrated far-reaching land-use and transportation alternatives into one synergistic system. The study looked at the effect of implementing a 1,650-mile regional network of toll lanes (including new lanes and conversion of existing lanes, a region-wide 500-mile system of high-quality bus service, and changes in land-use policies to promote denser, transit–oriented development. The scenario has the acronym “CLRP” in the title because it was designed to provide potential inputs for the TPB’s Constrained Long-Range Plan. The land-use and transportation components of the study were largely based on findings from previous scenario analyses – the Regional Mobility and Accessibility Study (2006) and the Regional Value Pricing Study (2008).

Key Documents and Presentations

April 2013

Preliminary analysis of an update to the CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study will be presented to the TPB. This update includes new baseline planning assumptions (2012 CLRP, Round 8.1 Cooperative Forecast, Horizon Year 2040), modeling tools (TPB Version 2.3 Travel Forecasting Model, EPA's MOVES emissions model), and changes to the variably priced lane network to account for the recently enacted MAP-21 legislation.

CLRP Aspirations Scenario - 2012 CLRP and Version 2.3 Travel Forecasting Model Update - Initial Results

January 2013

The findings of the CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study were presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. In addition to presenting the results, the paper compares the CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study to the recommendations outlined in the MAP-21 legislation for scenario development and analysis to evaluate how well the current TPB scenario planning process aligns with the new legislation and how the process can be improved in the future.

October 2011

Analysis from an additional sensitivity test, the "Streamlined VPL Sensitivity Test" was presented to the TPB. This additional sensitivity test was conducted to response to concerns about the high cost of the VPL Network in the original CLRP Aspirations Scenario.

September 2010

The "final" report on the CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study was presented to the TPB. This report contained analysis of the CLRP Aspirations Scenario as well as a sensitivity test which examined the impact of the land use changes alone.