Update: The Transportation Planning Board has chosen 5 of the 10 studied transportation projects as priorities for the coming years. Not among them - the Potomac River Bridge and associated highway through the Reserve, and for good reason. Read on below for our original post diving into the data behind the Bridge's poor showing in comparison to other land use measures that would better reduce traffic congestion with far fewer ill effects and cost to taxpayers. To read a great synopsis on this - see this article from Greater Greater Washington which explains how traffic is more like a gas while these misguided big projects treat it like water. Also - A Wrap up from the TPB Really worth a read. Thanks to our partners on both sides of the river and our supporters who wrote in on this issue. We've called this project the 'Zombie Bridge' so no promises that it won't re-animate from the drawing board in a few years - stay tuned.
Original Post
On November 15, we attended a meeting of the MWCOG Transportation Planning Board as they unveiled preliminary analysis of new transit projects - among them another Potomac Bridge Crossing - see below for how the only place it seems to make a difference is on environmental impact and that is a negative. See the full presentation here. Summary of all these charts and graphs: Common sense land use policies have a much bigger impact on traffic and cost far less to implement than any big infrastructure project. What really moved the needle on congestion were solutions that either combine trips (Bus Rapid Transit), stagger trips (off peak office hours) or eliminate trips altogether (workplaces close to residential centers and vice-versa, telecommuting)
MCA and partners worked hard to ensure that the study factor in land use and environmental implications of all the projects under consideration and provided information specific to the potential impacts of a northern Potomac bridge crossing. See our 13 group sign on letter to the TBP here
The next step - a TBP meeting on December 20 when the members vote on which of the 10 proposals in the long range plan to start working toward - the bridge being one of the options. Stay Tuned!
