Traffic congestion in the Washington region will not improve by 2040 and will even get worse in many places, even if all the mass transit projects currently on the books are completed, according to a report the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments presented to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.

The COG report was clearly intended as a way to prod reluctant legislators in both Maryland and Virginia to vote for higher taxes to fund transportation. But it’s also a stinging indictment of the incompetence of its own membership — local elected officials who have done a terrible job keeping the regional circulatory system moving.