Thursday, April 12, 2018
The Blueprint for Better Transportation in Northern Virginia
The Virginia Sierra Club released the Blueprint for Better Transportation in Northern Virginia this week. The Blueprint recommends a set of transportation projects to expand bicycling, walking, and transit access across our region.
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FABB is proud to support the Blueprint with the Virginia Sierra Club and the following groups: Environment Virginia, Piedmont Environmental Council, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Climate Reality Project: Northern VA Chapter, the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, Network NoVA, Friends of Accotink, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Audubon Naturalist Society, and the Prince William Conservation Alliance. Whew!
In addition to expanding transportation choices, the Blueprint’s recommendations, if enacted, would reduce pollution and create better communities. By creating more walkable, transit-oriented communities and strategic road connections, Northern Virginia could relieve congestion and achieve a host of other benefits, including cleaner air, better communities and stronger economies.
The primary goals of the Blueprint are to:
- Prioritize Transit-Oriented Development and access to regional transit, including on foot and by bike.
- Revitalize activity centers by building walkable street grids.
- Expand transit capacity through investing in Metro, VRE, Bus Rapid Transit, and expanded express bus service, supporting a network of transit-oriented development.
- Make the road network more efficient by improving street connections and strategically adding capacity at key areas.
The Blueprint’s supporters are promoting and encouraging others to promote these recommendations with the local and state elected officials on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) Board. The Board is holding a public hearing on May 10 to approve funding for regional projects. There are 62 candidate projects that total around $2.5 billion. With only around $1.5 billion in funding available over the next six years, NVTA has to select and prioritize what can be funded. FABB joins the other Blueprint supporters in wanting to see the Blueprint’s principles and recommendations shape these priorities.
You can help by attending the May 10 public hearing and speaking up in favor of one or more of the Blueprint’s recommendations. Sign up here.
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You also can share your views and ideas during the public comment period through May 20 with NVTA here with the subject: Regional Projects Funding.
FABB encourages its members to sign this Sierra Club petition and share it with your friends.
Finally, you can contact local NVTA representatives to express your opinions and demand transit for everyone. A list of representatives with their email addresses is available at the bottom of the Blueprint webpage here.
Labels: blueprint for better transportation in northern virginia, nvta, sierra club
Sunday, April 8, 2018
NVTA Six-Year Program Plan Preparations
Several FABB members attended a Transportation and Clean Environment meeting sponsored by the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter at the Providence District Office and Community Center in early April. The meeting was intended to engage local advocates on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s recently adopted long-term planning “wish list” of road, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian projects. It was an opportunity for attendees to learn more about advocating for the prioritization of multimodal transit and smart growth projects.
Taken together the NVTA projects on the wish list would cost $44 billion, far beyond projected tax revenues and the roughly $1.5 billion in funding available over the next six years. As a result, NVTA has to select and prioritize what can be funded under their Six Year Program, spanning from 2018 to 2023. And, it is up to FABB members and other advocates to make sure bicycle projects get proper consideration.
FABB will be following these developments and will alert members to the draft final plan when it is released by the NVTA board later this month. A public hearing on the plan is scheduled for May 10, 2018, at the NVTA offices at 3040 Williams Drive, Suite 200, in Fairfax. A public comment period will be open between April 13 - May 20, and the NVTA plans to vote on the final plan in June.
Labels: nvta, sierra club
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
JOINT STATEMENT on I-66 agreement between Governor McAuliffe and Virginia legislators
by Coalition for Smarter Growth, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Sierra Club – Virginia Chapter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2016
CONTACT
Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth, (703) 599-6437
Trip Pollard, Southern Environmental Law Center, (804) 318-7484
RICHMOND, VA -- Three leading smart growth, conservation, and transportation reform advocacy groups released the following joint statement on the announced agreement between Governor McAuliffe and state legislators on I-66 inside the Beltway:
Our organizations have supported the Governor’s package of transit, HOV, and tolls for I-66 inside the Beltway as a far more effective approach than widening. This package of solutions will move 40,000 more people through the corridor in the peak hours faster and more reliably, and it won the support of Fairfax, Arlington, Falls Church, and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.
Therefore, we are deeply disappointed by legislators of both parties who have pressed to undo this effective demand-management and people-moving package in favor of a widen-first approach. In doing so, the legislators have failed to understand the settled science of induced traffic where widened roads in metropolitan areas quickly fill up again. They also failed to understand the benefits of funding transit through the toll revenues, and the effectiveness of the package in moving more people through the corridor during peak hours.
We're grateful to the Governor for fighting for the package of solutions he has championed for I-66 inside the Beltway. Although we are very disappointed that the widening is being accelerated before more effective solutions are given the opportunity to work, the agreement reflects a political compromise. That said, we urge the Governor and local governments to accelerate the funding and implementation of transit and supportive ride-matching and transit marketing necessary to ensure we maximize the number of people using transit and carpooling before the widening takes effect in 2019.
We urge legislators to understand that an economically successful region like ours cannot build our way out of congestion through highway expansion. That widening is just a band-aid with an increasing cost to people’s homes, neighborhoods, schools, parks, and health.
We have long made the case that investment in transit and smart growth, which can be coupled with road and parking pricing, is the most effective approach to addressing traffic congestion in the near, medium, and long term. Creating a network of walkable, transit-oriented centers and communities allows us to maximize walking, biking, and transit trips, while minimizing driving. It reduces the sprawling development which is the chief contributor to our traffic congestion, and creates the types of communities so in demand today.
Finally, it is important to recognize that Arlington County’s internationally recognized success in coupling transit-oriented development (TOD) with transit investment has done more to reduce regional traffic congestion than any other jurisdiction or any highway expansion in Northern Virginia, while increasing the region’s economic competitiveness. Arlington’s success is a compelling case for why we should continue to maximize our investment in transit and TOD across Northern Virginia rather than widen highways all the way to DC.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is a regional nonprofit using the power of the law to protect the health and environment of the Southeast (Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama). Founded in 1986, SELC's team of over 60 legal experts represent more than 100 partner groups on issues of climate change and energy, air and water quality, forests, the coast and wetlands, transportation, and land use. Learn more at SouthernEnvironment.org.
The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club is 15,000 members strong. We are your friends and neighbors working to build healthy, livable communities, and to conserve and restore our natural environment. Learn more at sierraclub.org/virginia.
Labels: coalition for smarter growth, i-66 inside the beltway, mcauliffe, sierra club, southern environmental law center
