Washington-area officials plan to spend two-thirds of future transportation dollars on improving the region’s public transit systems, despite estimates that public transit accounts for less than 10 percent of area travel.
Roughly $141.8 billion in future transportation spending — or about 64 percent of currently identified maintenance, operation, improvement or expansion funds — is slated to go to public transit projects, according to the area transportation spending plan, which spans the next 30 years, released by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, an organization comprising dozens of local, state and federal transportation officials and elected leaders.
About $113.8 billion — or more than 50 percent of all transportation spending — is headed to Metro alone.
In contrast, about $81 billion in funding is expected to go to highway projects, even though the planning board estimates driving trips account for more than 80 percent of all local travel, while public transportation accounts for just 6.2 percent of local trips.
Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, argues that more funding is needed for highway and bridge maintenance and expansion projects.
“In recent decades, we’ve invested billions in public transit, and congestion’s gotten worse,” Chase said. “That doesn’t mean public transit isn’t important. It just means that transit improvement alone is not enough to address the region’s needs.”
Chase said local elected officials increasingly favor public transit projects over highway improvements, despite signs that population growth will lead to increasingly crippling road congestion.
Transportation Planning Board documents point out that between 2006 and 2010, the percentage of funding for public transit rose from 57 percent to 64 percent, while highway funding fell roughly 7 percent.
“Its impossible to solve the region’s transportation problems if you take the best solutions off the table,” Chase said.
Planning board member Chris Zimmerman said he also believes there simply is not enough transportation funding to meet the area’s needs, but said more public transit was just as important as highway improvements when it comes to reducing road congestion.
“Most people in the large outlying areas do not have a transit option,” Zimmerman said, arguing that the lack of public transit access forced many people behind the wheel. “High percentages [of commuters] use transit where it’s available.”
A recent study published by the Brookings Institution may point to the Washington area’s willingness to embrace public transportation.
D.C. ranks third among large metropolitan regions for percentage of commuters who take public transportation to work. And despite all the roadway traffic, the Washington area ranks fourth among those large metropolitan regions with the smallest shares of workers who drive alone to their jobs, according to the Brookings study.
Cathy Hudgins, Zimmerman’s fellow planning board and Metro board member, agreed that the real issue was a lack of public transit options.
“I think the problem is people are driving because they have few alternatives,” she said. “Building new roads won’t give them a new alternative, it gives them the capacity to drive more. If we want reduced congestion and cleaner air, we need to be making a greater investment in public transportation.”
