With the very real possibility that lawmakers in Virginia will go home empty-handed after a special session on transportation, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is preparing to close its doors. The authority is the same body that just a few months ago was poised to collect millions in taxes and fees every year for transportation projects. The authority has since been stripped of that ability by the state Supreme Court and is now almost out of cash.
> Full Story
WTOP
More than 215 million people rode Metro in fiscal 2008 - another record for the rail system. The fiscal year ended June 30. Metro says ridership increased by 7 million over the year before.
> Full Story
WTOP
Metro is testing a new system that for the first time will give transit officials the ability to gauge how far Metrobuses deviate from their planned schedules. “We’re gathering the information from the system to analyze and set benchmarks, and we’ll be reporting that to you in September,” Metrobus chief Milo Victoria told the agency’s board of directors at a recent meeting. Metro’s erratic bus service has long been the top customer complaint in the system.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
Metro officials are struggling to identify Metrobus stops that can accommodate private charter buses in the wake of a change in federal rules that are effectively taking the transit agency out of the shuttle bus business. The rule, which is designed to ensure that publicly funded transit systems don’t infringe on the private charter bus industry, means that private companies will take over services that have long been provided by Metro, including running shuttle buses during Washington Redskins home games, Wolf Trap shows and other large regional events.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
Think there’s no such thing as too much parking? Take a look at Tysons Corner, where there’s more parking than jobs, more parking than office space, more parking than in downtown Washington. That must change, said advocates and politicians seeking to transform Virginia’s largest business hub from suburb to city. Reducing parking, charging for parking and finding new uses for the acres of parking that separate Tysons’ buildings and the people inside is at the heart of plans to remake the area into a dense, urban, walkable, livable and attractive downtown.
> Full Story
Washington Post
Northern Virginia’s top elected officials blasted a proposal by House Republicans that would authorize regional taxes for transportation, saying it unfairly burdens local residents and does little to ease congestion or improve highway maintenance.
> Full Story
Washington Post
The Baltimore parking authority is reevaluating regulations limiting free on-street parking places near Penn Station. If overturned, the regulations would allow MARC commuters to park for free in front of shops in the station neighborhood, rather than in designated commuter lots.
> Full Story
Baltimore Sun
After almost nine years of dueling lawsuits with a previous developer, D.C. is hoping a new partner can pull off some complex legal maneuvering to build housing units over Interstate 395, where the freeway ends near Massachusetts Avenue NW. The District is close to completing a deal to sell development rights for the three-block stretch to Louis Dreyfus Property Group LLC for $63 million. The area, known as the “Center Leg Freeway,” is between Second and Third streets NW.
> Full Story
Washington Business Journal
Jim Graham is putting the brakes on plans to install a streetcar system in Anacostia until transportation officials explain why it is worthy of District money. The action delays the funds transfer and gives Graham time to hold a public hearing, set for July 14.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
One in five residents of Northern Virginia is now foreign-born, according to a study by the University of Virginia. For the first time in commonwealth history, one in 10 Virginia residents was born outside the U.S. The overall percentage of foreign-born Virginians has doubled since 1990, according to the report by the university’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. “Most of them are from either Latin American or Asian countries — the top five countries are El Salvador, Mexico, Korea, the Philippines, and India,” said Dr. Qian Cai, a demographics researcher in the Cooper Center.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
The District Department of Transportation has decided to scrap a program that would have forced many of D.C.’s low-cost regional buses to load passengers at a designated location near L’Enfant Plaza after news of the change was met with hostility. “We have opted to suspend the rulemaking until we’ve had an option to review the locations and other options of the program,” DDOT spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc said.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
By the end of the year, Maryland planners hope to have decided on whether to build a light rail or bus rapid transit across Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Washington Post walks you through the arguments for and against the proposed Purple Line link.
> Full Story
Washington Post
Since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1987, Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has been active on issues such as health care and retirement security. But since making the leap to the Senate less than two years ago, Cardin has emerged as a leader on some of the most nuts-and-bolts elements of policy to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions: energy efficiency and transit. His most recent accomplishment was securing $171 billion for mass transit in the Climate Security Act, the cap-and-trade legislation that failed in the Senate in early June. Cardin was the leading proponent of more funds for public transit throughout the debate over the bill. The set-aside would have directed additional funds to states and localities for public transit nationwide, and helped improve and create new mass transit systems.
> Full Story
Grist
Add a trip on Virginia Railway Express to the mix of things that now cost more. Single trip fares went up about 3 percent across the board Tuesday. “I think that is a reasonable rate given the additional costs that we have had to incur,” says Mark Roeber, spokesperson for VRE. “Higher fuel prices really have ramped up the operating costs more than almost any other factor.” The rate increase comes at a time when ridership on VRE is swelling.
> Full Story
WTOP
The D.C. government is building a new kind of parking garage. This one’s not for cars, though — it’s for bicycles. The $4 million facility next to Union Station should be completed by next spring. It’s the latest effort by D.C. leaders to make the car-clogged city more bicycle-friendly.
> Full Story
WTOP
Maryland Transit Administration officials said average weekly ridership for bus services, light rail, MARC commuter train service, MTA taxis, metro and handicapped services in the state jumped 22.2 percent between July 2007 and April, the latest figures available.
> Full Story
Hometown Annapolis
Prince William County would have Metro stops, extended commuter rail lines, more bus routes, and reconfigured roads and highways under the county’s proposed transportation plans. County supervisors approved a long-term plan that would extend the Virginia Railway Express’ Manassas line south through Nokesville and west through Innovation and Gainesville to Haymarket. Bus routes would extend service from Gainesville/Haymarket and Manassas to Dulles, among other changes. To address congestion on county roads in the future, some roads and highway lanes would be altered to create a more efficient traffic flow.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
The District plans to provide $35 million in financing for the redevelopment of the O Street Market in the Shaw neighborhood. The 1-million-square-foot site, located two blocks north of the Convention Center, will have 87,000 square feet of retail space, including a new Giant food store, which replaces the existing Giant, a 560-space parking garage, a 200-room hotel, and about 150 condos, 100 units of affordable senior housing and 400 rental units.
> Full Story
DC Examiner
Mayor Sheila Dixon walked down a block in West Baltimore yesterday and noticed what wasn’t there: doctors’ offices, cleaners, grocery stores. Instead, she saw abandoned houses with collapsed roofs, vacant lots overrun with trash and weeds, and residents desperate for something better. In a part of town that still has not recovered from the riots of 1968 or the infamous “Highway to Nowhere” that split a community and forced thousands to move away, hope for a renewal is being stirred by plans for the $1.3 billion Red Line east-west transit project. A station in West Baltimore near the current MARC stop would mean more retail, more housing and more homeowners, say residents and officials. “We want to take control of our community and present people with opportunities so they don’t have to go 20 miles out of their way to get to a decent grocery store,” said Zelda Robinson of the West Baltimore Coalition. “This could be a real gem for the city.”
> Baltimore Sun
The District’s long-standing system of taking students to school on Metrobus would be prohibited under a federal proposal to tighten the rules that govern public transit agencies. The stricter Federal Transit Administration rules, which just completed the public comment process, would apply to all transit systems that receive federal funds and could be in place as soon as August. Metro receives $200 million in federal funding annually. The rule is designed to ensure that publicly funded transit systems don’t infringe on the private charter bus industry, but officials said it would leave the District scrambling to pull together transportation for students that likely would cost millions of dollars more than the school system has budgeted for the service.
> Full Story
DC Examiner