Transportation Priorities Letter
Letter to County Council, February 3, 2023
We greatly appreciate the care and deliberation that the Council is giving to this year's Transportation Priorities Letter. The Priorities Letter is a crucial policy statement -- probably the most consequential policy statement the council will make about transportation. It guides the direction of the state's transportation spending in our county -- will money continue to pour into the failed policies that created our current mess, or will we correct the errors of the past. In this year of transition, with a new Governor and Transportation Secretary setting the state in new directions, it takes on added importance.
We appreciate the work of the T&E Committee, which substantially improved on the drafts provided by the Interim Planning Board and the Executive. Nevertheless, we feel further improvement is needed.
MARC
We are glad to see the T&E Committee make off-peak service and a third track the highest MARC priority, recognizing that new stations will not be useful without more trains. However, we are disappointed that the request is merely to "initiate" a planning study. There are 15 years of past studies, all of which have found that the way to get more trains is to build a third track, and that the third track can be added in phases as money is available. Another study is already under way, in response to Del. Jared Solomon's bill passed last year.
Beyond what has already been done, the state is not in a position to plan by itself. The track and right of way belongs to CSX. Where the first section goes is up to CSX as much as the county or state.
The letter should request that MARC engage with CSX to identify and design an initial section of third track, and that the state commit to funding construction of this section.
Toll lanes
As was noted in the T&E Committee discussion, the toll lane project will not go forward in the form planned by the Hogan Administration. The County Executive's draft letter, which was selected as the basis for drafting new text, identifies major defects in the plan that need to be corrected.
These defects cannot be corrected in the context of the state's P3 contract. Under the P3 contract, the toll lanes will be designed, built, and operated to generate maximum revenue, not to meet transportation needs.
We were very disturbed by suggestions that the Priorities Letter may suggest an "improved" project. The current project cannot be significantly improved. The Priorities Letter must address what will "replace" the project.
Georgia Avenue
Pedestrian and bicycle improvements on Georgia Avenue near the Beltway are under way pursuant to the Forest Glen/Montgomery Hills Sector Plan adopted in 2020. The improvements in Montgomery Hills are already funded. The T&E Committee added to the Priorities Letter a request for design of the Master Planned improvements on the north side of the Beltway.
However, this was inexplicably combined with a request for a "diverging diamond" underpass where Georgia Avenue goes under the Beltway. The "diverging diamond" is not recommended by the Sector Plan. The Sector Plan merely recommends an "evaluation" of a diverging diamond at some time in the future, and it suggests that when that happens the diverging diamond will be rejected.
Indeed, a diverging diamond is utterly incompatible with the Sector Plan. Diverging diamond interchanges are deeply hostile to movement on foot. Just to walk through the interchange without crossing the street, pedestrians must twice cross multiple lanes of traffic. They are even worse for bicyclists, who are supposed to ride in the lane adjacent to the median -- the lane where drivers go fastest.
Diverging diamonds do not belong anywhere in Montgomery County, and certainly not in a walkable neighborhood near a Metro station like Forest Glen. The diverging diamond should be entirely removed from the Priorities Letter.
Amy Frieder, President
Action Committee for Transit