Not much from Gray Transition Team Report on Transportation

Mayor Gray's Transition Team put out a report on various initiatives, including one on Government Infrastructure and Transportation. Unfortunately, this report only referred readers to another report on improving the livability of the District to find out about bike and ped improvements.

The transportation subcommittee also prepared a separate report on improving the livability of the District. This report recommended improvements in bicycle and pedestrian access and safety, and recommended restructuring of parking management.

I don't know where to find that report.

The optimist in me says that they're just trying to match the language coming out of the Obama administration. Obama recommended eliminating 55 Federal programs, including bicycle-funding programs like Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ), Transportation Enhancements (TE), Recreational Trails, Safe Routes to Schools, the Non-Motorized Pilot Program and Bicycle and Pedestrian Grants. He would replace them all with "$32 billion in competitive grants to encourage states to adopt safety and livability reforms" under the Livable Communities program (one of five main programs that will replace the Highway Program). Lahood writes:

We have to invest in ... sidewalks and bike paths that make our streets safer for everyone who uses them.

The pessimist in me says the transition team doesn't really consider biking to be transportation.

On the report, Lydia DePillis reads it all as a big slam on Gabe Klein, something he disagrees with. [Aside: It's clear from Klein's twitter fee that he's not a big Gray fan, and I would not be surprised if the feeling were mutual].

On the consolidation, that could go either way.

For DC it will probably be good. DC has a lot of biking plans they'd like to pay for, but sometimes I see them doing extra work trying to figure out which pot of money this thing and that thing will come from. If this streamlined things that would allow them more time to do design and less to do accounting. And sometimes they can seem to have too much money in one area (rec trails) but not enough for other items. If it ties DC's hands less, that will probably be good.

For Maryland and Virginia, that may be different. Some states may have had their hands tied in a good way. They had to spend Safe Routes to School money on walking and biking to school or lose it. But now, it all depends on what gets covered by "livability." I'd hate to see Virginia using this money to keep highway rest areas open, for example (not that I don't recognize the value in those). So we'll have to see. Of course, just because Obama proposed it, doesn't mean that anything remotely similar will come out of the other end of the sausage maker.

Comments

[darren]

Some of the more oddball parts of TE (museums, rest stops, etc) don't carry over to the proposed new livability formula funds, and certainly wouldn't get funded under the discretionary grant portions.

VDOT would find their rest stop money where it rightfully belongs, in the highway safety fund, which roughly doubles.

[Richard Layman]

Pretty dull. Of course, Vincent Gray isn't the kind of person likely to recommend the merging of functions along the lines of MTA in SF or Transport for London under Ken Livingstone.

[SJE]

Speaking of London, what has current Mayor Boris done regarding transit. I know he is keen on bikes, but have not heard much about other modes.

[JJJ]

London is spending billions on their crossrail project.

And by billions, I mean $20 billion. For one city. For one transit line. Could you imagine something like that in america?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail

[oboe]

transition team doesn't really consider biking to be transportation

I believe there's a common sentiment in a certain demographic (i.e. black folks over the age of 60) that bike riding is for crack-heads and white yuppie gentrifying devils. And given that the two main report authors are Barry-Era DDOT and DPW directors, it wouldn't shock me to find you're correct.